Groove Pinboard tool (Groove 3.1)

[Liam Southwood]

G'day Forum,

I have been using the Groove pinboard tool since its pre-Groove Cabezal
incarnation (hello Hugh!).

A colleague of mine has recently upgraded his laptop and when he went to
share his (many) workspaces with his new machine the Pinboard tool would not
load from Groove/Microsoft's servers.

If he goes to create a new space the tool is not available to him as part of
the standard set (I thought it was before) and not available on Groove.net.
If I invite him to a new space after adding the Pinboard he just gets an
installation error.

Does anyone have any experience of this sort of behaviour and is there any
recommended course of action?

Your help is appreciated.

LRS

 

[Mason]

Hi,

If he upgrade Groove 3.1 to Groove 2007, there're some restrictions he
should pay attentiong to.

Office Groove 12 users will only be able to create Office 12 workspaces. If
an Office 12 user invites a pre-Office 12 user to a workspace, the pre-Office
12 user will need to upgrade to Office 12 before they can accept the
invitation and participate in the workspace. Office Groove 12 users will be
able to accept invitations to all previous workspace versions and will
continue to be able to participate in existing workspaces from previous
versions of Groove.

Office Groove 12 users will only be able to add Office 12 tools into
workspaces. Office Groove 12 users will be able to use previous versions of
tools, but will only be able to add tools into Office 12 workspaces.

If you need to create new workspaces to be used with Groove 3.x users, ask
the Groove 3.x users to create the workspace and invite you.

 

[Liam Southwood]

Mason,

Thanks for the reply. As far as I am aware this is purely a Groove 3.1
issue. There is no install of Office 12 to factor in to the query.

I will bear the points you have made in mind though.

Regards,

LRS

 

[iainlow]

Hi Liam,

I'm just adding my name to the question, because I have the same question. I
started with groove 1 point something, and the Pinboard Tool was one of the
first beta addon tools at that time (2000).

I introduced Groove to the University I worked in at the time, to test out
its capabilities for use with a Project we were running across 4 other
Universities. I set up Groove for everyone, and designed the space. By
setting the Pinboard Tool as the page to open Groove, everyone got the little
sticky notes (including links etc) immediately, pointing out the changes to
note, or anything else of interest.

I'm just now returning to Groove to demonstrate to another large Porject
group that Groove is the application to keep it together, so I'm a bit out of
touch.

I just downloaded the free trial version to demonstrate it, but no Pinboard
Tool - my favourite. So what happened to it along the way?

Iain Low

 

[Liam Southwood]

Welcome to the thread Iain.

I also have been using Groove since the early beta days and Pinboard is the
lynchpin in all my spaces. It has worked fine for me until this install for
this one user - I suspect that some registry jiggery-pokery will be
required...just need some pointers from someone.

In your case I suspect that Pinboard might have been dropped as part of the
"improvements" made to the Office 12 release of Groove...OneNote anyone?

I am trying to get along with my good old version 3.1 spaces for now and
would appreciate input from any quarter. Unfortunately for us Pinboard's
creator went walkabout two days ago and isn't expected back any time soon.

 

[iainlow]

Hi Liam,

No, I didn't make myself clear - I didn't download the Office Groove 2007
Beta version trial, just the old 3.1 60 day trial version. No pinboard tool.

Actually, I used Groove continuously from 2000 till 2003, and, as it went
through the versions, and the "beta" tools became mature, they gradually
disappeared from the list, and I was invited to purchase them from whoever
wrote them.

Actually, it's interesting to note that Microsoft is now running these
forums, along with everything else. I remember posting to the old forums
years ago, about the tools which ought to be part of the core program. I also
watched the whole thing become more and more expensive. Still, it's now a
fully fledged Project Management tool, so it fits right in with Microsoft's
product range.

I keep directing people to Groove because it does what it does very well,
but, ironically, I don't work collaboratively often enough myself to be able
to justify the cost of a decent licence. It's a bit like being a telephone
salesman in a country where no-one has a telephone, and having to describe
its use, when nobody else has one yet.

So, did you "carry over" the pinboard tool from version to version, as you
updated Groove, or has it only just become unavailable in the standard 3.1
download?

Iain

 

[iainlow]

Hi again,

Just to provide some sort of closure on this (from my point of view), here's
what I did.

I found an archived groove template file, which I had already made a long
time ago, with the Pinboard Tool in it.

I made a new space with it, and the tool installed perfectly well from the
Cabezal website.

I invited a friend into the space, and the Pinboard Tool installed perfectly
on his computer too.

So, although you've denied the presence of anything useful on the Cabezal
site, Mr Pyle, please don't plug this (loop)hole. It's still very useful.

I'm not sure why the OP's colleague was unable to install the tool from the
server in the first place. It worked fine for me.

I hope this helps,

Iain

 

[Liam Southwood]

Hello group.

I have an update on the pinboard tool install...Problem solved!

It all came down to http content-type restrictions on our firewall.

gnnn! (...and breathe out...)

Liam

 

[Hugh Pyle [MSFT]]

Right, that process will work for V3.1 users. It won't work at all in
Groove2007, though (sorry!)

--
Hugh Pyle / Program Manager / Microsoft Office Groove
http://blogs.msdn.com/hughpyle/

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.


in message

 

[iainlow]

Thanks for the input Hugh,

Since my last post I've downloaded the 2007 version (not to mention the
additional "Technical Refresh" - phew!). I unistalled 3.1 first, but kept my
old settings.

When the install was done I was asked to upgrade my account, which I did,
and when the dust settled, I had the new version complete with my old space.
When I opened the space I was told the PinBoard Tool wasn't installed, and
asked if I wanted to install it, so I said ok, and it was all downloaded and
installed into 2007 from your Cabezal site, just as before.

I can now create new spaces in 2007 using my "PinBoard" space as a template.

So the upgrade path would seem to be, before you uninstall the old version
of 3.1, make sure you have created a space with the PinBoard Tool, and take
it with you.

Or not?

Iain

 

[iainlow]

Well - I found the limitation of my little trial and error attempt to get the
PinBoard Tool into 2007. In my last post I stated how I wa able to "import"
it along with a 3.1 space / template when upgrading. Now I can create spaces
quite happliy with the PinBoard Tool in.

However, when I invite someone into a 2007 space created from a 3.1
template, they get the message that it cannot be imprted because the space
was created in an older version. Not strictly true, because the space was
created in 2007, but of course it wsa created using an old "template". Still,
it won't happen. I've not tried to see what would happen if the person I
invited were to upgrade in the same way I did, taking his 3.1 space (with the
tool) with him.

In any case, it's been an interesting trial, but nothing should be this hard
to do, so I'll give it up now.

The questions remain, however.

1. Why no PinBoard Tool in 2007, anyway?
2. Since 2007 obviously accepts and uses the tool in my spaces quite
happily, why on earth has the decision been taken to block spaces with this
older tool, from being shared?

There's obviously no technical problem with running the tool in 2007, so it
can only be an "executive decision"

Right, now to get some work done, and send messages to workspace members
when an alert is required

Iain

 

[Hugh Pyle [MSFT]]

The questions remain, however.

1. Why no PinBoard Tool in 2007, anyway?

It was never supported anyway since the "beta, January 2001" build
(http://cabezal.com/Products/PinBoard/). Which is quite a long time ago.
And...

2. Since 2007 obviously accepts and uses the tool in my spaces quite
happily, why on earth has the decision been taken to block spaces with
this
older tool, from being shared?

Groove2007 (in the final release, not sure which beta build this kicks in
with) won't allow injection of any tools.