Working with Registration Receivers in Extranet Collaboration Manager ExCM 2010 – Part 1 – The “SPUser” Receiver

By Matthew McBride

Extranet Collaboration Manager (ExCM) 2010 contains a framework called Registration Receivers that can be used to inject custom programming activities into the ExCM registration pipeline. In Part 1 of this series, I will discuss the “SPUser” receiver.

Registration Receivers are configured at the web.config level, so they are global to the Web Application on which they are configured. By default, we provide two different receiver examples:

Activating and Configuring the Extranet Collaboration Manager (ExCM) 2010 Feature Using PowerShell

by Matthew McBride

Extranet Collaboration Manager (ExCM) 2010 is activated at the Site Collection level. This is easily done in the Site Settings area of the User Interface (UI) for a single site:

But what if you were running ExCM on multiple Site Collections? Since it is licensed at the Web Frond End (WFE) level, you can install ExCM on as many Site Collections as you want. It would be very time consuming to go to each site, activate the feature, and then configure it. In a scenario like this, you can save time by using PowerShell to activate ExCM on each site and also setting some options (such as registration fields) at the global level in the web.config file. In addition, by using one of our custom scripts for ExCM we can activate Invitation Registrations and set their expiration length.

Configuring Forms Based Authentication in SharePoint 2013

by Matthew McBride

April 2016 Update:  This article explains all of the manual configuration steps you would work through for setting up Forms Based Authentication for a web application in SharePoint 2013 (primarily for an extranet, but would be similar for an intranet).    

For an extranet web application, a new automated solution is now available as well - the Extranet Setup Wizard of Extranet Collaboration Manager 2013 R2.

In this article, I will give a step-by-step walk through of the process for configuring SharePoint Forms Based Authentication “out of the box” without an add-on such as Extranet Collaboration Manager (ExCM). Doing this will allow us to see both the similarities and differences between SharePoint 2010 and 2013 as well as highlight the limitations of a “basic” SharePoint FBA web application that can be overcome with a professional-grade add-on like ExCM.

Unable to Sign Out of a Site that is not “Shared” to you in SharePoint 2013

by Matthew McBride

In my early testing of SharePoint 2013, I ran across an extremely annoying “bug.” If you attempt to log into a site that has not been “shared” to you by a Site Collection Administrator (SCA), you receive the following error message:

(Click on pictures for expanded view)

Customizing the Sign-in Page in Extranet Collaboration Manager for SharePoint 2010 (ExCM)

By Matthew McBride

One of the more common questions we receive about Extranet Collaboration Manager is how to change the wording on the Sign In page for using Windows Authentication:

Secret Sauce or Special Sauce?

by Randy Moody

A couple of weeks ago the McDonald’s fast food chain, purportedly in response to a question from a curious customer, revealed the recipe for the “special sauce” in its double-decker Big Mac hamburger in a You Tube video done by its executive chef. The revelation became a media event, which, I’m sure, is a big part of why it was done. The recipe was interesting, to be sure, but the biggest surprise for me was this:

McDonald’s has an executive chef?  Really?