SharePoint Online provides various social features in modern experience SharePoint sites. One of the features available for SharePoint site pages is the social bar (Like, No. of Comments, Views, Save for later), which is situated at the bottom of site pages. Social bar allows users to engage with page content by liking and saving pages for later reference. Social bar also shows the number of page views and comments on modern site pages.

However, organizations may have specific requirements that necessitate enabling or disabling the social bar on SharePoint site pages. Unfortunately, there are no settings available for enabling/disabling social bar using SharePoint user interface. In this blog post, we will explore how to achieve this at SharePoint tenant level using SharePoint Online PowerShell, PnP PowerShell and CLI for Microsoft 365 scripts.

Using SharePoint Online PowerShell

Use below SharePoint Online PowerShell script to enable or disable the social bar from site pages for all SharePoint sites in the tenant:

# SharePoint online admin center URL
$adminCenterUrl = "https://contoso-admin.sharepoint.com/"

# Connect to SharePoint online admin center
Connect-SPOService -Url $adminCenterUrl

# Disable the social bar from SharePoint online site pages
Set-SPOTenant -SocialBarOnSitePagesDisabled $true

# Enable the social bar on SharePoint online site pages
Set-SPOTenant -SocialBarOnSitePagesDisabled $false

Using PnP PowerShell

You can use below PnP PowerShell script to show or hide the social bar from SharePoint online modern experience site pages:

# SharePoint online admin center URL
$adminCenterUrl = "https://contoso-admin.sharepoint.com/"

# Connect to SharePoint online admin center
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $adminCenterUrl -Interactive

# Show the social bar on SharePoint online modern site pages
Set-PnPTenant -SocialBarOnSitePagesDisabled $false

# Hide the social bar from SharePoint online modern site pages
Set-PnPTenant -SocialBarOnSitePagesDisabled $true

Using CLI for Microsoft 365

Use below CLI for Microsoft 365 script to enable or disable the Social Bar (like, No. of comments, views, Save for later) in SharePoint online at tenant level:

# Get Credentials to connect
$m365Status = m365 status
if ($m365Status -match "Logged Out") {
    m365 login
}

# Disable the social bar from SharePoint online site pages
m365 spo tenant settings set --SocialBarOnSitePagesDisabled true

# Enable the social bar on SharePoint online site pages
m365 spo tenant settings set --SocialBarOnSitePagesDisabled false

Conclusion

Enabling or disabling the social bar on site pages in SharePoint Online can be achieved using SharePoint Online PowerShell, PnP PowerShell or CLI for Microsoft 365 scripts. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can customize the user experience and align it with your organization’s specific requirements. Whether you want to encourage user engagement or disable social features for certain scenarios, these PowerShell scripts provide the flexibility to control the social bar’s presence on SharePoint online modern site pages.

Learn more

• Enable or Disable the Social Bar (Like, Views, Save for later) for individual SharePoint sites
• Enable or Disable the Return to Classic SharePoint link in SharePoint Online
• SharePoint Online: Create a blank page without header & title
• Create a SharePoint online site using Power Automate flow
• Allow use of custom scripts in SharePoint Online using PowerShell
• Delete custom site scripts in SharePoint online using PowerShell
• Change SharePoint Online List URL using PnP PowerShell

A while back, I published a post on some most famous and important limits we have in SharePoint Online. These were limits that are most likely to be encountered by the users. Today, I want to introduce you to another limit that exists in SharePoint. Most of you will never experience it; however, for those who use lists or metadata on document libraries – you better not skip this article and read it to the end. Otherwise, you will join a very disappointed percentage of my blog readers after encountering the Lookup Column Threshold limit on a view and then desperately finding this post by googling for a solution. 😊

What is the Lookup Column Threshold limit on a view?

When you create lookup columns on a list or library, for performance reasons, Microsoft limits you to 12 (twelve) columns of that type of column in a single view. This is because when it is a lookup column, you are getting the data from either another list or another source. When you exceed the limit, you will get the following error message when trying to add the 13^th column to the view (this just proves that 13 is not a lucky number).

Something went wrong. The query cannot be completed because the number of lookup columns it contains exceeds the lookup column threshold.

And when you refresh the page and try to go to the document library, your library will go blank with the error message front and center.

What are lookup columns?

What is interesting here is that the lookup column in the content of this error message is not the same lookup column I blogged about some time ago.  In that post, I referred to the Lookup column type that we have in Lists and Libraries. Those Lookup columns were columns that referenced other lists and libraries on the same site.

In the context of the Lookup Column Threshold limitation, Lookup Column also refers to other types of columns! By lookup columns here, we imply the columns that obtain their data from other sources. Here is a complete list of the “lookup” columns that will cause the error message:

System Columns (Columns created and displayed out of the box)

• Created By Column (lookup against User/Employee Directory)
• Modified By Column (lookup against User/Employee Directory)
• Type Colum (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, etc.)
• Name Column (Filename)

Manual Columns (Columns created manually by users)

• Lookup Column (the actual Lookup column, lookup against another list or library)

• People Column (lookup against User/Employee Directory)
• Managed Metadata Column (lookup against the Term Store)
• Enterprise Keywords Column (lookup against the Term Store)

How to avoid the Lookup Threshold limit on a view

• The only way to avoid this issue is to limit your views to less than 12 lookup column types mentioned above. To be clear, you can have as many columns as you wish on a list or library, as long you do not exceed the 12 “lookup” ones in a single view. So, if you encounter the above limit, just hide some of the “lookup” columns from a view to fix it.
• Where appropriate, use other types of columns instead of the lookup columns (i.e., Choice instead of Managed Metadata) since those do not count against the limit
• If you do have many columns you need to display – create additional views on a list or library – just keep the number of “lookup” columns under 12 in any given view.

The post How to avoid Lookup Column Threshold limit on a view appeared first on SharePoint Maven.

JSON View formatting in SharePoint Online can be a useful tool for customizing the way list/library data is presented to end users. This can help improve the user experience and make it easier for users to understand and interact with the SharePoint list/library data.

In this blog post, we will discuss how to apply JSON View formatting in SharePoint Online using SharePoint REST API.

If you want to reuse the JSON view formatting from existing SharePoint list view to newly created views in same SharePoint online list or in different SharePoint list with similar columns, you can get the custom JSON formatting applied on existing SharePoint list view using SharePoint REST API. You have to use the REST endpoint in below format to fetch the JSON:

https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/SPConnect/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('My List')/views/getbytitle('All Items')?$select=Title,CustomFormatter

Once you get the list view formatting JSON using above API call, you can use it in below example to apply JSON View formatting to newly created SharePoint Online lists. For this blog post, we will reuse the JSON view formatting from one of my blog posts – SharePoint Online: Highlight selected list item rows using JSON formatting

You can use below SharePoint REST API code for applying JSON view formatting to SharePoint online list:

/sites/SPConnect/SiteAssets/jquery.min.js
<script type="text/javascript">
    function updateViewJSONFormatting(listName, viewName) {
        var viewEndpoint = _spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl + "/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('" + listName + "')/views/getbytitle('" + viewName + "')";

        var jsonFormatting = {
			"$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/sp/v2/row-formatting.schema.json",
			"additionalRowClass": "=if(@isSelected, 'ms-bgColor-themePrimary ms-fontColor-white', '')"
		};
        
        var viewProperties = {
            "__metadata": {
                "type": "SP.View"
            },
            "CustomFormatter": JSON.stringify(jsonFormatting)
        };

        $.ajax({
            url: viewEndpoint,
            type: "POST",
            headers: {
                "accept": "application/json;odata=verbose",
                "content-type": "application/json;odata=verbose",
                "X-RequestDigest": $("#__REQUESTDIGEST").val(),
                "X-HTTP-Method": "MERGE",
                "If-Match": "*"
            },
            data: JSON.stringify(viewProperties),
            success: function(data) {
                console.log(data);
            },
            error: function(error) {
                console.log(error);
            }
        });
    }
</script>

You can call above reusable function like:

updateViewJSONFormatting('Comments List', 'All Items')

Once above function executes successfully, navigate to your SharePoint online list view and you will see that JSON view formatting is applied to your SharePoint online list view:

Learn more

• SharePoint Online: Download document library files using JSON Formatting
• Download Image from SharePoint Image column using JSON formatting
• SharePoint JSON formatting: Check if date & time column is blank/empty
• SharePoint: Replace All Occurrences of Substring in a String using JSON Formatting
• How to find the Internal name of columns in SharePoint Online?

If you create a schedule using the Project for the Web, you will notice that it has five distinct tabs/views available to manage, organize and assign tasks. So in today’s article, I would like to explain the available views in Project for the Web, their purpose, and limitations.

What is Project for the Web?

Project for the Web is a web-based task management application that allows teams to manage tasks with dependencies and also track the effort spent on those tasks. Think of Project for the Web as the step up from Planner, which is meant for less formal and smaller projects.

Example of the Schedule built in Project for the Web

Several views are available within Project for the Web, and that’s what I would like to explain in this article.

5 Views in Project for the Web

View 1: Grid View

This is a default view that opens when you access any given schedule within Project for the Web application. Essentially it is a table/excel-like list of tasks that allows you to quickly assign them, display built-in fields, create custom fields and organize them using the subtask functionality.

Grid View in Project for the Web

What is possible using the Grid View

Grid View, compared to other views listed below, gives you the most flexibility in terms of task management. It is a single place where you can assign tasks, change the start and finish dates, change durations and effort, attach documents, create checklists, add notes, and attach files. Essentially this is the view you will probably spend most of the time in while managing a project.

Managing a task in a Grid View of Project for the Web

View 2: Board View

The Board view displays the tasks in Kanban-style mode, similar to what we have in Planner. Just like we have buckets in Planner to organize tasks into various groups, in Project for the Web, we can also organize the tasks into buckets. The Board View takes all the subtasks that do not have children subtasks underneath and displays them in Kanban-style format. By default, they are organized into Bucket 1, but you can rename this default bucket and create additional ones as necessary.

Board View in Project for the Web

Unfortunately, those buckets (bucket names) are not tied to any of the tasks/parent tasks on the Project Schedule. So however you organize your tasks into buckets on the Board View does not impact anything on the Grid View.

What is possible using the Board View

Clicking on a task in the Board View allows you to fill in the task details in a similar manner as you could on the Grid View. In addition to standard fields for the task, you would also see additional fields on the form related to the Board/Kanban-style project management: Bucket and Sprint.

The Board View is useful if your project is more of an Agile type, rather than Waterfall, which requires you to set up dependencies. Another bonus available in the Board View is to group buckets by Sprint, in case you are once again using Agile/Scrum methodology to manage your projects.

View 3: Timeline View

The Timeline View allows you to visualize the tasks in Gantt chart mode. Since we have dependencies on tasks, we can visualize those dependencies using the Gantt-type format.

Timeline View in Project for the Web

What is possible using the Timeline View

When you display the task list using the Timeline View, it only displays the tasks, no other fields, and then displays the visual representation of a task (the Gantt Chart itself). Moving the bars allows you to adjust the start date, finish date, and duration. You can also create/adjust dependencies by dragging lines/arrows between the tasks on a Gantt Chart.

View 4: Chart View

The Chart view is not a view of tasks, but rather some basic reports/analytics on the schedule. It pretty much displays the general overview of the project, including which tasks are late, in progress, completed, and not started.

Chart View in Project for the Web

What is possible using the Chart View

In Chart View, you can’t really do anything. It is a read-only view where you can visualize a basic report that is available. You can’t really manage tasks from that view.

View 5: People View

Think of People View as another way to assign tasks. It essentially lists all the team members of the project (Microsoft 365 group) and allows you to visualize the distribution of tasks among team members. On the left-hand side, it shows Unassigned tasks, then next to it on the right, it displays the names of the team members with their assigned tasks underneath.

People View in Project for the Web

What is possible using the People View

Bu design, you can change task assignments easily by dragging the tasks from one column to another. To change other information about a task, you would just click on the task itself to open up a task form.

The post 5 Views in Project for the Web appeared first on SharePoint Maven.

ManageEngine OpManager provides a comprehensive solution to monitor on-prem servers, networking, storage, cloud, virtualization, containers, and more.

The post ManageEngine OpManager: Comprehensive monitoring for on-prem, cloud, and containers first appeared on 4sysops.

A frequent request for company intranets is to display and share information about the Team Members. This could be a Welcome New Team Members Page on a Human Resources site, welcoming new employees, or a page to display a roster of external users, say a list of Board Members for a nonprofit organization. So in this article, I want to show you a few ways to display department or team Members on a SharePoint Site.

Option 1: People Web Part

The first option involves the use of the People Web Part. I blogged about it previously. The idea is that it automatically displays information from your Active Directory and shows you the user’s name, photo, role, contact information, etc. In addition, you can switch the layout to large and add additional information about the user. Once again, I covered it all in this post.

Pros

• Nice and easy to set up

Cons

• It only works for users in your Active Directory (internal users, it does not work for external users)
• This option assumes that Active Directory is maintained by IT and contains user photos and other relevant information
• Limited area to add a description about the user (255 characters max)
• Limited display options

Option 2: Image Gallery Web Part

If you want more control over the layout, you may try using the Image Gallery web part. This way, you are getting a nice visual photo of each employee and an area to add some text below the photo.

Pros

• Nice and easy to set up, visually appealing
• Multiple layouts available
• Ability to manually upload user photos or dynamically display them from the document library
• Works for both internal and external team members (since we are not relying on Active Directory)

Cons

• The Name and additional information (Title and Caption, respectively) do not appear under the photo unless you choose the Carousel layout. With the other two layouts, they will only appear after you click on a photo/image.

Option 3: SharePoint Pages and Quick Links

OK, this is my favorite option, because it delivers the best experience for you and the users. It does take a bit more time to set it up, but, hey, at least you will not need to pretend in front of your boss that you are doing some actual work 😊. Plus, your boss will think you are smart. Let me walk you through this option.

The idea behind this option is that every member gets their own page containing a photo and text/description of them. On the homepage, there will be a Quick Links Web Part to link to each and every team member’s page. I documented step-by-step instructions on how to set it all up in this article.

Pros

• Looks amazing. Visually appealing.
• Works for both internal and external team members (since we are not relying on Active Directory)

Cons

• It takes a bit of time to set up, but totally worth it

Option 4: Gallery View on a List

Believe it or not, there is another cool option that exists to display department/team members, and this one involves Microsoft Lists. The idea is that you would maintain the users in the Custom List and then present the data using the Gallery view. The setup is pretty simple, and I actually documented how to create a Gallery View in this article.

List View

Gallery View

Pros

• Looks amazing as well
• Works for both internal and external team members. If you just have internal members, you can rely on the People Column to draw the name of the members from the Active Directory. If you have external members, you can create a Text Column to capture their names.
• Ability to add additional information/metadata to a user “card” (by adding extra columns to a list). For example, you can add the date of birth or city/town they are from.
• Good options in terms of changing the order of the fields/format via the Gallery Card Designer

Cons

• It takes a bit of time to set up
• Limited area for the text on the cards; you have to click on the photo to get more information

The post 4 ways to display Department or Team Members on a SharePoint Site appeared first on SharePoint Maven.

NetCrunch 13 is the latest release of AdRem Software's flagship monitoring software, containing many new features and enhancements. The monitoring solution can monitor various physical, virtual, and network infrastructures. It provides real-time network monitoring, traffic analysis, alerts, and performance reporting.

The post NetCrunch 13: Real-time network monitoring, traffic analysis, alerts, and performance reporting first appeared on 4sysops.

Learn how ManageEngine Endpoint Central (formerly ManageEngine Desktop Central) provides the tools and automation needed for managing endpoints, patching, deploying software, and installing operating systems in today's hybrid remote work environments.

The post Manage and secure your endpoints in hybrid environments with ManageEngine Endpoint Central first appeared on 4sysops.

NAKIVO Backup & Replication v10.8 delivers excellent new cloud and managed service provider (MSP) features, allowing businesses to meet modern data protection challenges.

The post NAKIVO Backup & Replication v10.8 with new cloud and MSP features first appeared on 4sysops.