Bamboo Solutions and filling the gap with SharePoint

I’ve been checking out the various web parts from Bamboo Solutions lately and they’re pretty good. I’ll provide a more complete review of them at a later date but wanted to mention two new web parts from them.

A common problem with SharePoint lists that I hear is that there’s no referential integrity with lists. You can create lookups from one list into another, but if you delete the lookup list, the parent just shows blank data. I’ve come across this a few times building solutions for people and it’s been a typical thing that presents SharePoint as a tinker-toy rather than a robust solution like Oracle or SQL Server. Yeah, right. You go and write a document versioning system in Oracle. Anyways, the Bamboo guys have a solution in the form of the List Integrity Web Part that enforces various constraints and performs background “housekeeping” tasks while maintaining referential integrity between SharePoint lists. Neat stuff so you can check it out here.

Another cool thing they’ve done is created a more unified process for adding users to SharePoint. From the website:

The User Account Setup Web Part enables users to create a user account in ADS at the same time that the user account is added to SharePoint. Administrators can assign Site Groups and Cross-Site groups along with defining ADS user attributes such as Job Title, Company, Business Phone, Address, etc all from the User Account Setup Web Part.

Personally I think you should have your people setup in AD already before you go adding them to a portal, but then with this web part it paves the way for using SharePoint as an admin tool for people to create new users in an organization. I’m not convinced 100% that this is really what you want to use SharePoint for, but it may fit some peoples agendas.

So drop by and check these guys out as their stuff is of good quality, reasonable price, and works as advertised. Their main site is here and their storefront where you can download 30 days trials for most of the web parts can be found here. Enjoy!

On a side note, I do notice that there are many gaps in the SharePoint world that third-party companies and individuals have to step up to the bat to fill. I don’t know about the Outlook, Excel, and Powerpoint worlds but it seems people are always asking for features that are not available OOTB but can be accomplished with some extra development work. Maybe it supports the notion that SharePoint is an application development platform rather than an application, but it is frustrating when people ask to accomplish something and are forced to download (or even purchase) external tools or web parts to get the job done. I’m all for capitalism and hopefully we’ll see more base functionality with the next version but in the meantime, keep those thinking caps on and keep pushing us to fill in those gaps.

5 Comments

  • Re: it is frustrating when people ask to accomplish something and are forced to download (or even purchase) external tools or web parts to get the job done



    Personally I prefer to invest and encourage investment of systems that CAN be extended if a true requirement exists rather than organizations being limited only to the features that a software company can squeeze into a version of an application.



    My love of SharePoint originated from my ability to say "Yes that is possible!" rather than telling a customer "...umm no it don't do that".



    I'd rather meet a wall with a ladder than have to turn around altogether. :-)

  • Hi

    I partially agree Amanda, but..

    SharePoint is different then other products in this field because it IS an infrastructure product - enabling many options for customizations.

    I think that the key issue is to provide add-ins rather then additional products - this is a lot easier to sell to our customers.



    Please review: www.kwizcom.com for SharePoint add-ins.



    Thanks,

    Nimrod Geva



  • @Amanda: Don't get me wrong, I think SharePoint is a great platform to extend, build on, and otherwise leverage. I guess it's my frustration from people that don't see that and most are reserved to asking for things by specifying technology. When I ask people for requirements on what they want, I generally try to form the request as a conversation about what they want to do, not how they want to do it. The problem that I'm seeing (mostly in newsgroups, but all over as well) is that people come out and ask for a custom list to solve a problem (and it can't because there are not events on lists) so I get to a crossroads between providing a solution on a platform that can be used (if used correctly) and a client who wants to impose a technology to solve a business problem. I'd rather meet a wall with a painting and make it beautiful, or a sledghammer to knock it down, or a transmogrifier to turn the wall into a litter box. Hmm, where is this going?



    Anyways, I agree with you however when you're staring in the face of someone who just dropped a large budget on infrastructure, software, licenses, and training the last thing they want to hear is that we have to purchase a third-party tool to get the job done (or build something). Probably an issue with any tool these days as nothing will solve everyones problems.

  • Amanda: I have to agree with you. I would rather purchase software that meets 80-90% of my critical needs and then add on the pieces that are specific to my business.



    Take our User Account Setup Web Part for example. One reason we decided to build this web part was to reduce support time spent on user administration for our hosted SharePoint customers. Having the customer own the task of maintaining and setting up new users in their own system allows us to focus our support efforts on more serious issues if and when they arise.



    Thanks,

    Dani McClellan

    Product Manager, SharePoint Tools

    Bamboo Solutions

  • Bil: Thank you for reviewing our web parts. It is great to receive feedback from SP experts such as yourself.



    We look forward to seeing you at the SharePoint Connections conference in Orlando.



    Thanks,

    Dani McClellan



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