Taking Sharepoint Calendars to the Web

There are many times in my career that I have ideas, and this is no exception. About a year and half ago, I had an idea... An IT guy idea. Lets get the data in one place, and then connect everything to that. As a truly lazy computer person, I hate, abhor the idea of repetitive tasks...That's why I like computers.

About a year ago, I shared an idea with my programmer about publishing a Sharepoint calendar to our website live...embedded in the page with no visible links back to Sharepoint.

About a month ago, my programmer, Richie, came back to me and wanted to tackle the project. About two weeks our beta went online, and last week we went live with a new breed of calendar.

http://www.calvaryccm.com/community/eventscalendar.aspx

This link takes you to a Flash Calendar that is reading it's data from Sharepoint WebServices on our back end Sharepoint site (our Intranet), and pumping in to the Flash App as an XML Document.

What is so totally cool about this is that it allows all of our ministries to publish their calendar information through standard methods (ie Sharepoint), and not have to learn something new. We are working on expanding this idea to include Categories (Each Ministry) and some of our larger venues as locations. We are also incorporating some really cool filtering so that each ministry can have their own calendars still based off the original idea.

When I found out that there were 12 calendars that all needed to be kept current...Well that blew my mind.

Thanks Microsoft, Thanks Sharepoint, Thanks Richie.... My hat is off to you for making this happen.

More to come on the Publishing Sharepoint Idea.

Windows Live Writer

Per a suggestion from another blog, I am posting my first time using Windows Live Writer. So here goes.

I have officially begun using Windows Live Writer. WOW... We are using a CMS called SiteFinity, and I have been reading on thier Forums that they will begin supporting Windows Live Writer and other API driven apps later this year... I can't wait... How totally cool.

You can download Windows Live Writer for free from:

http://get.live.com/writer/overview

Definitely a Cool Tool... I have to give props to Jason Powell from Granger Community Church. I first read about Window Live Writer on his Blog... Check him out to: http://jpowell.blogs.com/

Anyway... Back to Live Writing!

Exponential 08 Conference

I am at the Exponential 08 Church Planter's conference with 4 other guys from the Church. My home is looking to launch our second multi-site church, and I am here with a team that would be responsible for launch the second multi-site.

Yesterday Andy Stanley gave a great session on establishing and communicating clear vision. This morning I am in a session mostly geared towards more traditional planting, and not so much in the multi-site.

I will say that this is my first ministry (not technology) church conference. I am amazed at how much and many people are productizing (my new word) the works of God. I am not knocking people needing and wanting help in launching new churches, but we must all remember that it isn't our job to get people to church... That is the work and responsibility of the Holy Spirit. It is our job to introduce people to the Truth!

Anyway enough of my ranting about all this. There is a lot of good material here also... Like one of my mentors told me... Eat the meat, spit out the bones!

Clearing Flash Cache

Sometimes it seems we empty everything we can but still that little flash item won't refresh. This has bugged me for years whenever I've done web development, but sometimes it's just good to know you can flush the "Flash" cache.

My web guy emailed me this today:

If you’re viewing a website, and are having problems with any flash application, use this web page below from Adobe to clear saved flash content on your machine.

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html

Go to the website storage settings tab and select “delete all sites”.

This will effective allow you to flush all Flash stuff from your computer. I was surprised how much there was!

Splunk on Windows

I haven't posted in a while, so here's a catchup. I just started playing with Splunk. Basically it allows you to capture all your events, logs, etc into one search engine. I am pretty impressed so far. We have implemented the Windows Version in a VM, and are using Snare on Windows Servers as the agents to report windows info into Splunk.

So far I have the server configured and running and agents running on the Following:

• 1 Windows File Server
• Juniper Firewall
• Dell 6024F Core Switch

One really cool thing in my book is that Splunk can act as a central Syslog server, so all us windows people can start using this cool tool for device reporting and error monitoring in one central place.

Last cool thing is that it is free up to 500MB of log data per day... I'm not coming close to that!

Optimizing Windows Media Streams

Our internet streaming is powered almost exclusively by Windows Media Streams. We stream a High, Low, and audio streams.

Our High bitrate = 323Kbps
Low = 160Kbps
Audio = MultiFormat 64Kbps, 23, 8

Everything has been great until recently when our streaming numbers have begun pushing 600 per weekend. We get reports of strange timeouts and other network related issues.

After doing some research, I have some key items to share with anyone interested for improving Windows Media Streaming Quality for the end user!

1. Send your stream from encoder to Windows Media Server Via HTTP. This will ensure your get the full stream delivered to distribution point.
2. Change your WM Encoder to use a set maximum packet size. Under the tabbed options for the encoder you can set the maximum packet size to something a little lower. I am using 1400 and it is working really well.
3. On your windows media server... Under the server->Unicast Stream Writer->Properties you will want to set your maximum packet size to 1400 as well.
4. On each publishing point, you should set your startup bandwidth to something less than the default 3500. (I use 512.) If you don't do this, when your system gets towards the upper end of bandwidth use, people get bumped while someone else is connecting.


There are some other things that can cleanup streaming performance, such as network path between encoder and distribution server, firewalls, and the like, but this is mainly focused on the encoder.

One Talent for Jesus

So what do you do when your Senior Pastor has an idea at 5:00 AM in the morning about a sermon illustration he wants for the weekend... We Deliver. He emailed the creative group asking for a transformation of a one dollar bill into a Jesus Dollar Bill. This was a fun project with Photoshop. Here's the outcome: