But what about other fields that have been encoded in the image? Can SharePoint automatically extract those as well?  If so, how? Recently I tried to extract some metadata from an image for a customer created at their studio. The first thing I needed to know was what I was looking for - that is - what metadata is stored in the image? To find out I downloaded some extraction tools and found "Exiv2" to be a helpful free command-line utility. Windows Live Photo Gallery is also helpful tool in displaying asset metadata, but it is limited to specific fields (see below) 

Then I remembered reading somewhere that all I needed to do was to add the correct column name, and then the encoded value would show up. So when that didn’t work…..I thought that the field names might be conforming to the Exif,  XMP, or some other standard metadata container column name. What I learned was that the metadata container support for SharePoint is based on what  WIC (Windows Imaging Component) supports, including App0, App1, App13, IFD, IRB, Exif, XMP, GPS, IPTC, tEXt. You can read about WIC metadata here https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee719653(VS.85).aspx#supportedformats. What is needed if you would like to capture additional information is to add a column whose internal name is a WIC string. Below is a list of the column names that you can add to your asset library that will automatically be populated if your image file contains data for that field: 

• wic_System_Copyright                                                          
• wic_System_Rating                                                             
• wic_System_ApplicationName                                                    
• wic_System_DateAcquired                                                       
• wic_System_SimpleRating                                                       
• wic_System_GPS_Altitude                                                       
• wic_System_GPS_AltitudeRef                                                    
• wic_System_GPS_AreaInformation                                                
• wic_System_GPS_Date                                                           
• wic_System_GPS_DestBearing                                                    
• wic_System_GPS_DestBearingRef                                                 
• wic_System_GPS_DestDistance                                                   
• wic_System_GPS_DestDistanceRef                                                
• wic_System_GPS_DestLatitude                                                   
• wic_System_GPS_DestLatitudeRef                                                
• wic_System_GPS_DestLongitude                                                  
• wic_System_GPS_DestLongitudeRef                                               
• wic_System_GPS_Differential                                                   
• wic_System_GPS_DOP                                                            
• wic_System_GPS_ImgDirection                                                   
• wic_System_GPS_ImgDirectionRef                                                
• wic_System_GPS_Latitude                                                       
• wic_System_GPS_LatitudeRef                                                    
• wic_System_GPS_Longitude                                                      
• wic_System_GPS_MapDatum                                                       
• wic_System_GPS_MeasureMode                                                    
• wic_System_GPS_ProcessingMethod                                               
• wic_System_GPS_Satellites                                                     
• wic_System_GPS_Speed                                                          
• wic_System_GPS_SpeedRef                                                       
• wic_System_GPS_Status                                                         
• wic_System_GPS_Track                                                          
• wic_System_GPS_TrackRef                                                       
• wic_System_GPS_VersionID                                                      
• wic_System_Image_ColorSpace                                                   
• wic_System_Image_CompressedBitsPerPixel                                       
• wic_System_Image_Compression                                                  
• wic_System_Image_HorizontalResolution                                         
• wic_System_Image_ImageID                                                      
• wic_System_Image_ResolutionUnit                                               
• wic_System_Image_VerticalResolution                                           
• wic_System_Photo_Aperture                                                     
• wic_System_Photo_Brightness                                                   
• wic_System_Photo_CameraManufacturer                                           
• wic_System_Photo_CameraModel                                                  
• wic_System_Photo_CameraSerialNumber                                           
• wic_System_Photo_Contrast                                                     
• wic_System_Photo_DigitalZoom                                                  
• wic_System_Photo_EXIFVersion                                                  
• wic_System_Photo_ExposureBias                                                 
• wic_System_Photo_ExposureTime                                                 
• wic_System_Photo_Flash                                                        
• wic_System_Photo_FlashEnergy                                                  
• wic_System_Photo_FlashManufacturer                                            
• wic_System_Photo_FlashModel                                                   
• wic_System_Photo_FNumber                                                      
• wic_System_Photo_FocalLength                                                  
• wic_System_Photo_FocalLengthInFilm                                            
• wic_System_Photo_ISOSpeed                                                     
• wic_System_Photo_LensManufacturer                                             
• wic_System_Photo_LensModel                                                    
• wic_System_Photo_LightSource                                                  
• wic_System_Photo_MaxAperture                                                  
• wic_System_Photo_MeteringMode                                                 
• wic_System_Photo_Orientation                                                  
• wic_System_Photo_PhotometricInterpretation                                    
• wic_System_Photo_ProgramMode                                                  
• wic_System_Photo_RelatedSoundFile                                             
• wic_System_Photo_Saturation                                                   
• wic_System_Photo_Sharpness                                                    
• wic_System_Photo_ShutterSpeed                                                 
• wic_System_Photo_SubjectDistance                                              
• wic_System_Photo_TranscodedForSync                                            
• wic_System_Photo_WhiteBalance                                                 

While the WIC string is required for internal name, e.g. "wic_System_Photo_CameraModel", ideally you would give the column a pretty visible name like "Camera Model". The powershell script below is a sample of how to add column names on a SharePoint list :

function global:AddColumnToLibrary
{
 param ($webUrl=$(throw("You must specify the url for the web to add a document to")),
  $listName=$(throw("You must specify the list to add columns to")),
  $columnSystemName=$(throw("you must specify a system name to use")),
  $columnTypeName="Text",
  $columnVisibleName=$columnSystemName,
  $addToAllAssets=$true)

 $web = Get-SPWeb $webUrl
 $list = $web.Lists[$listName]
 if(-not $list.Fields.ContainsFieldWithStaticName($columnSystemName))
 {
  $trash = $list.Fields.Add($columnSystemName, [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFieldType]::$columnTypeName, $false);
  $field = $list.Fields[$columnSystemName]
  $field.Title = $columnVisibleName
  $field.Update()
  "++ Added Field: " + $columnSystemName + "   DisplayName: " + $columnVisibleName
 }
 else
 {
  "== Library already contains: " + $columnSystemName
 }
 if($addToAllAssets)
 {
  
  $list.Views | foreach {if($_.Url.Contains("AllItems.aspx")){$view = $_}}
  if(-not $view.ViewFields.Exists($columnSystemName))
  {
   $view.ViewFields.Add($columnSystemName)
   $view.Update()
  }
 }
}

If more is needed we have a pluggable architecture so that you can always add a custom parser, but as you can see you get quite a bit out of the box. I hope this post was helpful and perhaps gave you some additional information that you didn't know about the metadata fields that were supported. Special thanks to Neil Joyer in the content management group for the information contained in this post.

The Productivity Hub 2010 version is now live on MSDN. You can download it here. I'm excited about Productivity Hub because it provides training for our business productivity tools and it is a great example of how SharePoint can be used to deliver online learning. Because its built on SharePoint, you can customize it in any way and even add training for  other non-Microsoft tools you may have in your organization. Gayan Peiris provides a good overview of Productivity Hub in his blog post "What is the Productivity Hub?".

So what's new in Productivity Hub 2010?

I think the biggest  improvement is the ease of deployment. There is a backup of the Hub site collection and a PowerShell install script to restore it and then there are content packs for  the training materials for each product / version.  It's just a site collection so you decide if you would like to create a new web application  or include it as part of an existing one. You can install just the content packs you like. There are packs for SharePoint, SharePoint Workspace, Publisher, Visio, Word, Access, Communicator, Excel, InfoPath, Live Meeting, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, Windows 7 , and even the Ribbon! The 2007 legacy content is also available as separate "product" installs.

There is now a ‘Get it Done’ section that offers training content for business productivity & collaboration tasks and a new quiz feature.

So what's new in Productivity Hub 2010 for SharePoint?

There are about 60 or so new pieces of content for both SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint Workspace highlighting the new capabilities and a video on the SharePoint ribbon. While there is a SharePoint Workspace quiz, there is no SharePoint quiz at this time. Of course the blogs, forums, and coaching features are still included. Keep in mind that content packs are regularly updated so you can expect more content to come soon! Here are a few screenshots...

Productivity Hub Home:

Notice there are a couple of new web parts advertising coaches and the forums.

SharePoint Product Page Home:

 SharePoint Workspace Product Page Home:

In this screenshot - you see the invitation to take a quiz on the right.

Installing the Hub

First I just wanted to install SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint Workspace 2010 content to get started.

Following the instructions in the install guide included with the download, I created a new site collection (Blank Site) on my Information Worker Demonstration Virtual Machine in central administration.

I extracted the contents of the ProductivityHub2010CoreInstall package and opened PowerShell (SharePoint 2010 Management Shell) and navigated to my extracted contents folder. I ran the install which restored the backup to my new site collection:

.\install https://intranet.contoso.com/sites/phub

Remember to create a new site collection as it will overwrite the existing contents of whatever URL you specify!

The next step I extracted the contents of the "ContentPack-1" package (where the SharePoint content is) to a new folder  and navigated to the SharePoint subdirectory and ran the 2010 install script for just the SharePoint 2010 content:

 .\install -huburl https://intranet.contoso.com/sites/phub -xml sharepoint_2010.xml

Note that the learning roadmap gets included automatically (remember there is no quiz yet). 

Then I followed the same procedure for the SharePoint Workspace 'product' - navigating to that subfolder and then ran the install script:

 .\install -huburl https://intranet.contoso.com/sites/phub -xml sharepointworkspace_2010.XML

I repeated the extraction and install steps above for "Content Pack-2" also included in the download. Note that any _2007 filename suffix is for 2007 content and the _All includes content applies to both the 2007 and 2010 versions. In my example, i was only intersted in the 2010 content. Don’t forget you will need to start and incremental crawl - in my case using the IW VM - of the FAST Content & Query to be able to get search results for the newly added content.  Voilà!

In a word - yes!   Perhaps you’ve heard how BranchCache in the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems can help increase network responsiveness of applications when accessed from remote offices. Remote offices often can have high-link utilization and poor application responsiveness.  BranchCache improves the experience of users in those offices - in some cases as if they were on the local area network. Similar to a content accelerator appliance, BranchCache also helps reduce WAN utilization as documents are cached locally at a 'branch office' - rather than having to round-trip it across an ocean.

BranchCache can be configured in two modes….distributed cache(peer-to-peer)  mode or hosted cache mode - for more information on BranchCache and how its configured, check out BranchCache in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Overview

BranchCache improves performance of applications that use either HTTP, HTTPS, as well as SMB (the protocol used for shared folders) and WebDav (an extension of HTTP). Because SharePoint uses these  protocols, it is able to take advantage of BranchCache. Just remember that clients must be using Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server for it to work.

But wait...there's more!

In addition to BranchCache, there are a number of other improvements in SharePoint 2010 that our customers are taking advantage of for both distributed SharePoint applications as well as disconnected scenarios including Office Data Cache, SharePoint Workspace,  Office Web Applications and more.

FSSHTTP and the Office Document Cache***

The FSSHTTP protocol comes between the client and the Web Front End - once the file is downloaded to the client for the first time, the FSSHTTP protocol will transfer only differences when the file is saved. The same is true on the file open/read on the second time. This works only when the client machine is using Office2010 and the file format  is Office XML format. You can find your taskbar an icon for the "Upload Center"  - this is the Office Data Cache (ODC) . The upload center will show you which documents are in your local cache, but you rarely have to care.

The actual files are kept in your user AppData folder but they are in binary form so this is the best interface should you want to take action on any of these files.

So what is the benefit for those remote users? First there is a model-less save experience. You don't have to wait a long time every time you click save. Because we are only transferring differences, there is less wait time and reduced network traffic across the wire. Additionally, having a cached copy can be a benefit if there is an interruption of service or disconnection from the network. Updates to a file will be pending and will be uploaded when a connection is restored.

SharePoint Workspace

SharePoint Workspace - the evolution of the product formally known as Groove (why does Prince come to mind every time I mention that?)   - has similar benefits to the ODC, however  SharePoint Workspace can take an entire site hierarchy offline including custom lists and line-of-business data. While the most obvious benefit is for disconnected workers, some of our customers are using it exclusively in low-bandwidth situations because they are less affected by network latency and for its ability to synchronize with the SharePoint server in the background. 

Office Web Applications

I had been telling customers for several months about the benefits of Office Web Applications before even having a "dogfood" version to test. "You get an extremely light  payload optimized for browsing, allowing you to view - then do a lightweight edit complete with the Ribbon Fluid UI - enabling a complete roundtrip without opening a client application" I would say. To be honest, I wasn’t thinking this was a big deal, however, now that I am using the Web Apps often working with very large files I now see that it *is* a big deal! Remote users no longer need to download a large document just to review it or for a quick edit. Office in the browser will most often have a faster time-to-first-page than their rich client companion.

If your using FAST search, you also get the benefit of the Silverlight document previews in search results made possible by the Office Web Applications. This is can be a big time/bandwidth saver by ensuring that the large PowerPoint presentation I'm about to download is the correct one for example.

Mobile Pages

While mobile pages are not new, they do provide enhanced functionality and better device support including Blackberry 4.x and Safari/iPhone 3G/S. The default is a text view, there is also an image view that presents the page as a lightweight JPG image, as well as a thumbnail index that allows you to quickly navigate light-weight versions of SharePoint pages. Keep in mind that the mobile pages can be navigated by browsers as well as phones, resulting in reduced network traffic and faster load times on narrow and latent connections.

Support for Read-only Farms

Improvements in log shipping now allow content to be published to one or more remote read-only farms via uninterrupted log shipping. That allows content to be published to one or more locations closer to where remote users would be consuming it and double as a disaster recovery farm by switching the read-only database to read/write. The problem in the past has been the time required for SQL to process the logs in the recovery farm which can take several minutes. What's new in 2010 is the ability for SharePoint to dynamically tell SQL to switch databases via PowerShell.  By having an extra database in the read-only farm, (yes unfortunately you would need to have double the storage) you could switch to a second database while you process logs in the first. This would give you an uninterrupted read-only experience.

Hopefully you found even more than what you were hoping for  in improvements in SharePoint 2010 for narrow bandwidth or geographically distributed users!

*** Note: BranchCache and the FSSHTTP Protocol are both technologies that offer more responsive experiences for both mobile and branch office workers, however they work independently of each other. That is, in scenarios where the FSHTTP protocol is used - specifically in conversations between Office 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 - BranchCache is not leveraged. BranchCache works by computing hashes for the body of HTTP responses as they pass through the Windows Server 2008 R2 networking stack. With FSSHTTP, the fields and headers are embedded in XML and contained in the payload of the HTTP conversation. Those fields and headers are what allows a client to retrieve pieces of a document, lock documents, and carry out other operations supported by SharePoint. Now that SharePoint is transporting the embedded XML control information in addition to just document data, it is no longer cacheable as it may change between seemingly identical downloads of the same document or the same document fragment. Again, this applies specifically to Office 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 only. BranchCache is still leveraged in other scenarios including Office 2010 previewing documents on SharePoint 2010 server, non-office documents, and conversations between SharePoint 2010 and Office 2007 client.