This presentation outlines various opportunities for power users to build and maintain their solutions in SharePoint 2013 / SharePoint Online. Related video recordings are available at: http://www.sharepoint-videos.com

1. Power Users Guide to
SharePoint 2013
(including SharePoint Online)
Asif Rehmani
SharePoint MVP
CEO, VisualSP
Download all my presentations at:
http://bit.ly/asifconference

2. 2
Session focus
Understand the opportunities available for Power Users
to build solutions on top of SharePoint 2013

3. About me - Asif Rehmani
Trainer
Founder and CEO
VisualSP
Chicago, USA
Contact
@asifrehmani
asif@visualsp.com
www.VisualSP.com
Author
Trainer and ConsultantSharePoint MVP, MCTConference Speaker

4. 4
How I became a Power User Trainer
 1995 – Started programming in Visual Basic 4
 1998 – Created solutions using C, C++, ASP 2.0 etc.
 2002 – Started with ASP.NET (C# mainly). Developed prototype solutions for SharePoint
 2004 – Wrote a development course on SharePoint 2003 and taught it
 2007 – Started with no-code development technologies and became a Power User evangelist
(trainer, consultant, writer, etc.). Never looked back since then

5. Basically…
I’m a recovering
SharePoint developer

6. Now that you know who I am,
how about You?

7. Topics covered in this workshop
• Exploration of options for SharePoint Power Users
• SharePoint 2013 interface and browser based opportunities
• SharePoint Designer 2013 Overview
• SharePoint Designer 2013 Workflows
• Access 2013
• Search Web Parts
• InfoPath 2013
• Office 365 Groups vs Team Sites
* Focus is to cover the pros and cons of each item after discussing it.
Then You can decide where to dig deeper.
7

8. Let’s jump right in!

9. The 2013 interface
9
Video Walkthrough:
http://sharepoint-videos.com/module-1/walkthrough-of-sharepoint-2013-team-site/

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Beautiful Intranets
Make your Intranet come alive

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Demo:
SharePoint 2013 UI
Walkthrough

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Who is a Power User?
Is there a difference between an
Information Worker
and a
Power User ?

13. 13
Information Workers and Power Users
Information Worker / End User –
A person who uses information to assist in making decisions or taking
actions
Power Users –
Computer user who uses advanced features of programs which are not
used by the average user (information worker)

14. 14
How a Power User is ‘born’
Power UserInformation
Worker
Developer /
IT Pro

15. 15
Power Users are also known as:
No-code developers
Citizen developers
Enlightened users ;-)
The focus of this presentation is on :
Power Users

16. 16
“Let’s not write code until
we have to write code.”
Power User’s motto:

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“Citizen Developers will create
25% of New Business
Applications by 2014”
Gartner, July 14, 2011
So has this prediction come true..?

18. Let’s do another example..

19. Geolocation column
Show a location map right within your list or library
Video recording: http://blog.sharepoint-videos.com/my-geolocation-video-on-mvp-award-blog/

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Demo:
Geolocation

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The Big Question everyone asks:
What can SharePoint do?

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 Collaboration
 Document management
 Internal Social Network
 Forms
 Process Automation
(Workflows)
 Business Intelligence
 Reporting
 Search
 Metadata Management
 …
Super secret
 The next version will even
make coffee!
Answer

23. Just because it can, doesn’t mean you should
Focus on Quick Wins

24. Identify true pain points and focus in on them
(sounds easy, right? Not so fast…)

25. Build Powerful and easy to maintain
solutions

26. 27
Questions to ask yourself
Correct questions
 What do our users need?
 What does our business need?
 What’s the return on investment long term for those solutions?
 Who is going to maintain it?
Incorrect questions
 What can SharePoint do?
 How much is the initial cost of the solution?

27. What can SharePoint do for your business?
• Human resource on-boarding process
• Vacation scheduling system
• Vendor management portal
• Employee training scheduling and materials
• Business performance reporting
• Company knowledge base
• Help desk portal
• Inventory tracking
• …

28. Build no-code solutions

29. Why go ‘no-code’?
• Possibilities of what you can do are Enormous!
• Quick learning curve
• Easier ongoing management of solution
• Delegate responsibility easily

30. How I define ‘no-code’
Yes
Browser
Office application
Desktop application built for SharePoint and related technologies
Scripting technologies
No
Visual Studio
Managed code

31. 32
Creating Solutions
Recommended sequence when creating Your solutions:
Browser based only
Use no-code tools
Use code tools
OR
3rd party product

32. Time for another example..

33. Self Service Powerful Search
Empower users to
discover information

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Demo:
Search web parts

35. Now, let’s talk about
SharePoint Designer 2013
What’s new and what has changed?
36

36. What’s gone
Design View
• http://blog.sharepoint-videos.com/sharepoint-designer-2013-data-
view-web-part-list-view-web-part-design-view-is-gone/
37

37. SharePoint Designer 2013
Workflows

38. 39
SharePoint workflow tools
Browser
SharePoint Designer 2013
Visio 2013
Visual Studio 2012/2013

39. 40
SharePoint Designer 2013
Workflows
Automate business processes

40. SharePoint Designer Workflow Types

41. 42
2010 and 2013 style workflows
SharePoint Designer
2010
2013

42. 43
Workflow Manager 1.0
SharePoint 2013 workflow processing moved to Workflow
Manager (WM)
Workflow no longer runs in the SharePoint content farm /
servers
SharePoint farm & Workflow Manager farm can be on same /
different servers

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New Workflow Activities & Actions
New Actions & Activities
Microsoft Project Specific
Actions
Assign a Task Get Property from
[Dictionary/DynamicValue]
Create a Project from Current Item
Start a Task Process Count Items in
[Dictionary/DynamicValue]
Set the current project stage status to
this value
Go to This Stage Trim String Set the status field in the idea list item
to this value
Call HTTP Web Service Find Substring in String Wait for Project Event
Start a List Workflow Replace Substring in String Set this field in the project to this
value
Start a Site Workflow Translate Document
Build [Dictionary/DynamicValue] Set Workflow Status

44. The ‘New Stuff’
• Stages
• New base level concept of stages
• Visual Designer
• Direct Visio incorporation
• Stage-Level Diagrams
• New Task Actions
• Quick and easy to create tasks and
approval processes
• Web Services
• Able to call into Rest/HTTP web services
• Loops!
• Able now to loop indirectly with stages
or directly with the new Loop actions
• Copy/Cut and Paste
• Core copy/cut and paste abilities now
introduced

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Demo:
SharePoint Designer
2013 Workflows

47. Creating / Acquiring new Workflow actions
• Create new workflow actions using Visual Studio
• Acquire workflow actions through vendors
• http://www.harepoint.com/Products/HarePointWorkflowExtensions/Default.aspx
• http://plumsail.com/workflow-actions-pack/

48. 49
What will happen to my workflows when we upgrade
from SharePoint 2010 to 2013?
They will get transferred as SharePoint 2010 workflows
You can modify them with almost* the same type of environment as
in 2010
* With the added ability to use copy/paste functions

49. 50
Copying a workflow to another List or Site
Save as workflow template
Export to Visio
Copy / Paste stages

50. Packaging a workflow
SharePoint Designer 2010:
Only reusable workflows can be packaged
SharePoint Designer 2013:
List workflows, Reusable workflows and Site workflows can all be
packaged as a wsp

51. Example of fairly advanced workflow
• http://sharepoint-videos.com/pull-info-from-a-blogs-rss-feed-using-sharepoint-
designer-2013-workflow/
Example of using:
• Stage
• Loop
• Web service
• Workflow variables
• Dictionary variable
• XML to JSON
• Calculation
• Creating items

52. What about Workflows in SharePoint 2016?
• No SharePoint Designer 2016 (but SharePoint 2016 will support SPD
2013)
• Web based workflows (according to Mark K. at Ignite)
• Visual Studio workflows

53. And now.. The story of InfoPath

54. Powerful no-code forms
 InfoPath based web forms

55. Forms update (from Microsoft)
FoSL
Canceled / Delayed
Indefinitely

56. FoSL – Forms on SharePoint Lists Canceled / Delayed
Indefinitely

57. The answer to quick web apps
development

58. Using Access 2013 to simplify web
development
Access 2013 –
• Used to create the interface of the app
SharePoint 2013 –
• Used to host the front end of the app
SQL Server 2012 –
• Used as the backend data storage technology for the app

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Powerful No-Code
Apps
Access apps for easy
development

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Demo:
Access Apps

61. Ability to disable Access apps at the tenant
level
• SharePoint admin center  Settings

62. Groups in Office 365

63. Office 365 Groups vs Team Sites

64. Groups are Awesome!
Main attraction for Groups:
Availability from the Mail client where most people still feel
comfortable starting from

65. Do we still need Team Sites?
Absolutely!

66. What’s the purpose for Team Sites in the new
world?
A structured and hierarchical way to design and
collaborate on your content and processes

67. Groups are ‘Team Site Lite’ -
Easy to create and access from Outlook client. However, not as comprehensive as Team
Sites.
Current guidance –
use Team Sites and (not
versus) Office 365 Groups

68. Quick Analogy
Groups Team Sites

69. Me We We + Process
Idea credit:
Mark Kashman - Microsoft
Another Analogy (Can you tell I love analogies )

70. •Team Sites - SharePoint
• Structured hierarchy of sites
• Multiple lists and library templates
• Content Types
• Metadata
• Security and visibility highly controllable
• Wiki and Publishing Pages
• Forms
• Workflows
• Collaboration with external folks
• Extending functionality with apps and
web parts
• More structured collaboration
experiences
•Groups - Exchange
• Quick project team groups
• Conversations, Docs, OneNote and
Calendar
• All groups visible to everyone and
anyone can create them

71. Migrating Groups to Team Sites?
Files
Yes - doing it manually or using 3rd party
Conversations, Calendar, OneNote
No

72. Groups can consume services
from Team Sites
Demo

73. Many other solution possibilities with Team
Sites
Access Web Apps
Excel Power View
Dashboards and Reports
Search driven solutions
Records Management
Project Server interface still uses Team Sites functionality
And a whole lot more..

74. So what am I supposed to do?
Ask yourself the relevant questions such as:
- Do we need a place short term or long term?
- Does the produced info need to be archived?
- Do we just need a place to gather and collaborate or will we need
help for additional processes as well?

75. Call to Action
Download my presentations at:
http://bit.ly/asifconference
Watch video tutorials at:
VisualSP.com
Fill out survey
Thank You!
@asifrehmani
asif@visualsp.com
www.visualsp.com