Genii Weblog

Trying out SharePoint - Day 3

Fri 15 Nov 2013, 04:18 PM



by Ben Langhinrichs
Going to put this out earlier because it is a Friday, so I plan to finish up soon.

I made some good progress today. Went into the SharePoint-community.net discussions and searched for CSV, which is my highest priority for understanding. Found only a few posts, but somebody else seemed to be asking the same thing. Replied asking if he ever got an answer, and a very knowledgable user answer me shortly after that, pointing me at the Import-CSV Cmdlet (a new vocabulary word for me), and also a link describing how to upload files into SharePoint using a script. With those two clues in hand, I was able to find some other resources about importing CSV into SQL Server (the database behind SharePoint).

I also found did some research on SharePoint site templates. Not useful today, but might be a possible direction if I decide to export some design along with the data. I already have the code to created the zipped collections, and the .cab/.wps files might allow me to get the data into SharePoint in something more constructive than a Listing site. No plans yet to try to get all the design over, but the data types and such would be useful. Maybe on Monday I'll have enough time to create a document library and try importing into that.

Overall, I am pleased by the documentation and the supportive community, but a little wary about SQL Server. I think I last used SQL in the 1980s, and my memories of those days are blurred by decades of child rearing and composite data records (a dangerous and volatile mix).

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What has been said:


1047.1. Tom Duff (11/15/2013 03:59 PM)

Great work, Ben... welcome to the community. :)


1047.2. Ben Langhinrichs (11/15/2013 04:19 PM)

Thanks, Tom, though knowing me as you do, you can probably guess that I'll never even try to be a good SharePoint developer. Heck, I'm not a good Notes developer after 18 years of it. I am interested in that backends, the data formats, the underpinnings, the stuff that doesn't work so I can make it work. I may never be able to create a pretty site, but I hope to make it possible for others to create sites in ways they never thought of before. (Big thinking for my 3rd day, eh?)


1047.3. Tom Duff (11/15/2013 04:23 PM)

Your approach is perfect. Any very large software platform has gaps and cruft from years of use and growth. You've learned to exploit those areas as a nekkid capitalist. :)