Nevron Charts for SharePoint : an alternative to Dundas

Way back, I had written a post about Dundas Charts in SharePoint 2010, after Microsoft obtained licensing rights for the web part and added a lightweight version of the web part out of the box in SharePoint 2010.

I recently came across a project that required a charting component, and after seeing their ad in the msdn magazine, found Nevron Charts for SharePoint. They were reminiscent of Dundas charts, and after using their evaluation version, I decided to buy their license.

Here are few key differences between the two:

- Nevron is a good product with pretty much the same capabilities as Dundas. Some capabilities are difficult to figure out, require some research and their knowledge Base and Customer Support is not as good as Dundas.

- The product is not as easy to configure as Dundas but the price point is much lower than Dundas Charts, and I think it is really good value for the price point.

- If you know Javascript well then it might be easier to do dynamic charts accepting parameters from other custom web parts. For example, you need to pass a Drop Down list selection to a chart as a parameter.

- If you want to load a simple Sharepoint list or a data from a predefined database using stored procs, with some basic sorting and filtering, you will not have to struggle much, but, as the requirements start getting more complex, it will be harder to figure things out from their knowledge base.

- Just like Dundas, Nevron charts interactive capabilities such as 3-d, dynamic themes, Mouse overs, Dynamic Chart Titles, Drill Downs are pretty good.

iPad Safari access of a SharePoint 2010 Web Application

As a continuation of my previous blog post located here, I would like to explain further progress made in the investigation of accessing a SharePoint 2010 Web Application using the iPad Safari browser.

We have found that exposing a SharePoint 2010 Web Application using Claims based Authentication and turning on Integrated Windows Authentication does seem to improve the user experience significantly, in fact, it is pretty close to a seamless experience.

The reason I say "almost" is because the first time the site is brought up on Safari we experienced difficulty bringing up the site, but  upon doing the same  the second time ( we are still trying to research the exact reason), the site came up fine. The user experience is find after that, even after I cleared  cookies on the iPad.

I have to say, if you have no option but to Windows Authentication, then this is the best experience I have seen so far on iPad Safari. If you have other options, then using the ASP.NET Sql Membership and Role Providers will provide the best user experience on an iPad. And if you want to test the experience without doing putting any effort, simply create an Office 365 test account, and test the SharePoint Online site on iPad Safari.

Single Sign-on: Just like your on-premise SharePoint installation allows pass through for NTLM and Integrated Windows Authentication Sites, how would you turn on Single Sign-on on an iPad? If you organization uses some form of Mobile VPNsolution, that could be the answer. Or, The answer lies in your Corporate Identity Management strategy. Here ins potential solution: If your identity Management solution supports SAML, you could enable single-sign on by making the SharePoint 2010 Claims aware Web Application use that Identity Provider (IDP) as a trusted identity provider, as shown in the screenshot below:

(the names of the provider have been erased in the screenshot due to confidentiality reasons)

However, Mobility remains a challenge with SharePoint On-Premise installations, at least up until the SharePoint 2010 Release. I am not sure if the issues have been resolved for Windows Authentication Sites using the SharePoint 2013 Platform. Will be testing further and blogging my findings.