Waldek Mastykarz - Innovation Matters | SharePoint Server MVP | ISSN 2210-9390

Delegate Controls allow you to provide users with pluggable functionality which they can use to extend their existing solution without modifying the existing code. Unfortunately once enabled it’s difficult to track which Delegate Controls are used where on your site. Find out how to check which Delegate Controls are activated on your site using PowerShell. Read more »

Using structured and repeatable deployment in SharePoint 2010 solutions allows you to deliver your solution in a predictable fashion and save some time. With the SharePoint 2010 API you can script the deployment process to deliver your solution already preconfigured. Unfortunately there are some limitations in the SharePoint API that make it impossible to configure some pieces of the solution, like configuring the menu items. It turns out that it is possible after all. Find out how to programmatically configure menu items in SharePoint 2010. Read more »

SharePoint 2010 contains Developer Dashboard which can be invaluable in optimizing custom solutions for performance. By default the Developer Dashboard is visible only to authenticated users, but sometimes you might want to show it to anonymous users as well. Sounds insane? Find out why you would want it and how to do it. Read more »

A while ago I wrote about a little tool I’ve made that help you discover the ID’s of all Site Definitions installed on the server. SharePoint requires you to provide unique ID’s for custom Site Definitions and using a tool is definitely easier than manually browsing through all the WebTemp files and noting which ID’s are already used. But who wants a tool if you can do the same with PowerShell? Read more »

SharePoint 2007 shipped with the STSADM command-line tool which was meant to be used for all kind of administration tasks like installing and deploying Solutions. Although the STSADM is still available in SharePoint 2010 for backwards compatibility the recommended way is to use PowerShell instead. SharePoint 2010 ships with a great number of PowerShell cmdlets which simplify the process of administering your SharePoint Farm. And although PowerShell is way more powerful than STSADM, it adds some extra complexity. Read more »