Alternate Access Mappings in SharePoint, what’s the big deal?

I’ve been involved in a project where SharePoint is hosted by a third party and consists of two front end servers and a back end database server. This site is accessed by a typical Internet style address, https://myapp.companyname.com. Do you spot something that might by caused confusion yet? Yes, it uses https. But that’s not the real fun part, as when it goes through the third party’s load balancer it gets turned into http://myapp.companyname.com.

This caused much teeth gnashing and anguish as this results in all the links from SharePoint being prefaced with http and the the load balancer is only capable  of translating some of the links back to https. So some links were prefaced with http and others with https. Fortunately a solution was at hand, Alternate Access Mappings!!!

Reading various blogs and articles gives the impression that this is deeply complex function of SharePoint but in fact it is simply a method to ensure all links point to the correct URL. In my case we needed to make sure that all our links started with https.

Now this is where I start to talk about zones. Zones enable us to access the SharePoint site from different parts of the network.

When the web application is created, the entered URL is  used to access the site by default. Unsurprisingly, this URL is entered into the Default zone as the public URL. And all is fine and dandy. But what if the site can be accessed by a second URL?

In most cases, you may simply wish to redirect this second URL to the standard public URL. This can be done by entering it as an internal address to the Default zone and now, when the second URL is entered, all the links returned will be translated to the public URL. And that’s all there is to it.

Our site was being accessed by the public address https://myapp.company.com, (well, obviously, not really, but in that format) so we realised this needed to be the public URL. But the incoming request was to http://myapp.company.com, which was not recognised by SharePoint. Adding  it as an internal URL in the Default zone caused all links to be translated back the the public URL and suddenly we had a fully operation site.

Unfortunately we hit another snag. We wanted to add an additional dedicated search indexing server but were unable to access the site using the default public URL from within the hosting companies own network. Alternate Access Mappings to the rescue again!

We needed to use an internal URL to access the SharePoint servers but if we simply added that URL to the Default zone, it would just spit the public Internet address out. We needed another zone.

The names of these zones are irrelevant, although they are conveniently named so it would be churlish to put an intranet address in the internet zone. We chose add the new Intranet URL to the Intranet zone as the public URL.

What this means is that a request sent to the intranet URL is now classed as in the Intranet zone and consequently, the public URL for the Intranet zone will be returned.

And that is that.

The are other advantages to separating your SharePoint site into different zones with their own unique URLs, you can tailor your content according the zone, for instance, offer the complete site to an Intranet address but a more limited access to the extranet, or Internet.

I shall have to look at that in more detail some time.

Coming up

It’s almost half past midnight and I’ve so much to write. I think this is why I’m no good at blogs, I start to resent the time taken to write them when I know so few will read it.

Why am I writing this then? I guess because it’s as good as any place to keep some kind of journal, and my intention is also to write those little tips I discover during work that will almost certainly by forgotten next time I need them. So I must persevere. Who knows, one day my blog entries could be found by one of my descendents on some celebrity geneology programme. Or maybe not.

Anyway, a quick precis (which I’m sure should have one of those funny characters in there somewhere but I can’t be arsed to look it up) of articles to come.

• Alternate Access Mappings in SharePoint, what’s the big deal?
• Multi server SharePoint configuration, how’s that work?
• KWizCom, WTF?
• Why are all my headings questions?
• Four go camping in the front garden.
• A trip to London to visit fish
• A bad Monday (with a happy ending)
• Seven Pounds (The movie)
• What the hell is with the clunking noise from my Linux server.

Headings subject to change. This is really a reminder to myself about what I want to write.

And Another Thing: The Verdict

A few days ago, I started reading a proof of the new Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy entitled And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer, also known as Part 6 of 3. As a die-hard Douglas Adams fan, I was expecting to be disappointed. Surprisingly, I was not.

My first thought was, this is not Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s, and by that I mean Colfer has not tried too hard to follow the writing style of DNA. But it did feel I was in the same universe, just viewed from a slightly different perspective. I did feel he did try to reuse too many original elements instead of creating his own, but hopefully he’ll be a bit braver in his second one.

What? Did I say second? Yes, even though I have not even finished reading this one, I would very much like Eoin to continue the series. He seems to have an incredible understanding of the universe that Douglas Adams created and an ability to continue the ludicrousness of it.

Now I cannot wait to finish this book and I look forward to reading the continuing adventures of Arthur, Ford and Zaphod for a few more years, something I would not have dreamed of eight years.

We’re going camping

Something strange happened today. My wife bought a tent.

I used to go camping quite a bit with my parents when I was a kid and in the last few years I’ve rediscovered the joy of living under polyester again, going camping with a few friends. But, my wife is a creature of comforts and camping has always been well outside that zone. Until recently.

I think the tipping point has been that quite a few of her mummy friends have been camping recently and she has felt like she is missing out, so when I suggested that buy something for ourselves on out recent wedding anniversary, she decided she wanted to buy a tent.

It wasn’t a complete surprise; the change has been quite gradual, but I am slightly worried that image in her head is not going to match the reality. Anyway, I now have a tent to pick up on Thursday, I’ve booked a couple of days off work and she is now trying to book a place in a campsite in South Wales, near where she grew up.

I am both looking forward to it and yet, dreading it at the same time. My biggest worry is my daughter who has been known to jump out of bed and run into the living room if she as much as suspects a spider to be anywhere near her. She says she be fine. Hmm.

And Another Thing

We had some excitement yesterday, my wife received a very special package containing one of 42 proofs for the first half of the new Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy book by Eoin Colfer, And Another Thing. Now, I don’t actually think of myself as a Hitchhiker’s fan, more of a Douglas Adams fan, so when I first heard the news of this new book, I treated it with some trepidation. 

I was first introduced to the Hitchhiker’s Guide through the TV show but I wouldn’t say I became a fan then. It wasn’t until I was older when they repeated the radio show on Radio 4, where I would arrange for my lunch breaks to coincide with the broadcast, that I started to appreciate it. From there  I was buying the books, CDs and even the TV series, and anything else Hitchhiker related.

Then Douglas Adams branched out into other directions; computer games, the Dirk Gently series, Last Chance to See and anything else that caught his imagination. And I followed him all the time marvelling at this amazing person with this amazing brain. And then, one day, he stopped, dead. Literally.

What made it even more sad was the sense there was still so much more he wanted to do and that the world had been robbed of his talent. I suspect this would still have been true even had he lived to some grand old age as he was such a great prevaricator, but while he was alive, there was potential and then it was all gone.

But now Eoin Colfer has decided that the story of Arthur Dent has not finished as it so seemed in Mostly Harmless and has dared write a sixth book. My wife assures it is very good, so now I am eagerly waiting for her to finish so I can have my turn. But no matter how much it is Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, in the back of my mind I will know it’s not Douglas Adams.

Stupid support calls #1

Just as I was about to leave, I got a call from someone in Canada who was having problems logging into a web application I support.

They could see the web page to login in to, so I knew there was no network problem and they could log in using someone else’s computer, so I knew it wasn’t an account problem.

So how do I tell her to take the caps lock off without being patronising?

The Doctor’s new clothes

The new Doctor’s has a new outfit to go with the new face, very nice. Not totally out there like some previous Doctors but different enough to stand out. I think it was a very sensible decision to dress him in an old fashioned academic style as it nicely counterpoints his young age.

I was worried the new TARDIS exterior was a little too blue when I saw this picture but I then saw the video now attached to the first link and it looks fine in overcast South Wales. I do like the return to the original Hartnell style TARDIS.

Some people seem to think it means that Matt Smith is actually playing a young 1st Doctor, but I can’t see that to be honest. Still, if you want to read wild rumours and speculations, you should read what people are saying about another bit of casting news that’s come out today.

I am so looking forward to the new series, but we still have have three more specials with my second favourite Doctor left so I’m not going to wish those away too quickly. (For my favorite Doctor, think scarf).

P.S. I am no longer ill.

Legoland

Third post in and I’ve already broken the promise to myself to try to post at least once a day. Still, it really is not surprising considering what I was doing yesterday.

I had suggested to my daughter, Sydney, that we could go to Legoland on Saturday as there was a kind of mini festival going on at the weekend. In particular, Carrie and David of Carrie and David’s Pop Shop would be there, as well as a variety of people dressed as favourite childrens TV characters such as Bob The Builder.

However, as I have previously mentioned I’ve been ill for a few days previously and I am still not feeling one hundred percent. So when I woke up and had a big internal debate with myself whether I was well enough to take her. My wife can’t drive and had already planned to go to Hampton Court with our son, so the fall back position was that Syd could have gone with her. Despite a couple of concerned queries from my wife, I, probably foolishly, decided to take her to Legoland after all.

First though, Syd had her ballet class and, as is traditional, that meant the parents were allowed to watch. This means that we were unable to leave super early as we normally would do and probably why it took us over an hour and a half to get there despite being so close by. Fortunately, we had a CD of The Ting Tings in the car which Syd just absolutely loves.

By the time we got there, it was lunch time, and so, in a departure from tradition, we actually bought our lunch rather than bringing along a packed luch. It was surprisingly cheaper than I was expecting, but that may have been because I was feeling too ill to feel hungry.

So we sat outside and discussed life, the universe and pesky wasps that would not leave us alone while eating ham sandwiches and drinking apple juice. It’s always these sort of moments I treasure, when I have a some time with my kids with little interference. I think this is when you can really see the sort of person they are turning into. I think for many parents, eating lunch on a day out is a necessary eater of time when they could be doing something “fun”. For me though, this is the very reason for days out, to actually spend time with your loved ones away from the distractions at home.

After we had lunched, we tried to seek out the Legoland Live! event but after some aimless wandering gave up the search. Syd decided she wanted to try Legoland’s latest ride, Laser Raiders, so I dutifully queued with her for over hour, feeling distinctly queasy as the queuing area was rather warm and then, within sight of the ride, it broke down. Talk about frustrating. However, the engineers managed to fix it within ten minutes so that was all right.

The ride itself was great fun, where you’re in this car with the most ungunlike gun, shooting at various targets along the route. I must confess my competitiveness overtook any other considerations and I was shooting at every target I could see and got a decent score. It was only when the ride was finishing, whenI noticed Syd had not scored anything, that I realised I should have been helping her a bit more.

We then went on a couple of smaller rides in the same area before resuming our search of the Legoland Live! event. We found a white marquee with a stage but clearly nothing was happening in there and it was getting late. We were on the verge of going home when Syd remembered about the water park, Water Works, for which a new swimming costume had been bought specifically. So despite a headache that was brewing, we got her changed and she spent a nice hour getting wet.

By this point, it was definitely time to head home, so we headed back to the car pausing only to buy some popcorn and a bottle of water to ease my thumping head. As we walked across the car park, we suddenly heard the sound of a familiar song being sung in the far corner. It was Carrie and David’s Pop Shop!

We rushed over to find a large field with a large stage set up and there, on stage was Carrie and David! Hurray! We stayed and listened until the end of their set, Syd singing along to the words, me just having a lie down on the grass, and then, for the third time, we thought about heading home.

As we were leaving, they announced Bob the Builder would be back on stage soon, and Syd commented she would like to have seen him. I reminded her that she had already seen him once at the Science Museum but she said that was just someone dressed up like him. I’m not quite sure who she would have expected on stage but apparently he needs to be building something to be real. However, it really was time to go so we continued towards the car.

Syd had obviously had a very tiring day as she soon fell asleep next to me while driving home, so much so that I had difficulty waking her up when we arrived. I went straight to bed to lie down, waking up in time to put both kids to bed, before collapsing on the sofa where I fell asleep again. My memories of the rest of the evening are rather vague as spent most of it asleep but I eventually dragged myself to bed and woke up early this morning, thankfully feeling much better.

The Best of Both Worlds

I’m going to hold my hand up here and say I love Star Trek. Fortunately, with the release of the film this is not such a bad thing to admit to at the moment. The same thing happened when Doctor Who was bought back a few years ago which I also love. Isn’t it just great how two shows that ten years ago were looked down on many people are both in vogue now.

However, while I love those shows, I am not obsessive about them. My wife may disagree but you only have to visit a forum on either of these programmes to see how far true obsession goes. So I hadn’t seen an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation for years until tonight when Virgin 1 screened both parts of Best of Both Worlds.

Now an obsessive would immediately know which one that is, but I knew it as the one where Picard was turned in Locutus of Borg, and I only remembered he was called Locutus because I had an Star Trek obsessive friend at university who used it as his handle. I’m beginning to see why all Friends episodes are named they way they are. Anyway, back on track.

This story represents everything that is/was good about Star Trek.  It had real action and drama with emotional depth. It seems such a shame it was preceded by an episode where episode where Worf is trying to teach his son to be a warrior, which to me represents everything that went wrong with Star Trek, and each iteration seemed to sink further into that mould.

Looking back at Deep Space Nine, I can see why some consider that the best Star Trek series of them all, what with the political machinations and epic scope of the story. But I really wanted to see people flying around in spaceships shooting. I’ve grown up a little since then so I appreciate it bit better in hindsight.

I’m not going to say anything about Voyager. 

I actually really enjoyed Enterprise at first because it seemed to be taking Star Trek back to its roots again, the crew of a starship exploring unknown space, but I’m afraid the soap opera element reared it’s head again. I still enjoyed them, just not as much.

So I now feel I have renewed my membership to the Star Trek appreciation club having finally watched a complete episode (actually two) after several years of non Star Trek viewing and one with decent story to boot.

Now if someone would only start showing the original series I would probably start watching religiously again, much to the chagrin of my wife, I’m sure.

IE6 must die

I’m going to try to write at least one post a day, but when you’ve done nothing all day but feel rotten all day at home there’s very little to say that I didn’t say yesterday. Until I noticed the #6 trending topic on Twitter was “IE6 must die”.

It is a sentiment I absolutely agree with and for a fuller explanation of why Internet Explorer 6 is holding back web development you should read the article at http://mashable.com/2009/07/16/ie6-must-die.

The problem is not people, but companies. Many people access the Internet at work and are often unable to install a different browser and so have no choice but to use IE6. Why do companies still use IE6? Because most still use XP and IE6 happens to be the browser that came with it. Consequently all their internal systems are designed for it and they are scared of breaking them by updating the browser.

The fact that pretty much any web application that runs IE6 will also run on IE7, and usually IE8 as well, is completely lost on IT departments for whom change is a bad word.

So, how do you convince a company to update the browser? Well, here are a couple of ideas I have.

Firstly, although browsing the Internet is often frowned on by companies, often there are some key external sites frequently used by the decision makers of a company (or used by those with a direct line to those decision makers). Things like hotel and flight booking systems. If those sites were to drop IE6 support I could guarantee you an order would come down that the standard browser would need to upgraded.

My other idea would be for the developers of company systems. Stop designing for it. Look at the additional functionality offered by more modern browsers and build your application around them.

You would have to sell the concept to the people paying for it, but imagine a web application that embraces tabs rather the using the single window of IE6. The ability to navigate to different parts of the application without the constant clicking of links and buttons or use of the back button, potentially losing data you’ve just entered, should be a compelling reason to embrace a tabbed interface.

As a software developer, it is usually my job to build applications that fit the client’s environment, but with a little subtle pushing you can potentially provide a far better solution if you treat the given environment as something that can be tweaked instead of being set in stone.