SharePoint Training

View the end user training content.

Click on the "End User Training" tab above to view how the training will look when installed on your server (you can change the theme if you don't like the lively yellow ;-)

You will need to log on as corp\demouser with a password of pass@word1

Installing the SharePoint and Designer Training Kits?

There are a couple of common problems that people have experienced when installing the portal version of the training kits so I thought I would cover off a few of the expectations and known problems with SharePoint environments.

The training kits are based on the SharePoint Learning Kit which is an application in its own right that exposes management, configuration and user interaction through SharePoint pages. Although you don't have to install the SLK as it is included with the training kit, if you want to understand more about how the e-learning platform works you should look at http://www.codeplex.com/slk

Download locations for the training kits are:

The setup for either assumes that you will follow every step in the setup guide to the letter and that the SharePoint farm has been installed according to best practices.

1. The setup assumes SharePoint and SQL are being used in Integrated Security mode.
2. The Central Admin web application credentials (Farm Account) are a Domain Account that also has Local Admin or DB Create rights on the SQL Server.
3. The default zone is using NTLM.
4. The Application Pool hosting the Site Collection that the training site is in is NOT running under the same credentials as the Central Admin App Pool (If this is you, I hope this is not your production MOSS farm).
5. If you get a permission error after completing the "Office SharePoint Training Configuration" page, sign in as the farm application account and re-do the settings page (use the existing db as this was created OK). If you neglect this error, everything will appear to work but users will get an error if they try and view the training "Can't add user to learning role".
6. If you don't deploy the solution to all applications then it must be deployed to the Central Admin web application & the web application that will host the training site (e.g. not required on the SSP application)
7. When configuring the Training solution from Central Admin, must select the correct Site Collection which can't be the Central Admin site collection.
   
8. The Training site must be in a sub site based on the Collaboration or Blank Template and can't be the top site in a site collection. i.e.
1. can't be http://server/sites/training
2. can be http://server/training
3. can be http://server/sites/training/enduser but only if step 5 selected http://sserver/sites/training )

If you have any issues with central admin setup of the training or setting permissions on the database (as per the instructions) then I'll bet you have made one of the mistakes above.

If you do get everything set up correctly but only the Site Collection administrator can see the learning content or you get an error along the lines of "Can't add the user to the learning role", then edit the rights of your Site Visitors or Site Members group and add the STK Learner permissions.

The installation has not been tested with SSL, FBA or languages other than English-USA so your mileage may vary in these environments.

There is one other error that can happen even if you have done everything right. There is no content listed in the learning site. This seems to happen if you have more than one server in the farm. You should run setup and configuration from a single web front end. If there are other WFE's you may have to disable them during the install. Microsoft are working on a solution to this and will update the documentation shortly. 

[Update: New farm install documentation http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/9/7/897e9f84-2e78-4158-abc3-237b6801ce53/Office%20SharePoint%20Server%202007%20Training%20Farm%20Install%20Guide.docx ]

You can upload the content zip files manually into folders in the Training Administrator site as you would upload any other files into a SharePoint library. You will find the files in a Content folder in the same location you ran the original install.bat file from. Then set all the metadata for each file and check them in, but this is a ½ hour job (I know).

If you already have the End User training installed and just want to add the SharePoint Designer training, don't run the install bat file, just create a new folder in the existing training library and upload the zip files as can be seen in Topic 8 below.

Happy learning...