Understanding the Risks of Enabling PDF Rendering Enabling in-browser PDF rendering in SharePoint 2010 introduces additional attack surfaces that can be exploited by malicious actors. The PDF rendering software itself as well as the integration points with SharePoint need to be secured to prevent attacks such as cross-site scripting and other injection threats. The PDF…
The Problem of Broken Links from URL Changes One of the most common issues that arises when making changes to SharePoint site structures and URLs is the dreaded “404 – Page Not Found” error. Users who have bookmarked old URLs or have links from various sources suddenly find themselves facing broken links rather than the…
Improving User Experience with SharePoint URL Rewrites The URLs that provide access to content and applications within SharePoint significantly impact the end-user experience. Excessively long and complex URLs containing messy query strings or exposed metadata can frustrate users, reduce adoption of solutions, and hamper productivity. With thoughtful URL rewrite rules, organizations can craft clean URL…
The Problem of Long URLs in SharePoint By default, SharePoint sites generate lengthy and complex URLs for pages, documents, and other items stored in SharePoint libraries. These excessively long default URLs can negatively impact the performance and user experience of SharePoint sites in several ways: Long URLs exceed the browser’s maximum recommended URL length, causing…
What are URL Rewrites and Why Use Them? URL rewriting is the process of modifying request URLs on the fly before they are processed by the server. Rewrites create an abstraction layer between the resource’s physical location and the URL used to access it. This allows the underlying resource to change locations without affecting the…
The Problem: SharePoint’s Out-of-the-Box URL Structure SharePoint sites come with default URL structures that are long, convoluted, and not very user or search engine friendly. For example, a typical page URL might look like “http://sharepoint.company.com/sites/division/subsite/Lists/Announcements/AllItems.aspx”. This creates a poor user experience having to navigate and reference long, complex URLs. Additionally, the default URLs do not…
Upgrading SharePoint Environments As companies increasingly rely on SharePoint sites, libraries, and lists to manage content and power collaboration, they eventually reach a crossroads where the legacy SharePoint deployment lags behind business needs. Upgrading to a modern SharePoint infrastructure can provide greater scalability, improved compliance and security, better integration with Office 365, and an enhanced…
Identifying Performance Bottlenecks Pinpointing performance bottlenecks is a critical first step when troubleshooting SharePoint farms under heavy load. Monitoring tools provide visibility into which components are under stress by tracking metrics like request rates, response times, CPU and memory usage. Analyzing usage patterns, load tests and scaling user simulations determine where scaling is needed. Robust…
Understanding SharePoint Security Risks in the Cloud As organizations move their SharePoint environments to the cloud, they expose their data to new threats. Cloud-based SharePoint instances face risks including data breaches, compromised accounts, denial-of-service attacks, misconfigured storage, and vulnerabilities stemming from the multi-tenant nature of cloud platforms. Data breaches remain one of the most significant…
Core Components of a SharePoint Farm A SharePoint farm refers to the group of servers and services that make up a SharePoint deployment. The core components of a farm include: Web Front-Ends The web front-end servers host the components that render the SharePoint site pages. This includes Internet Information Services (IIS), the ASP.NET runtime, and…