SharePoint 2013 Device channels - Branding and Content based on Devices and Browsers

Device channels in SharePoint 2013 allow changing the look and feel depending on the browser or the device. This feature helps to implement corresponding Master Page or Page layout designed for the end browser or device.

Device Channels can be implemented only for the publishing sites, which make sense since on publishing sites only we can publish different master pages.

We have to create a “Device inclusion rule” to identify an end browser or Device. The Device inclusion rule that need to be included can be referred from the site “whatismyuseragent.com”.

To implement device channel navigate to Settings > Look And feel > Device Channel and Add a new entry. “Device inclusion rule” is the vital data here. Name, Alias and Active are other columns here once all this entries are added and saved you will get an option in the Master pages settings to select a new master page for the entry you just created.

We can choose to include or exclude portion of any page layout in a channel this will help for including or excluding content based on browser/devices.

Thus Device Channel is a significant feature in SharePoint 2013 that helps to render the appropriate look and fell and content based on browsers and devices.

Image Renditions in SharePoint 2013 Save Size and boost performance.

Image Renditions Is a facility available in SharePoint 2013 for having different sizes of the image for different content holders? Different renditions can be created like full size, thumb nail etc. Image rendition also helps to adjust the picture to which part to display. This facility will help to reduce the size of the image to be downloaded at the client and hence optimize the performance. Image rendition also helps to store the file in the reduced space in the content database since only one copy of the file is actually getting stored. We need to enable BLOB cache before you can use image renditions.

A  Rendition ID can be used with the image url like this “?RenditionId=n” to assign different rendition.

C # programming in the Infopath 2010 forms

Infopath forms can give better look and feel for the user interface in SharePoint.

It is recommended to use Infopath for lesser complex user interface and to use minimal coding in the Infopath forms.

How ever c# programming is possible in Infopath forms for the client side validation and presentation purpose or implementation of certain level of business logic.

Xpath objects are used to access the Infopath values.

Before submitting the form we can make the data   to be validated, verified or transformed using c# code. For this we need to enable Perform custom action using code in the submit options.

If we have VSTA (Visual Studio Tools for Applications) and .net framework 3.1 SP1

We can program in Infopath using c#.

The events available in the info path forms are classified as Button events, Data events and Form events. There is a limitation of browser compatibility of some of the events.

Once form is designed and authored the source code, form can be published for publishing we need to configure the form as domain trust or full trust.

Domain trust forms can be published to SharePoint as Sandboxed Solutions directly from the Infopath 2010 Designer. With Sandboxed Solutions, However SharePoint Server farm administrators can control the resources available to the code and developers cannot access resources subject to operating system security. This help Site Collection administrators can publish code with out Farm administrator approval.

Publishing a full trust form to SharePoint requires activating the solution through the SharePoint Central Administration.

From my experience I will recommend to keep InfoPath forms as simple as it can and use visual web parts for complex user interaction screens where code need to implemented.  

SharePoint 2010 Database Encryption

SQL Server 2008 Transparent Database Encryption is the best encryption technique
to work with sharepoint 2010.

High Level steps Involve
 Create the DMK
 Create the TDE Cert
 Backup the TDE Cert
 Create the DEK
 Encrypt the DB
 Monitor the progress

SharePoint Logging Location

wss_logging
In special case of requiremnet for auditing we can hit this database and particularly RequestUsage view to audit any request regarding request and access auditing..dbo.RequestUsage is a vew in the wss_logging database.

Advantage of REST

Eliminates the need for intermediate layers between client and server.
Read, create, update, and delete operations are mapped directly to GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE HTTP verbs
Introperability.- HTTP protocol.
REST interface uses flexible URL conventions for querying data, which enable you to filter, sort and select information
Easy to use with JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), Atom, and AtomPub standards
REST interface, such as batching multiple operations into a single request, concurrency control through HTTP ETags, paging of large data sets, and access to document streams.

Welcome to SharePoint 2013 Apps

Along with the Farm solution and sand solution we are familiar with SharePoint 2013 another 3 mode of hosting for SharePoint 2013, this are app hosting model which will be running 100% out of the Farm in either in browser or in a webserver or in cloud.

App model are much cleaner simpler and upgrade process.

App Communicate with SharePoint via REST/OData/CSOM

App are granted permission to SharePoint via OAuth.

SharePoint hosted app – Run at browser implemented using JavaScript-client side app model.

Developer hosted app – Run in the web server or cloud, server side code. Using this model other language implementation says Eclipse or LAMP can be done.

Azure auto hosted app-   similar to developer hosted app but create its own database and web application for each tenant in the multitenant mode.