Sometimes, search doesn't work as you expect in SharePoint (one example is multi-line text fields - and a list of crawled properties is at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftsearch/manage-search-schema). In particular with Lists, some column types aren't supported OOTB. But there is a way to get searching for all columns using managed properties.
The process is simple enough:
Setup a managed property for the column or columns you are not able to search on.
Re-generate the search index
Here's the process in a little more detail. You'll need at least Site Administrator access to complete these steps.
Setup a managed property
Go to the list of concern
Click Settings | Site Information | View all site settings
Click Search Schema (Under Site Collection Administration)
Click New Managed Property (just after the Filter box)
Enter details and note:
Provide a logical name for the property
Type is TextSelect Searchable, Queryable and Retrievable
In the mappings box at the end of the form, click Add a mapping. Search on the field name in your list you are looking to search. For us, the field name was prefixed by ows_. You can map to more than one field - eg managed property date refers to all date columns
Note that your column may not show up in crawled properties - and in many cases this is because there is no data in that field. Add a record with data in this offending field and then reindex. The column should now be available to select.
Click OK to save your managed property.
To reindex search
Go to Settings | Site Information | View all site settings
Click Search and Offline Availability (under Search)
Click Reindex site and confirm.
Wait a period of time for the reindex to complete (5mins for a small list)
I've been reflecting on the process of receiving and managing feedback. It can sometimes be a challenge to receive feedback and not to take it personally. In addition, the level of difficultly in obtaining feedback can increase considerably if people are under stress. During these times its most important to ensure people feel heard and that their feedback is considered in its entirety and taken seriously.
First up, I have three objectives in managing feedback:
Accurately capturing feedback - without challenge, and with facilitation and exploration.
Reviewing feedback - to remove items that don't contibute to a better deliverable.
Incorporating feedback - with the view of making the deliverable better.
Remember, your goal is to: 1) improve the quality of your work, 2) ensure people feel heard - in that order.
Some other rules on managing feedback:
Only seek feedback on work that is ready for review. It's really annoying to thoroughly review incomplete work.
Identify who will need to provide feedback. Organise one-on-one time to do this with them. Avoid group feedback sessions. Some will be happy with a conceptual review. Others will want a more detailed review. Either is fine. Some may seek rassurance from others. Let them do this outside of the review you are undertaking.
Craft scenarios/stories that relate to the item you are reviewing. This helps focus on how the deliverable will be used (ie whether fit for purpose).
Run through these scenarios/stories in your feedback sessions.
During these sessions:
Take notes - particularly on all comments and feedback made.
Try on each comment or piece of feedback for size. Does it make sense - if not ask questions.
Do not question the relevance of any feedback. Some will be meaningful and important, other feedback may be venting ad frustration. All feedback gets recorded.
End with a commitment to get back to them. To replay the feedback that they provided and what you did about it
Once you have your list of feedback:
Enter each item into a table
Filter out anything that does not relate to improvements you can make to your deliverable
For each item that is left, work through each. Make changes to your deliverable and/or provide your comment against each. Each item does not need to be actioned. You just need to provide comment in some cases.
When we undertake staff consultation, it's sometimes difficult to align calendars between interviewers and particpants. To make this process easier, we use Microsoft Bookings (hidden in the bundle of goodies you get with most Office 365 licences). I like Bookings because:
Participants can choose a time that suits them
Participants can also easily reschedule or cancel bookings over the web
We, as interviewers, can set days/times when we are generally available for interviews (like within a particular week, for example)
Our availability is synchronised with Outlook. So if we schedule a meeting for something else, it will remove booking slots over that time.
Bookings is based on time slots. So firstly, decide the length of the time slot for an interview and the amount of buffer time you may need to prepare for and to wrap up the interview. Also decide upon the timeframe you want to open bookings for and the staff you want to conduct these interviews. You'll need this information to setup a booking calendar.
To create a booking calendar go to office.com and click on the App Launcher (top left), All apps and then Bookings
Before setting up the calendar, you need to define staff that will undertake the interviews:
Select Staff from the left hand blade, and then Add new staff
Provide a phone number (in case the booker needs to get in touch)
Assign the appropriate permission - Admin, Viewer or Guest
Check Events on Office calendar affect availability - this person can then block out time in their calendar to make themselves unavailable
If they work a few hours a day and/or on particular days, you can turn off Use business hours and modify the days / times that the person is available.
Hit Save once done.
Then to create the calendar for one-on-one interviews:
Online meeting is turned on (ie done over MS Teams)
Duration set to 30 mins
Buffer time is set to 30 mins
No price set - of course
Max no of attendees set to 1 (this can be increased to accommodate group sessions)
Enable let customers manage their appointment when booked
For availability options, set time increments to 1 hr, and min / max lead time to 1 hr / 365 days (or change as you require). We also set general availability to Not bookable.
For assign staff, add the staff member of members that will be performing the interviews.
For custom fields, just enable customer email. You'll then have some way of contacting them if you need to contact them (to reschedule, for example).
For reminders, check Notify the business via email on changes and send meeting invite in addition to confirmation email. Also add a reminder a day before that the appointment is coming up soon.
Also, enable Show this service on the booking page.
Then, go ahead and test your new booking page by placing a booking. Double check the following things in an incognito browser window:
That the details provided on the page are correct
That booking times are within the date ranges you specified. Also check that any time blocked out in your diary is not able to be booked.
Your new booking page is then ready to be released into the world!
The Company Portal is an important part of endpoint managed devices in a Microsoft ecosystem. It provides an entry point for users to:
access additional apps that are authorised and might be useful to install
access support
manage their device
The Company Portal is an app installed from the Microsoft Store for Business. The process for deploying the Company Portal is pretty simple:
Then select Get and then assign to the users you want to get it (in most cases we'll assign to the All Staff group).
Users should get an email saying that they now have the Company Portal.
More to follow ...
Issues
A user gets a warning and only has access to a restricted set of functions. As the warning may indicate, this issue arises when the logged in user is different to the Primary User of the device (as recorded in Azure). See this for more information.
Microsoft have released a new remote help solution (currently in preview) and this is something that we hope may:
Make it easier for us to connect to remote computers and provide direct one-on-one support
Replace Teamviewer in the longer term. We really like Teamviewer but Remote Help would further our guiding principles of Microsoft first. Microsoft are making it clear though that although Remote Help is free whilst in preview, it's going to need a paid licence once it's in general release.
Provide an integrated option for all users to provide remote support to others
Note that the current version of Remote Help does not support unattended access (like accessing a server).
Further along our overall strategy of either 1) making better use of our Microsoft subscriptions, or 2) using open source, we have opted to use Zabbix for system monitoring. It's extensive in functionality and comes with heaps of monitoring templates out of the box.
The architecture we use for system monitoring and alerting includes:
Zabbix proxies (one installed at each client site) with encryption between proxy and server turned on. If the only available machine on-site is a Windows box, we enable the Linux subsystem for Windows for deploying the proxy (there was only a Zabbix proxy distro for Linux last time we checked).
Zabbix agent(s) installed at each client site on available Win or Linux machines. At the very least, one agent is installed on the machine running the Zabbix proxy
I wanted to provide a single place where we can list the issues we have come across and how we solved them. There is a chance they may help someone else.
Print job produces error on printer. We sometimes see a printer produce the following error, or similar: The Paper Size / Orientation in Tray 3 is different from the selected size. The root cause is that the printer driver default is set to Letter when the printer is only configured to accept A4. To correct this, first check regional settings on the client (in Windows 10, search for and select Region Settings from the Search Bar). Then ensure regional settings are correct. Australia or Europe should apply A4 as a default. Others will apply Letter as the default. In addition, check the default of the print driver too. Search for and select Printers & Scanners in the Windows 10 Search Bar. Then click on the printer that you are using and then Manage. Click Printer Preferences, then Paper/Quality | Advanced. Ensure that paper size is then set to A4. Click Apply, then OK. Refer to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/printer-is-configured-to-use-the-wrong-paper-size-ee2ee88a-95fa-f15a-0517-611ec20ffd26 for more details
Print jobs not coming through. In this case, users were reporting that their jobs weren't showing up in the print release queue on the printer. Tracking the print down, we found that Universal Print had sent the print, but it wasn't showing up as being held by PaperCut. In addition, PaperCut reported that the Universal Print connector was unavailable. This was fixed by 1) Updating universal-print.server.trusted-cert to N (found under Options | Config Editor (advanced), and 2) restarting the server, and stopping and restarting the PaperCut connector for Universal Print and the PaperCut Application Server.
Windows Virtual Desktop
User unable to start a web app or log into their virtual desktop - sometimes, a user session will hang on the VM running the web apps / desktops. RDP into the VM and go to Task Manager | Users. Locate the user and sign them out (right click, Sign Out).
Exchange Online
Resource calendars allow more than one booking for a timeslot. This can be fixed by updating the AllowConflict switch on the calendar to $false. To do this, start PowerShell as an admin, and run $LiveCred = Get-Credential to get Office365 credentials and then Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName [admin account] -ShowProgress $true to connect to Exchange Online. To get the status on all switches related to a resource, run: Get-CalendarProcessing [resource account] | Format-List. Then to set the AllowConflict switch, run: Set-CalendarProcessing [resource account] -AllowConflicts $false
