David M. Sterling - CEO, Author, Architect, SharePoint SME

Where is that darn Disk Cleanup in Windows 2008?

2012-01-19T15:22:00.000-08:00

Like most Windows folks, you are likely familiar with the good old 'Disk Cleanup' feature for Windows but you may have noticed, in Windows 2008 (and R2) it is nowhere to be found.
Alas, it simply is not installed by default - to install it, you need to add a Windows Feature (via Server Manager) and add Desktop Experience. Enable that (it will require the 'Ink' feature as well) and reboot. However, it won't show up as a friendly icon - to access it, open a new command window (run as Administrator) and enter cleanmgr.exe then hit return.

FYI: Why would you do this? Well W2008 hides most of the files it uses for updates, etc. and they cannot be deleted. This means you end up with a lot of junk on the server no matter how much you try to clean up. Case in point: Last SharePoint server I cleaned up - 3.6GB of junk removed BTW - if you are worried about overhead, particularly with SharePoint - worry not! It has to be enabled for PowerPoint libraries to work anyway (that's another post here)!

Problems with SharePoint Feature Deployments with SQL Deadlock, Dispose errors

2012-01-13T05:53:00.000-08:00

Ran across this problem with a client. A seemingly good feature deployment that had been working for several months ran into a snag. On a full retract/delete then re-deploy, the process suddenly started getting SQL Deadlock errors, SPUsage errors and even SPDispose errors. Odd thing: deployment failed in different spots with these different errors so no common thread.

Code checked out with the SP Dispose checker (and visually), all looked OK. Checked the environment and verified that a) sites could be created fine, b) empty feature deployed fine and c) a third party (Bamboo's Hello) web part also deployed OK.

In reviewing the logs, I noticed that after an IIS Reset, the Application Event log showed Event ID 1511 for the application pool accounts.This error indicates that the accounts (in this case there were three applications with three accounts) that a Windows Profile could not be found so a temporary one being created.

So after much review, it turns out that the deployment problem was due this error - when the installation part of the deployment completed and IIS is reset, the attempt to activate the features (there were several) fails because the Application Pool account has a different profile. After creating a profile for each of these accounts, viola! Ran through no problem.

A quick fix to create a Windows Profile is to simply add the Application Pool account to the local administrators group, login to the server with that account (this creates the profile) then logout and remove it from the Local Administrators group.

For the another method, see this link:

http://blog.brainlitter.com/2010/06/08/how-to-resolve-event-id-1511windows-cannot-find-the-local-profile-on-windows-server-2008/

Users Prompted to Login on first access to SharePoint Site

2011-11-04T09:24:00.000-07:00

Had an interesting problem at a client site (client actually found the fix) - the problem was users would be prompted for credentials when first accessing the SharePoint site; once logged in, there was no issue. Turns out this is a CLIENT machine problem with Internet Explorer; the fix below uses a registry change to fix it.

Note: make a backup of your registry file before making any change!

1. Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters

3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Multi-String Value.

4. Type AuthForwardServerList, and then press ENTER.

5. On the Edit menu, click Modify.

6. In the Value data box, type the URL of the server that hosts the Web share, and then click OK.

7. Exit Registry Editor.

SharePoint Indexing Performance Tuning Tips

2011-10-21T06:12:00.000-07:00

SharePoint Indexing Performance Tuning Tips

There are many factors involved in the SharePoint crawling process that can impact indexing performance. There are also some steps you can take to improve that. Here are the common causes and their resolution:

Indexing Performace is set at reduced - common mistake on the configuration screen for the index service. See Central Administration > Operations > Services on Server > Office SharePoint Server Search Service Settings and set to Maximum.
Number of Connections - by default the indexer will run a limited number of simultaneous threads (6 usually) per host. This can be increased manually by adding specific Crawler Impact Rules for each host. You can really improve speed by setting a large file server up to 64 connections. This number is just a suggestion btw to SharePoint, it also looks at other factors like the number of processors (8 * #procs). And also watch your network for bottlenecks and those pesky RPC errors you may get in your logs (dial it back of you see those)
Crawled systems are slow or hosted on remote networks. - not a lot to be done here, except by moving those files closer.
Overlapping Crawls - SharePoint gives priority to the first running crawl so that if you already are indexing one system it will hold up the indexing of a second and increase crawl times.
- Solution: Schedule your crawl times so there is no overlap. Full crawls will take the longest so run those exclusively.
IFilter Issues - the Adobe PDF IFilter can only filter one file at a time and that will slow crawls down, and has a high reject rate for new PDFs
- Solution: Use a retail PDF filter from pdflib.com or Foxit
Not enought Memory Allocated to Filter Process - an aspect of the crawling process is then the filtering deamons use up to much memory (mssdmn.exe) they get automatically terminated and restarted. There is of course a windup time when this happend and can slow down your crawling. The current default setting is pretty low (around 100M) so is easy to trip when filter large files. You can and should increase the memory allocation by adjusting the following registry keys
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0\Search\Global\Gathering Manager: set DedicatedFilterProcessMemoryQuota = 200000000 Decimal
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0\Search\Global\Gathering Manager: set FilterProcessMemoryQuota = 200000000 Decimal
Bad File Retries - there is a setting in the registry that controls the number of times a file is retried on error. This will severly slow down incremental crawls as the default is 100. This retry count can be adjust by this key:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0\Search\Global\Gathering Manager: set DeleteOnErrorInterval = 4 Decimal
General Architecture Issues - Ensure that you have at least 2 Gig of free memory available before your crawl even starts and that you have at least 2 real processors available.
Disk Health - the nature of the indexing process causes extensive fragmentation of the file system for both the index server and the database server. Schedule defrags routinely and after all full crawls. Ensure you have enough diskspace always.
Run 64 bit OS - school is still out on this one, i personally haven't seen much difference as long as there is enough memory and the same processor types, but MS recommends this for large deployments.
Proper SQL Server configuration (new) - For large (>5 Million) item indexing you will need to plan ahead for the correct SQL Server configuration in order to scale to these numbers. There is one table in particular that grows at 40x the number of items and can severely hinder peformance if you do not treat your SQL Environment like a very large data wharehouse. Here are my recommendations based on experience:

1.       Raid 10 Direct Attached Storage Only – minimum 4 arrays – 16 disks
2.       Multiple File Groups- pre-allocate all database files and partition on dedicated separate arrays and assign 1-1 for:
a.       Indexes for SharedServices1_search db
b.      Temp and system databases/tables
c.       transaction log for SharedServices1_search db
d.      Table content for SharedServices1_search
                                       i.            For every 5 million items have additional file from dedicated drive in dedicated file group. Content and load is spread across and will improve performance
   3. When intially crawling, be sure to pause your crawls every day or so and rebuild/reorg the indexes on the SharedSevice1_search_db database (especially the indexes on MSSDocProps table)
NEW FROM MS: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc298801.aspx Whitepaper on just this topic!!!!

NOTE: It is a good idea to open up perfmon and look at the gatherer stats while indexing. There is a statistic called Performance Level and this reflects the actual level that the indexer is running at where 5 is max and 3 is reduced. Even if you set everything to max the indexer may decide to run at reduced anyways based an some unknown factors.

This is a good read too: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262574.aspx (Estimate performance and capacity requirements for search environments)
Addendum (7/28/2009)
Here is another good read from MS (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc850696.aspx (Best practices for Search in Office SharePoint Server)

Prevent Right Click on a SharePoint page...

2011-10-06T14:45:00.000-07:00

Had a few clients ask for this - found a few answers but here is the fastest/most reliable methods:

Add a content editor part (or modify the Master Page) to inlcude:

     <body oncontextmenu= "return false;">
     Right Click not allowed on this page
     </body>

The form cannot be rendered trying to publish a SharePoint Page

2011-09-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

So you have you SP Site up and running - go to publish a new page and get this error:

“The form cannot be rendered. This may be due to a misconfiguration of the Microsoft SharePoint Server State Service. For more information, contact your server administrator.”

If you do this from the Pages/Site Pages Library, you'll find that it does indeed check-in the page and start the approval workflow (simply refresh the page and you'll see the status goes to 'pending'). You can then override the Approval process.

ONE CAUSE for this is when the SharePoint State Service isn't running which just means it wasn't set up during the installation (or it was installed using the Configuration Wizard and setup wasn't finished).

You can correct this using the SharePoint Management PowerShell with some pre-requisites:
1) You have to be logged in as the SharePoint Farm account
2) The account you are using must have Shell Administrative Access
3) You have to have SP_Shell access set in the SQL Server Database(s)
4) The account you are using has DB Create permission and has a mapping to the Master database

Open the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell via Start > All Programs > SharePoint (be sure to run as an Administrator!).

Make sure the account you are using has Shell Admin access:

Shell> Add-SPShellAdmin -username domain\account

Once the shell is open, create a new Service Application by typing in:

Shell> $SPStateSvc = New-SPStateServiceApplication -Name “SP State Service”

NOTE If you get an error that says the name is not unique, the state service was already created (so this won't fix your publishing problem).

Next create a State Service database for the new Service Application by entering:

Shell> New-SPStateServiceDatabase -Name ”StateServiceDB” -ServiceApplication $SPStateSvc

Last, create an Application Proxy for the Service:

Shell> New-SPStateServiceApplicationProxy -Name ”SP State Service” -ServiceApplication $SPStateSvc -DefaultProxyGroup

Run an IISReset (as an Administrator) and try again!!

Getting Ripped off on SharePoint Expertise

2011-09-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

I’ve seen it all – or at least I thought. Over the past two weeks alone, I’ve had two new clients come to us to ask us about SharePoint installations. As typical, we offered a quick review of the farm setup, sites, etc. and what we found was shocking.

In both cases, the firms that setup the installations a) used the “SharePoint Wizard” to deploy the farm (which does not work) and b) installed Enterprise deployed the primary site as a SharePoint Team Site (i.e. foundation site), thus cutting out more than half of the features. Unfortunately for both, our corrections have required a complete redeployment – lost time, lost money, lost effort. Sad but true. We often say, pay us now or pay us to fix it later but that’s for another day.

In both cases, the organizations didn’t have any in-house knowledge of SharePoint so were taking their respective ‘consultants’ at their word. Now as much as I’d like to take these ‘consultants’ out into the parking lot for a little chat….

Update: Now three - incredible?

So how do you avoid getting burned?

Alas, there is no magic method but there are a few key questions for any firm:

1) How many actual installations of SharePoint

2) What size of user base (does it match yours?)

3) What kind of farms have they deployed (intranet, internet, extranet, etc.)

4) How long have they been working with SharePoint (i.e. first client)

There are also three more checks you can do:

Check 1: Look for red flags in their background or CV/Resume of the ‘expert’; a few ‘red flags’ include:

1) Listing ‘creating sites’ as a SharePoint skill

2) Enabled/Disabled Features

3) Created SharePoint Groups

4) Created custom SharePoint Lists

5) Created Site Content Types

6) Managed backup and restore

All of the above are user interface activities – they are not ‘SharePoint Skills’ at the consultant level.

Check 2: Ask a few questions (whether you know the answer or not, you can gauge their knowledge level in how they respond) – these include:

1) Can they explain their experience with the Enterprise Content Model of SharePoint?

2) Can they explain master pages and page layouts and how they fit together?

3) Can they explain the differences between Foundation, Server and Enterprise?

4) Can they explain the differences between the site types?

5) Can they explain when to use the Wizard and when not to?

6) Can they explain what is gained by enabling Publishing in a Foundation site?

7) Can they explain the difference between Classic and Claims Based Authentication?

Check 3: Explore their background in terms of what you need:

1) Have they done end-to-end deployments or just portions?

2) Have they deployed for a similar type firm or type of usage expected?

3) Have they done any design work within SharePoint such as Branding?

4) Have they trained anyone in the use of SharePoint and at what level – developer, administrator or end-user?

5) Can they produce any samples (Screen shots or on-line if possible though on-line difficult for intranets)?

Hopefully the above will help you find the right consultant or firm to help if your organization is looking to deploy SharePoint.

One last suggestion, regardless of which consultant or firm you hire, you should find an independent/3^rd party firm that has a known track record to provide you an audit – not to sell anything but simply to double check the work (1 hour or less).

Of course, SICG provides auditing services to address and help you avoid this kind of problem. As a non-invasive review installation/deployment, we make sure you got what you paid for before you sign off.

SharePoint Search Center missing controls

2011-08-31T10:07:00.000-07:00

Soonor or later you will come across this issue - you have a custom styled master page, apply it to the site and all is well. You decide to use the Enterprise Search Center and viola - no search controls!

There are a number of articles on this but found one of particular use:

http://www.sharepointblues.com/2010/10/14/search-center-and-the-lost-search-box/comment-page-1/#comment-75506

While his solution is great, I usually have to add a custom style to fix the left side of the page:

  #s4-leftpanel {
   display: none !important;
  }

  #MSO_ContentTable {
   margin-left: 0 !important;
  }
This prevents the page from displaying a little box on the left (where the QuickLaunch would be).

SharePoint Logout with UAG

2011-08-23T23:16:00.000-07:00

Unified Access Gateway (UAG) and SharePoint Logout

If you are working with UAG and SharePoint, you might find that there are some oddities in the Log out process. Specifically, you might see some of the following symptoms:

· Trying to Login as a Different user displays a ‘not found’ UAG page

· Logout of SharePoint leaves user logged in to UAG

· Logout of SharePoint leaves user logged in to SharePoint

· Logout redirects to a bad page

Note: This has also been found to be an issue using ISA and Forefront.

There are a few ways to deal with the issue but bear in mind, that you must use the SharePoint logout process to ensure that users are indeed logged out. You can use a combination of the following solutions to customize a way to deal with it on your site.

The Menu:

The first issue you have to deal with is the menu; that is the menu where users can either logout or login as a different user. This is a control that can be located under c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\Template\ControlTemplates\Welcome.ascx. You can edit this file directly (make a backup first) or you can create a feature to overlay this file in a SharePoint farm so that you do not have to worry about keeping the servers in sync (see below).

Within this control, you have a few options:

1) You can simply delete the ‘login as a different user’ option – this section of code looks like this:

<SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate runat="server" id="ID_LoginAsDifferentUser"

Text="<%$Resources:wss,personalactions_loginasdifferentuser%>"

Description="<%$Resources:wss,personalactions_loginasdifferentuserdescription%>"

MenuGroupId="200"

Sequence="100"

UseShortId="true"

2) You can add your own menu option to send the user to a different page for that option and use the same method to replace the Logout:

<Sharepoint:MenuItemTemplate runat="server" id="ID_OverrideLogout" Text="Custom Logout" ClientOnClickNavigateUrl="/_layouts/CustomPages/CustomSignout.aspx"

Description="My Custom Logout"

MenuGroupId="200"

Sequence="100"

UseShortId="true" />

3) You can remove both options completely and a) replace it with your own custom link or b) integrate a logout button in your Master Page.

Creating a Welcome replacement feature:

The easiest way to deploy your custom welcome control is to create a simple feature that copies the file into a custom folder under CONTROLTEMPLATES as well as deploy a new master page that has the control path adjusted:

<%@ Register TagPrefix="wssuc" TagName="Welcome" src="~/_controltemplates/Welcome.ascx" %>

<%@ Register TagPrefix="wssuc" TagName="Welcome" src="~/_controltemplates/CustomFolder/Welcome.ascx" %>

Developing this as a feature is absolutely necessary if you intend to have multiple sites and do not what to have this change apply to all of them. This takes a bit more work that here; rather than duplicate, you can see the post on this here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-IE/sharepointcustomization/thread/a68f3a95-8f90-41c6-b63a-c40dfdbf5cef

NOTE: DO NOT attempt to overwrite the original Welcome.ascx file using a feature (this is possible since the Control Templates folder can be selected) since it will erase the original file. The problem is that you cannot copy or backup the file via the feature and when the feature is removed, the ASCX file will be removed with it.

The Custom Logout Page:

To ensure the user is logged out properly, it is necessary to run the SharePoint controls that kill the cookie, etc. This is easily done by making a copy of the signout.aspx file located in c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\Template\Layouts\.

In that same folder, you should create a new folder called CustomPages – this is where the custom logout page should be placed. In this way, you can always reference the file with the relative URL of /_layouts/CustomPages.

The Custom Logout page looks like this (Notice the JavaScript section – this determines the type of browser and attempts to clear the user’s authentication. At the end if redirects to a new page using window.location. The URL is whatever page the user should go to once logged out, typically a site that has anonymous access.):

<%@ Assembly Name="Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationPages, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c"%> <%@ Page Language="C#" Inherits="Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationPages.SignOutPage" MasterPageFile="~/_layouts/simple.master" %> <%@ Import Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationPages" %> <%@ Register Tagprefix="SharePoint" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %> <%@ Register Tagprefix="Utilities" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %> <%@ Import Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint" %> <%@ Assembly Name="Microsoft.Web.CommandUI, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderPageTitle" runat="server">

<SharePoint:EncodedLiteral runat="server" text="<%$Resources:wss,signout_pagetitle%>" EncodeMethod='HtmlEncode'/>

</asp:Content>

<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderPageTitleInTitleArea" runat="server">

<SharePoint:EncodedLiteral runat="server" text="<%$Resources:wss,signout_pagetitle%>" EncodeMethod='HtmlEncode'/>

</asp:Content>

<asp:content contentplaceholderid="PlaceHolderAdditionalPageHead" runat="server">

window.location = "http://www.myUAGAnonPage.com";

</script>

</asp:Content>

<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderMain" runat="server">

<asp:Label id="lbPageDescription" Text="<%$Resources:wss,signout_pagedescription%>" runat="server"/>

</asp:Content>

Creating the Custom Logout URL Feature:

Depending on your environment or governance, you may not be able to alter SharePoint’s default files so you can get around this using a feature.

Step 1:

Create a new Empty SharePoint project in Visual Studio called ChangeURLSignoutFeature (you can call it whatever you like if you don’t like that name).

Step 2:

When prompted, select the site you wish to deploy to and leave the Sandbox Solution selected (do not deploy as a farm solution!) and click Finish.

Step 3:

When the project opens, right click on the Features folder and from the menu, select Add Feature. When the feature is created it will have the default name of “Feature1”, rename it to ChgSOURLFeature (again, you can use a different name if desired) then update the feature title and description.

Step 4:

Right click on the Feature and select Add Event Receiver. This will create an empty event handler (code commented out) using the same name as the feature itself.

Step 5:

Code the Event Handler with the following – this will be triggered on Activate and Deactivate of the feature:

using System;

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

using System.Security.Permissions;

using Microsoft.SharePoint;

using Microsoft.SharePoint.Security;

using Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration;

namespace ChangeSignoutURLFeature.Features.ChgSOUrlFeature

{

/// <summary>

/// This class handles events raised during feature activation, deactivation, installation, uninstallation, and upgrade.

/// </summary>

/// <remarks>

/// The GUID attached to this class may be used during packaging and should not be modified.

/// </remarks>

[Guid("06daf238-b118-4a5c-aa2c-f9001edcdf2f")]

public class ChgSOUrlFeatureEventReceiver : SPFeatureReceiver

{

// Set page on Activate:

public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)

{

SPSite featureSite = (SPSite)properties.Feature.Parent;

SPWebApplication webApp = featureSite.WebApplication;

if (webApp != null)

{

if (!webApp.UpdateMappedPage(SPWebApplication.SPCustomPage.Signout, "/_layouts/CustomPages/CustomSignout.aspx"))

{

throw new SPException("Unable to update the custom signout page");

}

webApp.Update();

}

// Reset to default on Deactivate:

public override void FeatureDeactivating(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)

{

SPSite featureSite = (SPSite)properties.Feature.Parent;

SPWebApplication webApp = featureSite.WebApplication;

if (webApp != null)

{

if (!webApp.UpdateMappedPage(SPWebApplication.SPCustomPage.Signout, null))

{

throw new SPException("Could not restore default signout page");

}

webApp.Update();

}

Compile the project and assuming all is well with the compile, try deploying it to your site. If you do this from Visual Studio, it will automatically activate. If you use the WSP to install (as you would in a production site) using the STSADM –o AddSolution command, you must navigate to the site, select Site Actions > Site Settings then click Site Features. When the list of features opens, you can activate the feature.

You can then try the logout to verify it is running your custom page.

That’s all there is to it!!!

Visual Studio 2010 Project Error AssemblyInfo.cs could not be opened

2011-07-22T16:58:00.000-07:00

Discovered this from a client site source code review...

So you open a project in Visual Studio 2010 and get an odd error:

Source file '<Project Location>\Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs' could not be opened ('Unspecified error ')

What this means is that the AssemblyInfo.cs file is either missing from the Properties folder in the project or there is a permissions issue. If permissions, update the ACL (File > Properties > Security), close and re-open the project. If missing altogether, you just need to recreate it using the following steps:

Within Visual Studio 2010, select Tools > Create GUID
Click Copy (or New GUID then Copy)
Click Exit
Expand the Properties folder in the Solution Explorer (Control + W, S to open)
Delete the AssemblyInfo.cs file shown with the exclaimation point
Double click on the Properties folder - this should open the Properties window
On the Application Tab, click the Application Information... button
Fill in the application information, paste the GUID you copied into the GUID field - when done click OK

Viola - problem solved...

One FYI - if the project requires a specific GUID, you can set it - if not known, you have no choice but to create one.

Annoyances in PowerShell

2011-07-15T10:09:00.000-07:00

So you are trying to run a PowerShell and keep getting:

Suggestion [3,General]: The command <script file> was not found, but does exist in the current location. Windows PowerShell doesn't load commands from the current location by default. If you trust this command, instead type ".\<script>.ps1". See "get-help about_Command_Precedence" for more details.

This generic error is pretty much what you will see for anything, even if the file does not exist. One of my clients was trying to run Invoke-AlertFixup in SharePoint and kept getting this error even when correctly opening it as:

.\<script>.ps1

The fix is quite simple - simply enter:

$env:PATH = $env:PATH + "."

then enter the .\<script>.ps1 - Viola!

Borders on images in the Summary Links Part SharePoint 2010

2011-07-13T07:04:00.000-07:00

A first, a client recently reported having difficulties with a Border showing up around images when using the SharePoint 2010 Summary Links part. Thinking it was something quick, we tried adding a style update to the master, the page layout and even tried the content editor part with no luck. I did some digging around and finally found the 'correct' answer from a post by Amit Kumar. The real reason for this problem is that the XSL for this part is rendered separately as a server side control; by the time the page is rendered and styles kick in it is too late. It does appear that it has to do with IE8/IE9 settings somehwere - not all users experience the problem.

The fix is quite simple - open the Site in SharePoint Designer, open the Style Library then the XSL Style Sheets folder and edit the SummaryLinkMain.xsl style sheet. Search for 'presense-status-icon' and you'll find the style as follows:

<span class="presence-status-icon">
<img src="/_layouts/images/imnhdr.gif" onload="{concat($prefix, @SipAddress, $suffix)}" ShowOfflinePawn="1" id="{concat('MWP_pawn_',$slw_clientid,'_',$id,',type=sip')}"/>
</span>

Now modify the <img tag and add 'border="0"' as follows:

<span class="presence-status-icon">
<img src="/_layouts/images/imnhdr.gif" border="0" onload="{concat($prefix, @SipAddress, $suffix)}" ShowOfflinePawn="1" id="{concat('MWP_pawn_',$slw_clientid,'_',$id,',type=sip')}"/>
</span>
Save and check in (very important) the file and you should be good to go. Note that you 'might' have to run an IIS reset and/or dump IE cache.

Fastest way to create a custom ListDefinition 2010

2011-07-11T22:29:00.000-07:00

As we all know, it can be a real pain to code out a custom list definition in SharePoint. Sure, not complicated but sheesh - enough with the typing!

Anyway, quick tip on getting the proper Schema information when you want to create a list. Create the majority of the list in SharePoint (views, etc. too). When done, you can use the following:

http://<Site URL>/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?Cmd=ExportList&List=<ListGUID>

Note that if you navigate to a list and go to list settings, the "List=GUID" is there for you to copy.

The benefit of this method is that the Schema for the list is 'complete' and has all views, references to existing site columns, etc.

SharePoint 2010 ListDefintion Edit Fails with "Object reference not set"

2011-07-08T13:22:00.000-07:00

So you create a new custom List Defintion in SharePoint 2010 - deploy it to the site and it creates fine. You even add an item and works but then you go to edit it and you get either the dummy error page or you get "Object reference not set".

Turns out the problem is quite easy to fix - it simply means that one of the fields you created in the list has a duplicate GUID (or you used one that is already in use by another field) OR you didn't add the the a field in the <FieldDefs> section.

Check the FieldDefs first and if they look OK, it is probably a GUID - simply go back through your Schema.xml file and check each one of the GUID's - be sure all of them are unique and that you DON'T change the GUID of the Title, LinkTitle or LinkTitleNoMenu fields if you are modifying them (i.e. like changing the display name). In one case I had to change each field until I found the offending one. Don't forget to use the MakeGuid utility (either through Visual Studio : Tools > Create GUID) or you can always download it.

FYI - Many of us end up changing the Title field - for this field, the following GUID's apply:

Title | fa564e0f-0c70-4ab9-b863-0177e6ddd247
LinkTitle | bc91a437-52e7-49e1-8c4e-4698904b2b6d
LinkTitleNoMenu | 82642ec8-ef9b-478f-acf9-31f7d45fbc31

If you want to change the Title field (the display name for example), you have to specify the field just like those you are creating but being sure to use the Name/StaticName and GUID's from above.

SharePoint 2010 The List Cannot be displayed in Datasheet view for one or more of the following reasons

2011-06-30T10:22:00.000-07:00

So you setup a brand new SharePoint 2010 site and found that like MOSS, it can be a pain to get the Datasheet View working - to wit:

"The List Cannot be displayed in Datasheet view for one or more of the following reasons"

You may also have problems with the GridView - this solution fixes both problems. The problem is that the Office components needed are not installed, SharePoint 2010 needs BOTH the 2010 and 2007 components to work properly.

The guaranteed fix is to do the following (do this in order - x64 MUST be installed before x86, i.e. 2010 before 2007.

1) Install Office x64 (does not have to be licensed)

2) Download and install:
Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 Redistributable
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=13255

3) Download and install:
2007 Office System Driver: Data Connectivity Components
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=23734

After these, run and IIS reset and off you go!

SIDE NOTE: If you want to run a copy of SharePoint Designer on the server (i.e. a staging or test environment), you must install SharePoint Designer x64 BEFORE the 2007 Office System Driver.

SharePoint 2010 Forms Based Authentication Tips

2011-06-29T14:33:00.000-07:00

I was recently at a client that had enabled FBA for SharePoint 2010 and were having issues getting the User's information due to the format and problems with connecting SharePoint user to Membership Provider user. After a bit of checking, turns out they had a) not understood the format of the user name being returned and b) didn't know about naming in FBA.

First off is the format of the name - when pulled from either the Membership Provider or SharePoint, the format is something like: i:0#.f|MyFBA|MyLogin - for the translation:

i0#.f = A placeholder (seems to be always 0)
MyFBA = the name of the provider
MyLogin = the actual login name of the user

Second was the naming of the provider itself - as it turns out, they had used two different names when they created the Membership Provider and the name they gave it in SharePoint and SharePoint's web.config.

When accessing SharePoint (the SPUser object), the name SharePoint will return is in the provider format of : i0#.f|membership provider name from the web.config|user login - the provider name in this case is the name supplied when the site is created.

However my client had used a different name when creating the provider using the ASP tool - thus when returning the User from the Membership provider, the format is the same but the name is different: i0#.f|membership provider name ASP configuration|user login. This of course, makes comparison a bit difficult as you may imagine.

The problem is that once this is setup, the only way to change it is via Central Administration > Web Applications > Manage Web Applications. Click to select the site to select it then click Authentication Providers in the ribbon. From the pop-up, select the Default link, and then from there you can change the names. HOWEVER BE FOREWARNED - if you do this, it will mess up the users in SharePoint internally (those already created have the original provider name); this means you have to delete ALL USERS from SharePoint and add them back - not for the faint of heart.

The following routines should help you.

To get the SharePoint User:

        public SPUser ReturnCurrentSPUser()
        {
            SPWeb site = SPContext.Current.Web;
            SPUser currUser = null;
            SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
            {
                using (SPSite ElevatedsiteColl = new SPSite(site.Site.ID))
                {
                    using (SPWeb ElevatedSite = ElevatedsiteColl.OpenWeb(site.ID))
                    {
                        currUser = site.CurrentUser; //not the ElevatedSite.CurrentUser
                    }
                }
            });
            return currUser;
        }

To get the "real" login name from the Membership Provider:

        public string ReturnCurrentUserLogin()
        {
            string LoginName = "";
            SPClaimProviderManager ClaimManager = SPClaimProviderManager.Local;
            if (ClaimManager != null)
            {
                try
                {
                    LoginName = ClaimManager.DecodeClaim(SPContext.Current.Web.CurrentUser.LoginName).Value;
                }
                catch (Exception NotMembershipUser)
                {
                    string WhyErr = NotMembershipUser.Message.ToString();
                    LoginName = "";
                }
            }
            return LoginName;
        }

To get the "Formated" User Name:

        public string ReturnCurrentUserClaimLogin(string UserLoginName, string ProviderName)
        {
            string userName = null;
            SPClaimProviderManager ClaimManager = SPClaimProviderManager.Local;
            if (ClaimManager != null)
            {
                try
                {
                    SPClaim claim = new SPClaim(SPClaimTypes.UserLogonName, UserLoginName, "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string", SPOriginalIssuers.Format(SPOriginalIssuerType.Forms, ProviderName));
                    userName = ClaimManager.EncodeClaim(claim);
                }
                catch (Exception NotMembershipUser)
                {
                    string WhyErr = NotMembershipUser.Message.ToString();
                    userName = "";
                }
            }
            return userName;
        }

Problems with FIM and User Profile Synchronization SharePoint 2010

2011-06-07T07:45:00.000-07:00

Like many of you, I've come across many of those little gotcha's in security and setup of SharePoint 2010 - one of which has been issues with teh FIM services and the User Profile Synchronization (including sometimes when the connection seemingly disappears). I did find an excellent post so reposting the answer (with due credit) here:

1. For the Event ID 1004:
======================
The reason that we are seeing this message is that the WMI calls are made under the credentials of Network Service account and it doesnâ€™t have permissions to the folder in which Microsoft.ResourceManagement.Service.exe is located and thus the resource not found error is logged.

The error should go away if the Network Service account is given permissions to the folder (as indicated in the error)where the resource is located. (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\14.0\Service)

2. For the Event ID 5555:
=====================
a. Go to the user profile service app, click on the Administrators button in the ribbon and give Profile sync account Full Control rights
b. Then click on the permissions Tab and click and give that account full control there as well.
c. Do an IISReset and monitor to see if the errors go away.

Fred Ellis - MSFT

Adding Report Services Integration to SharePoint 2010 Account Error

2011-06-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

When adding the Reporting Service Integration via Central administration, you might have trouble with it accepting the account and password, though you know it is correctly set. Unlike most apps, apparently the Domain Name used for the account is Case Sensitive!
In most cases, you need to a) verify that the path is correct via Report Services Configuration and b) enter in a domain name exactly as it is set in SQL - usually Uppercase so like: DOMAIN\account.

SharePoint displays users as Domain\Username instead of Display Name

2011-06-02T12:09:00.000-07:00

Recently had a client discover that SharePoint 2010 was displaying users as domain\username instead of the Display Name as it is in Active Directory; oddly it wasn't all accounts either. After some deep searching, I found the following fix. Using the SharePoint Command Shell do the following:

1) If the problem only appears with a single user, you can update a single account like so:

Set-SPUser -Identity ‘domain\Username’ –Web http://<URL To Site> –SyncFromAD

2) If all (or a lot) of the uesrs you can do it by the following:

Get-SPUser –Web http://<URL to Site> | Set-SPUser –SyncFromAD

The above will reset all users FOR THAT SPECIFIC URL; if you have additional site collections (i.e. Managed Paths), you have to run it on those URL's as well.

NOTE: You will often get an error for 'invalid' accounts such as Local Service - you can generally ignore the message as long as users show up correctly.

Windows 2008 R2 Has No SMTP!

2011-05-24T14:14:00.000-07:00

Yes - you probably have found this out by now - not reallly sure why Microsoft decided to leave it out (maybe to get you to buy Exchange) but if you are doing SharePoint or other type of app that needs SMTP (and you don't have Exchange) you are stuck...however, there is a quick solution.

Follow these instructions: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772058(WS.10).aspx

Also, Visendo makes a free SMTP Extender for Windows 2008 - you can find it here:

http://www.visendo.com/en/default.aspx

SharePoint 2007 with SQL 2008 Not indexing all content

2011-05-20T14:00:00.000-07:00

Having trouble with 2008 Search and SharePoint 2007 not indexing all your content? The problem might be that you are missing the Microsoft Filter Pack - Here's your answer:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=946336

SharePoint 2007 Error On Database Attach - SPContentDatabase has been upgraded

2011-05-12T08:06:00.000-07:00

Trying to upgrade/move a MOSS Farm using the database attach you recieve the message:

The specified SPContentDatabase has been upgraded to a newer version of SharePoint. Please upgrade this SharePoint application server before attempting to access this object

But you say, it's the same version or may you did the Slipstream process w/SP2 already and it worked fine?

If you've not run the WSS and MOSS SP2's, do so and it will fix the problem. If you used the Slipstream process outlined by Microsoft - surprise, it's not clear from the document you need to do BOTH WSS and MOSS - install WSS V3.0 SP2 and you'll be off and running.

SharePoint not getting correct Domain name in User Profile Service

2011-05-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

Came across this issue with a client in which the internal name of the domain was being loaded into User Profiles - as in internal\name instead of domain\name; forgot where I got to a post about this so I am reposting here.

The reason for the issue is that the NetBIOS Domain Names are not imported by default, thus internal\. There is a fix through Powershell however if you have just discovered this, here are some tips:

1) If you have already imported but have just installed, drop the User profile service and recreate - the change below MUST BE DONE BEFORE YOU IMPORT!

2) If My Sites are active, you cannot do drop the UPS so you that so you will to rely on running the full import a few times to get it right (I've had difficulties with this working everytime)

Login to the server running Central Administration using the SharePoint Farm Account then go to Start > All Programs > Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products > SharePoint 2010 Management Shell - when the Powershell window opens, enter in the following command:

Get-SPServiceApplication
(List of Service Applications and their Id's (GUIDS))

Locate the User Profile Service and copy the GUID under the Id column then enter:

$UPA = Get-SPServiceApplication –Id <GUID of User Profile Service Application>
$UPA.NetBIOSDomainNamesEnabled=1
$UPA.Update()

When done, return to Central Administration/User Profile Service and start the import, all should be well.

SharePoint, UAG and SharePoint Search

2011-05-03T11:09:00.000-07:00

If you have difficulties getting the SharePoint Crawl to work under UAG and recieve SSL related errors in the crawl log, the problem may be your content source. Since the certificate for SSL is on the UAG server and not on the SharePoint server, Search cannot work with an HTTPS address (thus crawl fails).

Open up your content source and verify that the site URL's specified do NOT include https - drop your indexes and start a full crawl.

Problems Opening Documents using UAG and SharePoint 2010

2011-04-28T17:22:00.000-07:00

If you've implemented ForeFront UAG and SharePoint 2010 and your users are having troubles with opening documents in Office - for example:

It prompts three times then drives you to a UAG error page
You get access denied messages
Even with Open in Browser enabled, the documents still try to open in the Office application
PowerPoint Slide Libraries act odd or cannot publish

So - after 39 days on the phone with Microsoft, they were able to trace the problem down to the file called init.debug.js. SharePointers may recognize this file as it is used ECMAScript deployment - however they would also know it is not used in SharePoint by default.

Surprise!! It is!

As it turns out, the offshore development company had enabled Debug (i.e. Debug="true") in the web.config file - possibly intentional, possibly from deploying from Visual Studio; after some 200 billable hours and over 8 people and 4 Microsoft Engineers (and the Product Team) I found it, turned it off and voila - Turn it off and everything works fine!

PS: I found it - we've not told Microsoft yet!

SharePoint Site Logo overwritten

2011-04-27T07:17:00.000-07:00

SO you've added your custom logo and all is well. You create a Web Part Page and suddenly, your Logo is overwritten with the default SharePoint logo (SiteLogo.png). You check your master page - all is OK so where the heck is this coming from?

Turns out the problem is in the SharePoint page itself - in 'injects' some JavaScript at the end of the page that causes this - do a View Source on the page and you will see it:

<script type="text/javascript">// <![CDATA[var logoImg = documentGetElementsByName('onetidHeadbnnr0');if
logoImg[0].src= (logoImg != undefined && logoImg[0] != undefined)'/_layouts/images/siteIcon.png';// ]]></script><script type="text/javascript">// <![CDATA[MoveSiteTitle();// ]]></script>
So - you have two options:

1) Replace the SiteLogo.png file in the SharePoint Images folder with your own
2) Edit the Master Page, find the 'onetidHeadbnnr0' control and change the name to 'onetidHeadbnnr1'

Found this post by Jonathan Roussel which has the answer:

http://blog.jonathanroussel.com/2011_01_01_archive.html

Enabling Presence in SharePoint 2010

2011-04-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

Are your Icon's gray and lifeless? Could be because Presence is not enabled for SharePoint. Here's your answer:

NameCtrl Control

SharePoint 2010

Published: May 2010

An ActiveX control that enables a webpage to display presence information for people, and lets the user take various actions with respect to those people through an on-object user interface (UI) in Microsoft SharePoint Foundation.

This control is defined in NAME.dll, a dynamic-link library (DLL) that is installed in the %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office14\ directory on the client computer during Microsoft Office Setup.
To instantiate this control, use the following function in ECMAScript (JavaScript, JScript):

var obj = new ActiveXObject('Name.NameCtrl.1');

In both cases, the argument is the programmatic identifier (ProgId) of the control, Name.NameCtrl.1. For more information about ProgIds, see <ProgID> Key.
In SharePoint Foundation, when a page that contains a view of a document library opens, code in the file OWS.js determines whether Microsoft Office is installed and, if it is, instantiates the control. After the control is instantiated, presence information is displayed whenever the mouse pointer passes over the name of a user on a webpage.

The file OWS.js is located in the %ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\14\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033 directory on each front-end web server in a SharePoint Foundation deployment.

The above from: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms455335.aspx

----
The correct steps to add this are as follows:

1) Navigate to c:\Program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\14\template\layouts\1033\
2) Copy the OWS.js file to OWS_HOLD.js
3) Edit the OWS.js file using notepad
4) The File is trimmed for spaces, etc. so will not look formatted; at the very start of the file add:
var obj = new ActiveXObject('Name.NameCtrl.1');
5) Save the file and exit notepad

Repeat this on all front end servers.

To test it - navigate to the site from outside of the server; you should be prompted for install the Name.dll ActiveX control and User Icon's should work!

Load control template file /_controltemplates/TaxonomyPicker.ascx failed

2011-04-20T13:47:00.000-07:00

Getting the following in your Event log?

Load control template file /_controltemplates/TaxonomyPicker.ascx failed: Could not load type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls.TaxonomyPicker' from assembly 'Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c'.

As it turns out, from RTM to Release, there is a typo in the TaxonomyPicker.ascx file however, the following Blog explains it (kudos to Todd's post):
http://todd-carter.com/post/2010/05/03/Help-Wanted-Taxonomy-Picker.aspx

In case this is unreadable - to wit: There is a typo in the DLL registration line in the actual TaxonomyPicker.ascx file located in the web c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\14\ControlTemplates - instead of a single comma (,) it is , in the file.

However, as Todd points out, this error can be ignored since this particular control is not used; renaming the file to TaxonomyPicker.ascx_hold.

SharePoint 2010 - Database has large amounts of unused space

2011-04-19T11:38:00.000-07:00

In most installations, you'll get this message after a few days (or sometimes weeks) that tell you that the SharePoint Database has large amounts of unused space in the health monitor - one or more Databases might be involved but typically the Usage Application DB (WSS_UsageApplication) is the one.

You can try to use the "Fix Automatically" but I've had mixed results (i.e. says fine, but shows up again later). The for sure fix is simple (Unfortunately the help referenced in the analyzer isn't very clear):

1) Login to the SQL Server box
2) Open the SQL Management Studio
3) Expand the Databases, right click on the Database in question and select New Query
4) Enter in the following command in the Query window:

dbcc shrinkdatabase (WSS_UsageApplication)

5) Then click the Execute button.

Note the full format for this command is dbcc shrinkdatabase(dbname, target size in MB) - so dbcc shrinkdatabase(WSS_UsageApplication, 25) would reduce it to 25mb; by NOT specifying the target size, the DB will be reduced to the default size. In most cases (particularly for the Usage DB, this is the best setting).

Web Analytics: Monitors the health of the Report Consolidator component

2011-04-09T10:14:00.000-07:00

You'll find this one eventually on 2010 - you'll see the warning appear in the Central Admin Health monitor. It is a bit vauge as to what the real issue is but you can find the details on the Microsoft Site:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff805075.aspx

What they are not saying is actually why this occurs; I've had this happen on test systems that were only running for a few days. The result is that monitoring will not work properly (i.e. the usage reports). The quick fix is via SharePoint's PowerShell - open that and do the following step.

NOTE: You must be an Admin to do this - check out the Add-SPShellAdmin comand.

Step 1 - Get the GUID of the Service Application

> Get-SPServiceApplication
...
Managed Metadata ... Managed Metadata ... 9dbca54d-59e9-4f2d-bfe7-2ece94635750
Web Analytics Ser... Web Analytics Ser... 30e00364-c80b-4091-b2fc-04ed10ac0dae
Excel Service 1 Excel Services Ap... 7a290551-7d57-471a-87d8-7c7f6c6b424f
...
Notice the Web Analytics service - copy the GUID in the ID Column.

Step 2 - Turn on Data Trimming on the Reporting Service

> Set-SPWebAnalyticsServiceApplication -Identity <GUID> -EnableDataTrimming

(replace <GUID> with the GUID you copied above - NOTE: if you only have one Analytics Service, you can omit the GUID)

Give if a few minutes to let the SPTimer job kick then return to the Health Monitor, click the message and select Re-analyze Now - message should go away!

Office Documents not appearing in Search/SharePoint 2010

2011-04-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

If you have noticed that users are complaining about older documents (.xls, .doc, .ppt, etc.) not showing up in search, the problem is likely that the Office IFilters haven't been installed - the IFilters enable SharePoint/FAST Search to better index the document contents.

You can download them from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=5cd4dcd7-d3e6-4970-875e-aba93459fbee

The IFilter has to be installed on the Front End server running Central Admin (ala where the Search Service lives).

Likewise for your PDF's, you need to download and install the Adobe PDF IFilter:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4025

As well, if you want the neat little Icon to show up, you need to find a PDF icon that is 16x16 pixels. You can download the 'official' ones from Adobe here:

http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html

Copy the .gif or .png file into the SharePoint Images folder (c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\14\template\images. Next, locate the DOCICON.XML file in the template\XML folder and add the extension - find the PNG extension, copy the line and add the PDF:

<Mapping Key="pdf" Value="pdf.gif" /> <-- add this line
<Mapping Key="png" Value="icpng.gif" />

NOTE: You must modify the DOCICON file on every front end server.

Note: If you are open to it, you can update the DOCICON file with a feature as Steve Goodyear outlines here:

http://webmail.vmsol.com/hwebmail/services/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.msdn.com%2Fb%2Fsgoodyear%2Farchive%2F2008%2F06%2F14%2Fupdating-the-docicon-xml-file-with-a-feature.aspx

Setup of SharePoint User Profiles - cannot synchronize

2011-04-05T07:15:00.000-07:00

As you may or may not know, setting up the User Profile Services requires special permissions - specifically for the account that will be used for doing the Synchronization. Most of the installation instructions out there miss this setting.

The symptoms are not always apparent but usually means that no user profiles are imported. The two links you need are here:
· Microsoft SharePoint Product Group: How to set Replication Directory Changes,
· KB303972: How to grant the "Replicating Directory Changes" permission for the Microsoft Metadirectory Services ADMA service account,

However, if you need to check if an account has the correct permissions you can use the Powershell script below (Shout out to Andrew "MossHater" for the script):

Just change the $userName variable in the script below and run it.

Output like:

User ‘EXAMPLE\User’:
has a 'Replicating Directory Changes' permission on 'DC=example,DC=local'
has no a 'Replicating Directory Changes' permission on 'CN=Configuration,DC=example,DC=local'

Check-ADReplicatingChangesPermission.ps1

function Check-ADUserPermission(
    [System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry]$entry,
    [string]$user,
    [string]$permission)
{
    $dse = [ADSI]"LDAP://Rootdse"
    $ext = [ADSI]("LDAP://CN=Extended-Rights," + $dse.ConfigurationNamingContext)

    $right = $ext.psbase.Children |
        ? { $_.DisplayName -eq $permission }

    if($right -ne $null)
    {
        $perms = $entry.psbase.ObjectSecurity.Access |
            ? { $_.IdentityReference -eq $user } |
            ? { $_.ObjectType -eq [GUID]$right.RightsGuid.Value }

        return ($perms -ne $null)
    }
    else
    {
        Write-Warning "Permission '$permission' not found."
        return $false
    }
}

# Globals

$userName = "EXAMPLE\User"
$replicationPermissionName = "Replicating Directory Changes"

# Main()

$dse = [ADSI]"LDAP://Rootdse"

$entries = @(
    [ADSI]("LDAP://" + $dse.defaultNamingContext),
    [ADSI]("LDAP://" + $dse.configurationNamingContext));

Write-Host "User '$userName': "
foreach($entry in $entries)
{
    $result = Check-ADUserPermission $entry $userName $replicationPermissionName

    if($result)
    {
        Write-Host "`thas a '$replicationPermissionName' permission on '$($entry.distinguishedName)'" `
            -ForegroundColor Green
    }
    else
    {
        Write-Host "`thas no a '$replicationPermissionName' permission on '$($entry.distinguishedName)'" `
            -ForegroundColor Red
    }
}

SharePoint 2010 Slow to render pages/SharePoint Cache

2011-03-23T08:45:00.000-07:00

You may notice that after some time running, SharePoint appears to 'slow down' even if using something like the SPWakeup service.

Unfortunately, the Health Checker won't tell you about it but the System Application Event Log does. If you are running slow, check this log and usually, SharePoint will start displaying an error regarding the SharePoint Cache.

The error states that the SharePoint Cache is not working properly due to the Super Reader account being set to LOCAL SERVICE - the issue of course being that the account does not have access to the SharePoint database. A rarity, SharePoint actually tells you how to fix the problem however, there's not much information about what account to use.

To configure the account use the following command 'stsadm -o setproperty -propertyname portalsuperreaderaccount -propertyvalue account -url webappurl'. It should be configured to be an account that has Read access to the SharePoint databases.

As it turns out, the BEST account to use is either the Application Pool account running the SharePoint Site or the account assigned as the Content account. While Microsoft says the App Pool account shouldn't be used, I've had sites go south on me. In most cases, it appears it is best to setup a single domain account for this purpose - it must be a member of all of the local user groups (like the Application Pool account) and added to all of the SharePoint databases.

Note that in most of my installs, I use SPAppPool; this seems to have the proper read access vs. the Content account. If you use an account that does not have adequate access, the site won't render at all.

You specify the account using the full domain name - so assume MYDOM using Site http://sp2010.intranet.com you would open up a command window (cmd) and go to the SharePoint bin folder in the hive (c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\14\bin) and enter:

stsadm -o setproperty -propertyname portalsuperreaderaccount -propertyvalue MYDOM\SPAppPool -url http://sp2010intranet.com/

After you run this, enter:

iisreset -noforce

If you are running multiple servers, you have to run IISReset on all of them (NOT the STSADM command).

SharePoint 2010 State Service

2011-03-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

When setting up SharePoint 2010, it is necessary to start up the State Service for SharePoint to work correctly - here's the quick SharePoint PowerShell script needed to do set up this service:

PS C:\users\SPFarmAcct> $theServiceApp = New-SPStateServiceApplication -Name “State Service”

IF YOU RECEIVE “The Specified Name is not unique” you can skip next step and simply exit, otherwise, create the State Service Database and associate it with a service application:

PS C:\users\SPFarmAcct> New-SPStateServiceDatabase -Name ”StateServiceDatabase” -ServiceApplication $theServiceApp

Last, create a State Service Application Proxy and associate it with the service application:

PS C:\users\SPFarmAcct> New-SPStateServiceApplicationProxy -Name ”State Service” -ServiceApplication $theServiceApp –DefaultProxyGroup

SharePoint Usage and Health Data Collection Proxy stopped

2011-03-23T07:25:00.000-07:00

If you've been working with SharePoint 2010 and have had some troubles with the Usage Proxy Service not running, it turns out it is a common problem. Like many, I'd searched high and low for the answer and finally came across the 'right' answer from Jeremy (no last name) in the SharePoint Commander blog.

You can determine if you have this problem by opening the Service Applications (Central Administration > Application Management > Manage Service Applications) - under the Web Analytics service, you see the Usage and Health Data Collection Proxy as 'Stopped'. Apparently another 'bug' in 2010, this is because the service is not completely provisioned when created. To fix the best method is via the SharePoint PowerShell.

Open the PowerShell then enter (italised):

PS C:\users\SPFarmAcct > Get-SPServiceApplicationProxy

This will return a list of all of the Service Proxies inlcuding the Display Name, Type Name and Id (a GUID value) - locate the Usage and Health proxy in the list and copy the Id next to it (usually the last item).

Return to the PowerShell and enter:

PS C:\users\SPFarmAcct > $UsageProxy = Get-SPServiceApplicationProxy | where {$_.ID -eq "ID you copied"}
PS C:\users\SPFarmAcct > $UsageProxy.Provision()

When you return to the Service Applications page, refresh it and the proxy should be running!

The Importance Of Governance

2011-03-12T06:03:00.000-08:00

We used to see this in the old days – can’t document the software because we have to write it first! And of course, the documentation never gets done. In our new development environment with products like SharePoint, the dynamic has changed – but not much.

The ‘buzzword’ here is Governance – best described as “setting the rules” before you deploy. Unfortunately, it seems folks don’t understand the importance of this and like the old developers figure “we’ll do that after we release” – they make the release date but trouble begins almost immediately. Time and time I again, I get called in because their sites, content and security are all over the map – whatever was determined as the starting Information Architecture is usually not recognizable; most often, rebuild is the only option.

So what can you do? When you start looking at a new deployment, don’t skimp on what you need: 1) Establish a good information architecture and stick to it; it can be adjusted over time but if it keeps changing, users will be confused and use will drop off. 2) Develop planning and a team for Governance and actually do it – create the team you need to include stakeholders, techs and end users. If you don’t know how, get help – don’t wing it. With the team, build the actual plan – don’t worry about being too broad (that’s not possible) but make sure it is workable – don’t create rules that will be impossible to follow. 3) Don’t deploy like you have a gun to your head – we all hate to miss dates but if your Governance planning is adequate, you shouldn’t miss the date. That said don’t kill yourself to try to make an unrealistic date as you will make mistakes and overlook things. I usually set the target 2 weeks before it is really due to give some breathing room; alternately I like to deploy quietly, make sure it is working, then do the big release.

Once out there, Governance does not go away – in fact, the team should meet regularly and discuss enabling new options, view 3^rd party tools, etc. as well review the current state of the system – are you following the IA? Adjustments needed? Any complaints from users? This effort may seem like a bother but it will ensure a return on the investment.

Using DevExpress ASPxMenu control in SharePoint 2010

2011-03-05T12:19:00.000-08:00

I am sure some of you have used this control either in ASP.NET or using SharePoint 2007. I recently implemented this in SharePoint 2010 to create a custom navigation bar for my client. In general, the control works as designed except for the 'boundaries' of the page in 2010. This apparently is due to the base 503 compliance for the v4.master.

When I implemented at first, I found the navigation would drop just below the browser - this means that the scroll itself would drop below view causing the page to veritically scroll. I fixed this by adding:

Menu.SubMenuStyle.Paddings.PaddingBottom = System.Web.UI.WebControls.Unit.Pixel(10);

MenuItem.SubMenuStyle.Paddings.PaddingBottom = System.Web.UI.WebControls.Unit.Pixel(10);

to every menu item created. This corrected the primary navigation items and the scroll appears as normal.

Alas, that was not the only problem - the flyout submenus have the same settings - adding the padding 'almost' fixed the bottom of the menu, but the top of the menu is hidden behind the "Site Actions" Div in the master page. After much scratching and searching, I was able to get just what I wanted by simply adding a Span of my own around the control in the master page as follows:

<span style="z-index:1;"><control here ></span>

The key fix is the Z-Index setting - this causes the control to be rendered last, therefore on top of the page! Works perfectly now and the menu goes 7 levels deep! Note that embedding the span in the control will not work; it must be on the page.

UPDATE FROM DEVEXPRESS:

The SharePoint Master page for SP2010 is the v4.master which has a DOCTYPE of "Strict"; this is on their 'to do' list to enable - at present, they recommend using "Transitional". I have not completely tested this in SharePoint yet but unless I see something, follow their recommendation.

Unable to add DLL to the GAC (windows/assembly) - GAC Access Denied

2011-02-23T04:26:00.000-08:00

Had an issue with a client on not being able to add a DLL to the GAC on a production machine though an Administrator and Domain Admin...Found a great post on this here: http://www.supremelink.se/post/GAC-and-Access-Denied.aspx - to wit:

Have you ever got that annoying "Access Denied" when using Gacutils to ad an dll to GAC? Well....I have. The reason to my problem was that (as the error says) I had no access to add dll:s into it. I am administrator on my machine, so I think it´s a little bit confusing.

This command did it for me:
CACLS c:\WINDOWS\assembly /e /t /p [DOMAIN|MACHINENAME]\useraccount:F

CACLS is an application that can display or modify the Access Control List (ACLs) of files.

So, what I´m telling my OS (Windows XP) is that my user (machinename\useraccount) should have full rights (the :F after my user) to the WINDOWS\assembly (GAC) folder. /e tells CACLS that I want to edit ACL instead of replacing it. /t tells it that those changes should be applied to this folder and it´s subfolders. /p tells the application that my users access rights should be replaced.

For more info, type CACLS /? in CMD.

FYI: In Vista CACLS is deprecated. Use Icacls instead.

Thanks to Martin Andersson for the Post...

Bug in SharePoint 2010 Terms

2011-02-13T08:21:00.000-08:00

If you are using Terms to create Site Columns, you'll find that there's a little bug in the way the terms work. If you have multiple levels, i.e. State/City, works fine. If you have a single level, i.e. Country, it DOES NOT WORK when activated through a feature event. You can do it programatically just fine (i.e. a Console application) but it will not work when attempting to create using Feature Activation. The only way to correct is to create a double level - i.e. World, Country but since that hardly fixes it, you have to rely on creating Site Columns - even if you have to replicate them across sites.

Logitech Wireless Mouse stops working - USB Device not recognized

2011-01-14T07:38:00.000-08:00

Had this problem on a mouse for no particular reason - took a while to find fix but simple:

Remove USB device
Power down completely
Remove Power
Remove Battery, wait for 10-15 seconds
Replace battery, plug in and power up

Fixed!

Central/Northern New Jersey Users Group

2011-01-03T16:55:00.000-08:00

Spend an hour with me and the Central/Northern New Jersey Users Group - I'll be discussing how to implement Silverlight with SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010. Check it out - January 6th - 5:30pm - sign up at http://www.cnjspug.com/ - Don't miss it!! If you want an approach to no-touch SharePoint Web Parts, this is it!

UPDATE: It was fun! Get the presentation and code so you can try it yourself! http://www.sterling-consulting.com/SUG/Jan6Preso.zip

Failure trying to use SharePoint GetUserProfileByName via web services in WCF or Silverlight

2010-12-30T11:50:00.000-08:00

Recently came across an error that seems to have creeped into the SharePoint Web Services - I've checked against 2007 and will against 2010 but I believe the problem is still there. Specificaly when using the UserProfilesService.asmx, I was trying to use the GetUserProfileByName in Silverlight...lo and behold, I get a beaut of an error:

{System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.NetDispatcherFaultException: The formatter threw an exception while trying to deserialize the message: There was an error while trying to deserialize parameter
http://microsoft.com/webservices/SharePointPortalServer/UserProfileService:GetUserProfileByNameResponse. The InnerException message was 'Error in line 1 position 375. 'Element' 'IsPrivacyChanged'
from namespace 'http://microsoft.com/webservices/SharePointPortalServer/UserProfileService' is not expected. Expecting element 'Name | Privacy'.'. Please see InnerException for more details. ---> System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException: Error in line 1 position 375. 'Element' 'IsPrivacyChanged' from namespace 'http://microsoft.com/webservices/SharePointPortalServer/UserProfileService' is not expected. Expecting element 'Name | Privacy'.

Spent a good deal of time tracking this one down - fortunately, came across a post so a thanks to Ben McClaren for finding/fixing the problem: The problem is in the WSDL of the Service - the parameters are in the wrong order.

After adding the service reference, open the Reference.CS file that was created - You'll see the parameters that are specified in the wrong order:

1. Name (order not specified)
2. Privacy (order not specified)
3. Values (order not specified)
4. IsPrivacyChanged (order specified as 3)
5. IsValueChanged (order specified as 4)

They need to be:
1. IsPrivacyChanged
2. IsValueChanged
3. Values
4. Name
5. Privacy

Replace the existing code (or simply update as I did) so that it looks like this (note the Order):
[System.Runtime.Serialization.DataMemberAttribute(IsRequired = true, Order = 1)]
    public bool IsPrivacyChanged
    {
      get
      {
        return this.IsPrivacyChangedField;
      }
      set
      {
        if ((this.IsPrivacyChangedField.Equals(value) != true))
        {
          this.IsPrivacyChangedField = value;
          this.RaisePropertyChanged("IsPrivacyChanged");
        }
      }
    }
    [System.Runtime.Serialization.DataMemberAttribute(IsRequired = true, Order = 2)]
    public bool IsValueChanged
    {
      get
      {
        return this.IsValueChangedField;
      }
      set
      {
        if ((this.IsValueChangedField.Equals(value) != true))
        {
          this.IsValueChangedField = value;
          this.RaisePropertyChanged("IsValueChanged");
        }
      }
    }
    [System.Runtime.Serialization.DataMemberAttribute(EmitDefaultValue = false, Order = 3)]
    public SharePointProfileViewer.UserProfileServiceReference.ValueData[] Values
    {
      get
      {
        return this.ValuesField;
      }
      set
      {
        if ((object.ReferenceEquals(this.ValuesField, value) != true))
        {
          this.ValuesField = value;
          this.RaisePropertyChanged("Values");
        }
      }
    }
    [System.Runtime.Serialization.DataMemberAttribute(EmitDefaultValue = false, Order = 4)]
    public string Name {
      get {
        return this.NameField;
      }
      set {
        if ((object.ReferenceEquals(this.NameField, value) != true)) {
          this.NameField = value;
          this.RaisePropertyChanged("Name");
        }
      }
    }
    [System.Runtime.Serialization.DataMemberAttribute(IsRequired = true, Order = 5)]
    public SharePointProfileViewer.UserProfileServiceReference.Privacy Privacy {
      get {
        return this.PrivacyField;
      }
      set {
        if ((this.PrivacyField.Equals(value) != true)) {
          this.PrivacyField = value;
          this.RaisePropertyChanged("Privacy");
        }
      }
    }

FYI AS AN UPDATE:
The above fixes WCF but sadly, not Silverlight....In Silverlight the Service reference returns Null values for everything (Web service works, but service ref does not which leaves little choice in Silverlight) - I'll keep you posted if I find that answer.

Free Web Parts for 2007 and 2010

2010-12-30T09:27:00.000-08:00

Stumbled on this site and found some cute web parts that are free - I've been asked for some of these by clients - free is a good price! Most are somewhat silly, but a lot are pretty useful.

Company is Amrein Engineering...

http://www.amrein.com/apps/page.asp?Q=5728

That Pesky "Missing Server Side Dependencies" - SharePoint 2010

2010-12-07T10:45:00.000-08:00

On just about every install, I've come across the SharePoint Health Analyzer indicating "Missing Server Side Dependencies" - this is a known problem in 2010 (I'm just repeating here for others and my own benefit when I get the question from a client).

Easy fix:

Go to Central Administration > General Application Settings > Farm Search Administration
Click on the Search Service Application to open it (not the Proxy link)

Note: if the Search Service hasn't been set up, it must be before you can do this.

Once opened, close the browser window and run (from Runr or the Command line: IISReset -noforce

Open Central Administration, click on the Health Analyzer link, view the "Missing Dependencies..." message and click the link to Rerun health - problem should be corrected.

Binding within Silverlight DataGrids and Controls

2010-11-29T18:00:00.000-08:00

When trying to bind to controls and cells within DataGrids (particularly when using DataTemplates), it can be hard to figure out when you are not getting a value when you have a properly formed control as in:

<TextBlock Text="{Binding MyTextField}"...

If the value is not appearing (and you are not getting an error), this could mean that you have to preface the binding so Silverlight can 'find it' - this is done using either CellValue or RowValue as in:

<TextBlock Text="{Binding CellValue.MyTextField}"...

or

<TextBlock Text="{Binding RowValue.MyTextField}"...

Have fun...

Troubles using Dialog Boxes in Silverlight

2010-11-29T17:56:00.000-08:00

I've often come across this but after working on a long project, often forget the basics - as in using Dialog boxes for File operations. The stanard error is "Dialogs must be user-initiated" which is a little off from the point - you'd expect that a click event could also open a dialog however it is because the threading (context) of the Dialog would be lost in the event.

The solution is simple - simply put all of the Dialog logic in its own method and call the method from the click event:

private void ExportFile_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
              ExportTheFile();
}

private void ExportTheFile();
{
     SaveFileDialog SFD = new SaveFileDialog();
     SFD.DefaultExt = "*.txt";
     SFD.Filter = "Text (*.txt) | *.txt|All files (*.*)|*.*";
     if (SFD.ShowDialog())
     {
            StreamWriter OutStream = new StreamWriter(SFD.OpenFile());
            ...
      }
}

Using Properties in Silverlight User Controls

2010-11-18T05:53:00.000-08:00

When you are using Silverlight User Controls (or custom controls) you may have a need to pass properties between the main control and the user control (i.e. Main.xaml to MyCustom.xaml). If you are used to traditional SharePoint development, you are familiar with defining properties as so:
//// Resource Start Date:
private string _resrcStartDate = "";
public string ResourceStartDateIn
{
    get
    {
         return _resrcStartDate;
    }
    set
    {
        _resrcStartDate = value;
    }
}

You will find that this works fine when you create a control via code or even if passing a 'hard coded' value to it - for example:
<local:MyCustomControl x:Name="CustControl" ResourceStartDateIn="01/01/2011" />

However, if you want to use this control for binding, for example using it in a DataGrid (or AgDataGrid), you'll find this does NOT work - in fact, in most cases, the project will simply crash without any indication of what is what. For example:

<local:MyCustomControl x:Name="CustControl" ResourceStartDateIn="{Binding Path=ResStartDate}" />

OR:

<local:MyCustomControl x:Name="CustControl" ResourceStartDateIn="{Binding Path=ResStartDate, Converter={StaticResource dateConverter}}" />

Note: the use of the dateConverter simply returns the date as a string - the first one assumes a true date.
The fix is really quite simple - Silverlight objects can pass values back and forth, but binding is another matter; in order to do this, Silverlight needs a "Dependency Property" it can use to maintain the information. To do this, simply change the way you define the property as so:

//
// Resource Start Date:
public static readonly DependencyProperty ResourceStartDateInProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("ResourceStartDateIn", typeof(string), typeof(MyCustomControl), null);
public string ResourceStartDateIn
{
    get { return (string)GetValue(ResourceStartDateInProperty); }
    set { SetValue(ResourceStartDateInProperty, value); }
}
//

NOTE: There is much more to the dependency property - this example is simply a quick and dirty for the SharePoint folks doing development.

Debugging Silverlight and SharePoint

2010-11-07T12:23:00.000-08:00

If you are like me, you've had lots of fun trying to debug Silverlight projects combined with WCF and SharePoint. The problem is that unless Silverlight is 'hosted' from the SharePoint site itself, you cannot debug it if you directly access the SharePoint API in the WCF code (it fails because you are not authenticated, alal the double hop issue). Errors include "No Cross Domain policy found" or failing on returning data (the Async call fails).

After much screwing around, I finally came up with a short way to do it reliably:

SIDE NOTE: Look into the Winsmarts tool for enabling Silverlight - I didn't need it for this but have used in the past - see : http://spwcfsupport.codeplex.com/ - as it turns out, that is only required for WCF. I found that using SharePoint web services gives you a big bang for the buck; in most cases you don't have to worry about authentication (users usually have the rights needed to run SP Web services) and you get great access (not as much as the API granted) to SharePoint lists, files, etc.

1) First off, create a new folder in the SharePoint site - i.e. c:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\70 (I'm using 70 as the sample port - this is whatever port you are using); name is not important but I use "SilverLtApps" (you can alternately use a SharePoint library but for debug, that requires you to upload changes each time). In practice, I've started out using the directory but when complete, simply deleted the direcotry and created a library of the same name (thus not having to change the URL in the content editor web part as you will see below).

2) Next, create your Silverlight Application using the standard setup (sellect Host the Silverlight application in a new Web Site).

3) After the project loads, create a new HTML file in the Silverlight that does a redirect to the SharePoint Site where Silverlight is to be used:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://myspsite:70/Pages/default.aspx">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head>
<title>Untitled Page</title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

4) Next, right click on the Solution and Set Startup Projects. Change the Startup Project to 'Single startup project' to the Silverlight project (not the .Web project).

5) Next, right click on the Silverlight Project and select Properties; on the Debug tab under Start Action, click Specific Page and select the HTML page you created in step 3. ALTERNATELY - Right click on the HTML file and select "Set as Start page".

6) Still in properties, click the Build tab - set the Output path to the folder created in Step 1.

7) Now create a clientaccesspolicy.xml file for the site - this can be generic (wide open) as so:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<access-policy>
<cross-domain-access>
    <policy>
      <allow-from http-request-headers="*">
        <domain url="*" />
      </allow-from>
      <grant-to>
        <resource path="/" include-subpaths="true" />
      </grant-to>
    </policy>
</cross-domain-access>
</access-policy>

OR You can set it specific to the domain/site:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<access-policy>
<cross-domain-access>
    <policy>
      <allow-from http-request-headers="*">
        <domain url="http://MySPSite" />
      </allow-from>
      <allow-from http-request-headers="SOAPAction">
        <domain uri="http://MySPSite" />
        <domain uri="https://MySPSite" />
      </allow-from>
      <grant-to>
        <resource path="/" include-subpaths="true" />
      </grant-to>
    </policy>
</cross-domain-access>
</access-policy>

If you want to use a CrossDomain.xml file as well (this is a fall back to Adobe Flash time), it looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE cross-domain-policy SYSTEM "http://www.macromedia.com/xml/dtds/cross-domain-policy.dtd">
<cross-domain-policy>
<allow-http-request-headers-from domain="*" headers="*" />
</cross-domain-policy>

8) VERY IMPORTANT: Using SharePoint Designer, open the site and upload the file(s) to the ROOT of the site - you can add the files to the actual file root as well but this depends on if you have access to the file system or not - if you can use Designer, do so.

9) Next, upload the Silverlight.js file that is included in the .WEB project (or copy to the root folder if you have access).

10) If you hit F5 or Debug > Start Debugging, the site should come up as expected.

11) Now, to test your Silverlight, edit the page in SharePoint and add a Content Editor Web Part - in the Source simply put in the required settings for the control (note that the Script inclusion is optional but I generally use it - it also allows you to point to the Silverlight.js file if you have to upload it to a SharePoint Library instead of using the file system):

    <script type="text/javascript" src="Silverlight.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        function onSilverlightError(sender, args) {
            var appSource = "";
            if (sender != null && sender != 0) {
              appSource = sender.getHost().Source;
            }

            var errorType = args.ErrorType;
            var iErrorCode = args.ErrorCode;
            if (errorType == "ImageError" || errorType == "MediaError") {
              return;
            }
            var errMsg = "Unhandled Error in Silverlight Application " + appSource + "\n" ;
            errMsg += "Code: "+ iErrorCode + "    \n";
            errMsg += "Category: " + errorType + "       \n";
            errMsg += "Message: " + args.ErrorMessage + "     \n";
            if (errorType == "ParserError") {
                errMsg += "File: " + args.xamlFile + "     \n";
                errMsg += "Line: " + args.lineNumber + "     \n";
                errMsg += "Position: " + args.charPosition + "     \n";
            }
            else if (errorType == "RuntimeError") {
                if (args.lineNumber != 0) {
                    errMsg += "Line: " + args.lineNumber + "     \n";
                    errMsg += "Position: " + args.charPosition + "     \n";
                }
                errMsg += "MethodName: " + args.methodName + "     \n";
            }
            throw new Error(errMsg);
        }
    </script>

    <div id="silverlightControlHost">
        <object data="data:application/x-silverlight-2," type="application/x-silverlight-2" width="800" height="320">
    <param name="source" value="/SilverLtApps/TestSPService.xap"/>
    <param name="onError" value="onSilverlightError" />
    <param name="background" value="white" />
    <param name="minRuntimeVersion" value="3.0.40624.0" />
    <param name="autoUpgrade" value="true" />

    <a href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=149156&v=3.0.40624.0" style="text-decoration:none">
      <img src="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=108181" alt="Get Microsoft Silverlight" style="border-style:none"/>
    </a>
     </object><iframe id="_sl_historyFrame" style="visibility:hidden;height:0px;width:0px;border:0px"></iframe></div>

Note the location of the .XAP file points to the relative folder created in step 1 - be aware that if you are using subsites, the url may need to be the full URL less the http://<site> part - example: http://site/subsite/subsite/ would be /subsite/subsite/. Close the content editor part and save/publish the page.

12) Add a button or some code and set a few brakepoints in your Silverlight app and happy debugging!!!!

Setting Service Reference URL in Silverlight

2010-11-07T11:26:00.000-08:00

Like I'm sure some of you have, I spent a good half day trying to find out the best way to dynamically assign a service reference in Silverlight. In my case, it happened to be using the SharePoint Lists service wherein, the URL to the service will change in every environment. In addition, this is a production system with no access.

After much searching (and weeding through every WCF explaination that was of no help), I discovered a comment in a post that answers the problem. When you establish the service, you simply need to specify the proper URL (I pass it to the code using Silverlight Initparams) - PROBLEM SOLVED!!

NOTE: Notice that I enabled it to pull the actual Service Path in the event I just want to change the primary URL.

//
// SETUP THE SOAP CLIENT:
//
SPListsRef.ListsSoapClient ListRefSoapClient = null;
//
bool FullServiceURLPassed = true;
string ServiceOrSiteURL = "http://paspdev1x64:70/_vti_bin/Lists.asmx";

if (FullServiceURLPassed)
{
string url = new Uri(Application.Current.Host.Source, ServiceOrSiteURL).AbsoluteUri;
ListRefSoapClient = new SPListsRef.ListsSoapClient("ListsSoap", url);
}
else
{
string SetServiceURL = "http://paspdev1x64:70/";
//
// Get the existing service URL:
//
SPListsRef.ListsSoapClient sr = new SPListsRef.ListsSoapClient();
//
// Fix the channel:
//
string ServiceURL = sr.InnerChannel.Via.ToString();
sr = null;
//
int LocOf = ServiceURL.IndexOf("/", 8);
string SvcURLOnly = ServiceURL.Substring(LocOf, ServiceURL.Length - LocOf);
if (SetServiceURL.LastIndexOf("/") == (SetServiceURL.Length - 1))
{
SetServiceURL = SetServiceURL.Substring(0, SetServiceURL.Length - 1);
}
//
SetServiceURL = SetServiceURL + SvcURLOnly;
string url = new Uri(Application.Current.Host.Source, ServiceOrSiteURL).AbsoluteUri;
ListRefSoapClient = new SPListsRef.ListsSoapClient("ListsSoap", url);
}

Publishing Error in SharePoint 2010 - The form cannot be rendered

2010-11-06T09:23:00.000-07:00

I've found this around in various forms - How to correct Publishing Error in SharePoint 2010:

The form cannot be rendered. This may be due to a misconfiguration of the Microsoft SharePoint Server State Service. For more information, contact your server administrator.

To fix this, login to the server running Central Administration, click Start > Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products > SharePoint 2010 Management Shell OR Start > Administrative Tools > Windows Powershell Modules

In the Powershell, type in the following to create a new Service Application:

$serviceApp = New-SPStateServiceApplication -Name “State Service”

Next, create the State Service Database and associate it with a service application:

New-SPStateServiceDatabase -Name ”StateServiceDatabase” -ServiceApplication $serviceApp

Last, create a State Service Application Proxy and associate it with the service application:

New-SPStateServiceApplicationProxy -Name ”State Service” -ServiceApplication $serviceApp -DefaultProxyGroup
Exit the Powershell and run reset IIS - Start > Run > IISReset /noforce

Setting Script, Execute Folder Permissions in IIS 7.5

2010-11-04T12:58:00.000-07:00

Was working on an issue with Silverlight the other day and wanted to verify the folder settings in IIS 7.5 and it occurred to me I'd forgotten. I checked around and it took a few minutes to find - but too long so here's the short of it:

Open Internet Information Services Manager (IIS)
Expand the web site in the left hand panel
Locate the folder and click on it to select it
Double click 'Handler Mappings' in the middle panel
On the right hand panel, click 'Edit Feature Permissions...'
Set permissions as desired

Was simple, but they've made it a four step process in 7/7.5...

Vista Whole Computer Backup Nightmares

2010-10-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

I recently had a Vista laptop drive go south on me (one of the Raid channels failed). I struggled a bit but managed to get a full system backup both to disk and to DVD. Note: I HIGHLY suggest you use a separate USB drive - if you backup to CD or DVD, there's no guarantee you'll be able to find the driver to load during a restore!

Laptop returned with a fresh drive and the OEM installation setup (Sony FYI). It took me forever to find out where the "Complete" restore for Vista is - turns out you must actually have the original Vista installation drive, boot from it (you may have change your BIOS settings to do so), go through the starting page (language selection, etc.) then there is where the "Recovery" options are (lower left of the screen).

From the "System Recovery Options" you'll find "Windows Complete PC Restore" - it allows you to find the backup and attempt to do the restore.

Great post for the above: Getting to Vista System Recovery

Not feeling sure, I went ahead and did a whole system backup of the OEM installation - figured it all else failed at least I could get back there then went to the process (with the Vista DVD) to get to the recovery.

I thought I was good to go but wait....

First problem - Couldn't find the backup - it turns out that the DVD driver isn't loaded by the install so can't see it (even though it loaded Vista's install from there - argh!). Unless you have a DVD driver on a disk you are SOL. Fortunately, I had my USB drive backup - I hooked it up and viola, recovery correctly found it.

Oh but there's more...

Attempting to restore to the original system, I got the error "Disk too small" to handle the backup. What? This was the same system - did Sony give me a smaller disk?

I spent quite a while looking for the answers only to find out that every one had the problems I did but no answer - not from anyone (including Microsoft!).

I finally found the key - from the System Recovery there is a link to open a command line window; clicking on this you can access the "WBAdmin" utility; while most documenation around this is centered on Windows 2008, it actually works with Vista too...

The trick is to get the dang syntax straight and matching the correct name with the backup. In my case, the backup was on Drive G (my USB) and I was restoring Drive C. Note that instead of a USB Drive, you can use a network share as in \\server\sharename

First, you have to find the correct backup:

wbadmin get versions

In my case, the above finds nothing so I found out the drive location must be specified:

wbadmin get versions -backupTarget:G:

This got me the version name of the backup on G: - to do the recovery, I used:

wbadmin start recovery -version:10/05/2010-16:31 -itemtype:volume -items:C: -backupTarget:G: -recoverytarget:C:

NOTE: The Version MUST match exactly as 'get versions' shows and you cannot specify a 'path' as the backupTarget (use the drive letter only).

wbadmin start recovery -version:10/05/2010-16:31 -itemtype:volume -items:C: -backupTarget:G: -recoverytarget:C:

Also in my case, I had two different system backups on my USB - this requires you to add the machine name (the one I wanted was called VistaLaptop):

wbadmin start recovery -version:10/05/2010-16:31 -itemtype:volume -items:C: -backupTarget:G: -recoverytarget:C: -machine:VistaLaptop

Viola - after a few seconds, recovery started!

Ah...but we're not done yet - after the restore completed and I restarted, I got a nasty message:

0xc000000E error - unable to locate file \windows\system32\winload.exe

Text told me to reload the original Vista DVD, go through the start up then on the installation page, click the Repair Computer option.

When you do this, you get the System Recovery Options again - this time, I selected "Startup Repair", it seemed to run OK so I clicked Finish (NOTE: Be sure to remove your Vista DVD beforehand as it will automatically reboot on the click).

So again, I thought I was done but no..I tried running it again. No luck..

Finally found a post where they'd used this method:

Start from the DVD
Select your language and keyboard and click next
Select Recovery
Open the Command prompt.
x:\sources>Diskpart.exe
Diskpart> Select Disk=0
Diskpart> Select Partition=1
Diskpart> Active
Diskpart> exit

NOTE: MAKE SURE YOUR USB DRIVE IS NOT CONNECTED..

The post included using BCDEdit to make some changes - I DID NOT DO that; rather, after running the above, I rebooted on the CD and re-ran System Repair found the problem and fixed it!!!

Rebooted and happily running again!

SharePoint Application Creation Error: One or more types failed to load

2010-10-07T08:23:00.000-07:00

SharePoint Application Creation Error: One or more types failed to load

You might encounter this on either MOSS or SharePoint Server 2010 - the following are the solutions for this I've found:

1) The Database cannot be reached - it is either offline or cannot be accessed - in most cases the Event log will indicate this (may be a few messages down so check all errors) - Fix: First make sure the SQL Server is running then validate connectivity by checking the login (use the ODBC Data Connection) or try restarting the SQL Server
2) Office BETA is installed - Fix: Remove it
3) Office 2010 installed with SharePoint 2007 - Fix: Remove it

Have fun!

SharePoint 2010 User Profile Connection Failure

2010-09-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

When attempting to create a new Connection in the User Profile, you receive an error message similar to:

Unable to process Put message

When you return to the connection list, the connection will not have been made.

The problem here is the account you used to access the AD - this must be a farm administrator account (the SPFarm account) as it needs full permissions to update the user profile database. Enter the profile connection again with the correct account and it should work fine.

SharePoint Designer 2010 Error - The list of workflow actions on the server references an assembly that does not exist

2010-08-25T08:27:00.000-07:00

When attempting to create a new workflow using SharePoint Designer 2010, I've encountered the error:

"The list of workflow actions on the server references an assembly that does not exist. Some actions will no be available. The assembly strong name is Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c. Contact your administrator for more information."

In investigating this, I did find a post answered by Paul Stork on the Microsoft site - in his reply to the problem, he inidcated that this would typically happen when someone had added a custom workflow DLL to the WSS.ACTIONS or MOSS.ACTIONS files located in the hive under Template\1033\Workflow.

That said, as you can see by the error above, "Microsoft.SharePoint" is hardly a custom DLL. I got the above to occur when trying to create a workflow in a team site type site collection in a full instance of SharePoint (Standard or Enterprise).

I found two ways that seem to fix this:

1) Close Designer and run an IISReset - reopen Designer and try again
2) Use Designer to open an existing SharePoint publishing site (or create one if necessary) and create a new workflow (you should not get the error). Don't save it, just simply close Designer. Reopen the original site and try again.

MOSS MA Not Found error in User Profile Synchronization or System.ServiceModel.EndpointNotFoundException occurred in OWSTIMER

2010-08-25T07:46:00.000-07:00

When setting up a user profile service, connecting to AD or similar, when you try to complete the process, you get the very vauge error message "MOSS MA not found". A little confusing (after all, there's no more MOSS right?) but turns out the problem is that the Forefront Identity Management Service is not running.

OR - you see errors in the Event Application Log (Event ID 4096) showing:

An unhandled exception ('System.ServiceModel.EndpointNotFoundException') occurred in OWSTIMER.EXE.

Followed by "ResourceManagementService/MEX. TCP error code 10061".

NOTE: On a development machine, the second error will often open the Just In Time Debugger.

The issue is that the service is set to automatically start but if no connections are established, it shuts down.

To correct both issues, simply go to Start > Administrative Tools > Services then find "Forefront Identity Manager Service" and start it (make sure it actually starts). When done, return to Central Admin and try the sync again.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you perform a restart of the Server and again, the ForeFront service does not start, use the Services and modify the properties to set the Startup type to be 'Automatic (Delayed Start)',

NOTE: As a related issue:

Fixing the user profile service may require a bunch of fixes; one may be that you simply can't open the Configure Synchronization Connections (you get an error page).

Here's one possible fix:

First, try to connect to the Forefront Identity Manager -
c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\14.0\Synchronization Service\UIShell\miisclient.exe

If you get an error it might be because of:

1) The service itself is not running - you have to go through Administrative Tools > Services then start both FFI services
2) The account you are using is not a member of the local system group called FIMSyncAdmins

These aren't the only fixes - there may be others but the above might help! Sometimes a complete reboot is required.

SharePoint 2010 - InfoPath cannot generate a form template for the SharePoint list error

2010-08-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

Common error new users might see when trying to edit a List/Libary Form using InfoPath:

InfoPath cannot generate a form template for the SharePoint list.

The SOAP response indicates that an error occurred on the server:

Exception of type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.SoapServer.SoapServerException' was thrown.
<detail><errorstring xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/">
List does not exist.
The page you selected contains a list that does not exist. It may have been deleted by another user.
</errorstring><errorcode xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/">0x82000006</errorcode></detail>

Nasty eh? Actually it simply means that the list is in Datasheet view - apparently, SharePoint doesn't know this....change back to the normal view and try again.

Sharepoint 2010 Error - The list cannot be displayed in Datasheet view...

2010-08-12T15:04:00.000-07:00

When you try to open a list in a datasheet view, you recieve:

The list cannot be displayed in Datasheet view for one or more of the following reasons:

- A datasheet component compatible with Microsoft SharePoint Foundation is not installed.
- Your Web browser does not support ActiveX controls.
- A component is not properly configured for 32-bit or 64-bit support.

Thanks to Malcon.com for this one for a solution on Windows 2008R2 x64 is to do the following:

1) Download and install the 2007 Office System Driver: Data Connectivity Components (AccessDatabaseEngine.exe) from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7554F536-8C28-4598-9B72-EF94E038C891&displaylang=en
(ALL FRONT END SERVERS)

2) Download and install the Microsoft Office Access Runtime and Data Connectivity 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) (accessruntimeanddataconnectivity2007sp2-kb957262-fullfile-en-us.exe) from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6F4EDEED-D83F-4C31-AE67-458AE365D420&displaylang=en
(ALL FRONT END SERVERS)

Run IISReset to reset and try again.

SharePoint 2010 Error - Event ID 7043

2010-08-12T14:36:00.000-07:00

Came across this error and found a fix by Koen van der Linden:

SharePoint front end Application Event Log shows error 7043 over and over relating to the TaxonomyPicker.ascx - located in c:\Program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\14\template\Controltemplates

The error as it turns out is a typo in the actual file - if you open the file, on the Control defintion line (1st), you'll see that at the end of the namespace shows & # 4 4 ; (without the spaces - this blog wont print the characters if together) - this is the HTML equiv of a comma - edit the file, change those 5 characters to a comma and save.

Note that Koen referenced another error (I did not have this) related to the ScenarioNavigation.ascx file - in his case, the register line:

SharePoint 2010 Error - This Report failed to load because session state is not turned on

2010-07-01T22:52:00.000-07:00

This appears when attempting to access one of the SharePoint 2010 Reporting features like the Issues site, etc.

The problem is that during the configuration, it is not turned on by default. The fix is quite simple - open the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell (Powershell...reminds me of DEC's command line language!). Enter in the command enable-SPSessionStateService and hit return (no space between the hypen). This will prompt you for a database name, enter something like SPSessDB - this name will be used internally.

Do an IISReset and you should be all set.

Cannot open SharePoint Site - "Cannot Complete Action" SharePoint Site

2010-06-23T17:52:00.000-07:00

Creating a site or after making adjustments in IIS, you cannot load a SharePoint Site or get to the http:///_layouts/settings.aspx (settings) page and receive an error:

Cannot complete action.

Please try again.

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequestInternalClass.OpenWebInternal

While I've heard of many causes, one common one most miss - check IIS and ensure that ASP.NET Impersonation is enabled (Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager - expand the sites, select the site you are working with and click Authentication under the IIS group - enable ASP.NET Impersonation), run IISReset and you should be good to go!

FYI - MOSS 2007 and SharePoint 2010 have the same issue (msg is diff in 2010).

Exception form HRESULT: 0x80040e14

2010-04-27T03:22:00.000-07:00

While I've seen it posted elsewhere, this is another place! This error usually occurs when running an STSADM command, typically attempting to do a Restore of a backup. This error indicates that SQL Server does not have enough space to provision the data. Two fixes: 1) remove some files from the Hard Drive to free up some space - 2) Verify you have enough space and run the command again. One or the other should fix you up.

Trying to Test SharePoint Cache for 2007???

2010-04-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

I recently came into an issing when trying to test the SiteMapProvider cache in MOSS 2007 and using GetCachedListItemsByQuery; in specific, I was testing it a class using an Application and came across an odd error with this line of code:

PortalWebSiteMapNode portalNode = (PortalWebSiteMapNode)portalSiteMapProvider.FindSiteMapNode(web.ServerRelativeUrl);

Which returned:

Unable to cast object of type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation.PortalSiteMapNode' to type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation.PortalWebSiteMapNode'.

This common routine is based on the following code:

public static SiteMapNodeCollection GetCache(string listName, SPQuery query, string siteUrl)
{
try
{
SiteMapNodeCollection portalItems;
SPWeb web = new SPSite("http://site").RootWeb;
// Commented out to run in App:
//SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Site.RootWeb;
PortalSiteMapProvider portalSiteMapProvider = PortalSiteMapProvider.WebSiteMapProvider;
PortalWebSiteMapNode portalNode = (PortalWebSiteMapNode)portalSiteMapProvider.FindSiteMapNode(web.ServerRelativeUrl);
portalItems = portalSiteMapProvider.GetCachedListItemsByQuery(portalNode, listName, query, web);
return portalItems;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
WriteEventLog(ex, "Navigation Control - Error attempting to get Cache from the PortalSiteMap Provider", "ERROR", 1000, "");
return null;
}
}

After scratching my head for a bit, tracing the object model and knowing the code Should work, I exhausted searching and found nothing like this had been covered.

The problem is that you cannot run this code unless you are in the context of the site - that is, running as a control or web part.

While this is highly contrary to the way it should be in simple .net (after all, we have full access to the SharePoint API via an app and a type is a type right?), this object model can't do it.

WCF Service cannot be tested under SharePoint

2010-03-19T15:04:00.000-07:00

Using WCF with SharePoint? Finding that the service can't be checked though it is working? Check the IIS 7.0 Application Pool setttings for the "Managed Pipeline Mode" - if it is set to "Classic" (as SharePoint demands), you'll get:

Server Error in '/' Application.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The resource cannot be found.

Description: HTTP 404. The resource you are looking for (or one of its dependencies) could have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please review the following URL and make sure that it is spelled correctly.

Requested URL: //.svc

To check it, change the Mode to be "Integrated" and the service (if installed correctly) will render as it is supposed to. When done, change it back.

Note: As I mentioned in my previous post, this setting will prevent you from getting to the SharePoint site; after you have tested and made sure it is working, be sure that t

You receive a Server Application Unavailable in MOSS/WSS using IIS 7.0

2010-03-19T12:02:00.000-07:00

Recently came across a clients problem - on attempting to render the SharePoint Site, they received:

Server Application Unavailable

The web application you are attempting to access on this web server is currently unavailable. Please hit the "Refresh" button in your web browser to retry your request.
Administrator Note: An error message detailing the cause of this specific request failure can be found in the application event log of the web server. Please review this log entry to discover what caused this error to occur.

After some checking, it turns out that it was due to the Application Pool - while properly setup (the site had been operating just fine), the "Managed Pipeline Mode" was set to Integrated - changing this back to Classic (SharePoint 2007 requires this) fixes the problem.

Installing SharePoint 2010 using a SQL Named Instance

2010-03-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

When doing the setup for SharePoint and connecting to the database for the first time and you are using a named instance, for example: SQLx64\SP2010SQL, you must specify the full path. Note however, you have to be sure the text case is exact as it is in SQL Server.

Doing a new install the other day, the error message displayed was quite alarming - protocol errors or some such. I had inadvertantly entered the name in uppercase as in: SQLX64\SP2010SQL.

Windows Data Execution Prevention detected an add-on - Windows 2008, IE8, SharePoint, Office

2010-03-11T13:54:00.000-08:00

In a development VM system running Windows Server 2008 R2, I had inadvertantly left the Automatic Updates to On. Naturally, they downloaded and rebooted overnight so the next morning, I logged on in had the unpleasant surprise of ALL of my SharePoint sites crashing (including Central Admin). On attempt to open the page, it would partially display then immediately redirect to a new URL:

res://ieframe.dll/acr_depnx_error.htm#http://

This page displays the default message:
Windows Data Execution Prevention detected an add-on trying to use system memory incorrectly. This can be caused by a malfunction or a malicious add-on

Checking the event log, I found this:

Faulting application name: iexplore.exe, version: 8.0.7600.16385, time stamp: 0x4a5bc69e

Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000
Faulting process id: 0x388
Faulting application start time: 0x01cac155f16f8d64
Faulting application path: C:\program files (x86)\internet explorer\iexplore.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 465927c2-2d49-11df-8e60-000c29c0b5a1

I also happened to try to open Word - bam - application fault as well. Event log showed:

Faulting application name: WINWORD.EXE, version: 12.0.6514.5000, time stamp: 0x4a89d533

Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000
Faulting process id: 0x10ac
Faulting application start time: 0x01cac156e171c287
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 21b31ab7-2d4a-11df-8e60-000c29c0b5a1

All solutions I looked at indicated either DEP, removing add-ons or somehow related to flash. Not the case - I followed all of them to no avail. I revereted to a backup and ran Windows Update manually and lo and behold, two Microsoft Office Security Updates, when removed, corrected the problem:

Security Update for the 2007 Microsoft Office System (KB969613)

Download size: 1.9 MB
Update type: Important
A security vulnerability exists in the 2007 Microsoft Office System and the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack that could allow arbitrary code to run when a maliciously modified file is opened. This update resolves that vulnerability.

More information:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=63BD8F14-E736-46CE-AF66-D30F17461E5A&displaylang=en

Security Update for the 2007 Microsoft Office System (KB974234)
Download size: 525 KB
Update type: Important

This update resolves a problem that can cause programs that use the Outlook View Control with Forms 2.0, such as Microsoft Office Outlook with Business Contact Manager, to stop functioning as expected after Security Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 (KB972363) is installed.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974234

Note that when I tested Word with the patches removed, I received an odd install message:

After this, Word started normally.

So to verify, I tried adding them back - while I suspected KB969613 was the problem, adding both back, one at a time corrected the problem completely.

NOTE: As an update, I repeated this on another system with the same problem; I ended up removing all of the Security Updates that occurred (approx release date 3/9/2010) - this included:

Office updates:

969559
978380
973704
972581

Security updates:
977724
969693
957789
973709
978382

Update for Junk Email Filter:
979895

As always...good luck!

The binding at system.serviceModel/bindings/basicHttpBinding does not have a configured binding named

2010-02-24T11:31:00.000-08:00

Odd message you might encounter using WCF bindings in Visual Studio 2008; I came up with this one and took awhile to figure out what it was exactly - to save you some time. This error occurs when your are trying to debug a WCF Service project - when you attach to the process, a pop up box appears with the Binding name and the nice message "error" shown next to it. Clicking on this will display a better message in a window below - this starts out with:

The binding at system.serviceModel/bindings/basicHttpBinding does not have a configured binding named ''.

This occurs when the 'bindingConfiguration=""' tag is set on your binding in the App.config file of the WCF Service. If you look at the detail of the error, it will indicate the line number, etc. in the file .dll.config - this is a copy of the App.Config file so you map one to one. If not using it simply remove it and the error will go away.

How to fix AG_E_UNKNOWN_ERROR in Silverlight Control

2010-02-20T08:36:00.000-08:00

This one stumped me when I first started out on Silverlight and in searching for answers, had much difficulty in finding an actual answer; I'd forgotten to post this at the time but...

The problem with this error is that it is simply telling you there is something wrong with the XAML code - personally, they could have made it easier but that is another story. It is usually that the target control cannot be located from the XAML.

First, double check the way you are defining the xmlns for the control - by default this is:

xmlns:CustomControls="clr-namespace:MyControl"

This should also include the assembly name as:

xmlns:CustomControls="clr-namespace:MyControl;assembly=MyControl"

The other is to check your Control Template TargetType - be sure that the CLASS name is specified:

If nether of the above help, the problem is in the XAML sytax - comment out as much as possible then introduce new elements one at a time until you determine the cause.

Silverlight WrapPanel and DockPanel

2010-02-15T15:06:00.001-08:00

As we all know, Silverlight incorporated into SharePoint is an excellent way to update the UI and provide very lightweight controls.

However, like most folks (so I've found), the WrapPanel and DockPanel namespaces can be difficult to find for a beginner. WrapPanels are so necessary for SharePoint's pages and web parts and DockPanel is cool for app development.

I stumbled on this (as everyone else) then did the usual searching...I did find some posts but the examples were incomplete and some, including one from Microsoft that are incorrect (on CodePlex!).

To access this control, you have to do the following:

First, make sure that a) You have Silverlight 3 (or 4) installed and b) that you have downloaded and installed the Silverlight Toolkit from CodePlex.

Next, in your Silverlight project, add a Reference to System.Windows.Controls.Toolkit (I usually include System.Windows.Controls too).

Now in your control, you add the Namespace for the Toolkit with the other name spaces as so:

<usercontrol x:class="SomeControl.MainPage">
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:controls="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Toolkit"

...

Now you can add your control:

....<controls:wrappanel x:name="AWrapPanel" horizontalalignment="Left" scrollviewer.horizontalscrollbarvisibility="Auto" scrollviewer.verticalscrollbarvisibility="Auto" verticalalignment="Top" width="200" />
....

Have fun!

Service Application Failure in SharePoint 2010

2010-02-10T10:35:00.000-08:00

I've seen a number of posts on this - just to save some folks time, I'm reposting:

During the SharePoint 2010 installation, you may encounter an error when first setting up the central administration similar to this:

The service application proxy "User Profile Service Application" could not be provisioned because of the following error....

To fix, download the Hotfix from Microsoft:

http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=23806

Note: this is also known as KB976462

Unfortunately, the settings will be off in your installation so to be on the safe side, you have to completely uninstall SharePoint from the web server. When complete, you must also go to SQL Server and delete all of the databases that were created (alas, 2010 does not remove them automatically with an uninstall).

Office Server 2010 Configuration Error "errorData"

2010-02-10T09:27:00.000-08:00

When connecting to the Database during the installation of SharePoint, you might come across this:

"An error has occurred while validating the configuration settings. An exception of type System.ArgumentNullException was thrown. Additional exception information: The errorData argument cannot be null or zero length.

Parameter name: errorData"

Like all of you, I googled and binged my way to figure out what was wrong - however, none of them saved me.

DON'T worry! This error only means that SharePoint cannto connect to the database.

If you look into the event log, you'll see the error:

"Unkown SQL Exception 53 occurred. Addtional error information from SQL Server is included below.

A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error 40 - Could not open a connecto SQL Server)"

Here's the checklist for fixing the problem - after each of these, try to connect:

1) Verify you can connect to the database using DataSources (Start > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC)) - setup a new System DSN and supply server name, etc. however when you go to connect, be sure that "Connect to SQL Server to obtain..." is NOT checked. Also, click on Client Configuration to check that TCP/IP is selected and the correct port is set (or set to Auto).

SIDE NOTE: Using the Datasource setup is the way to set a different port than the standard 1433.

2) On the SQL Server, verify using the SQL Server Configuration Manager - for each Named Pipes is enabled as a protocol for the SQL Native Client 10.0 Configuration and under the SQL Server Network Configuration.

3) On the SQL Server, verify that the SQL Agent and SQL Browser services are running and set to Automatic (Start > Administrative Tools > Services). If they are not started, start them.

4) On the SQL Server, check the services themselves and ensure that the account used for running the SQL Server is correct and in the Local Administrators group on all servers. In my case, the SQL Browser service was running as Local System - I changed that to the correct account and rebooted.

5) Last - and this was my environment - using VM's with DHCP addresses, I added the SQL Server to the HOSTS file (c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts).

Opening Firewall Ports for SQL Server 2008

2010-02-10T07:39:00.000-08:00

Installing SQL Server 2008 requires opening a number of ports for applications like SharePoint to use it. Having searched a bit myself, here's the Microsoft instuctions:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968872

While dated, the script still works - paste the commands into a command file (.bat or .cmd) and run from the command line.

Unable to install SharePoint 2010 due to SQL 2008 Version

2010-02-09T13:17:00.000-08:00

You might encounter an error when you attempt to install SharePoint Foundation or Server 2010 using SQL Server 2008. In the message displayed, you'll see a link to Microsoft - this is the Hotfix page where you can register for the hotfix and Microsoft will email it to you.

Be aware however that you will get two hotfix files - password protected Zip files that extract an executable - to save you sometime, only the patch file 398850_intl_x64_zip.exe is necessary. In over ten installs, the other patch, 381569_intl_x64_zip.exe will not run; it fails when starting setup.

Now available for new projects

2010-01-04T09:20:00.001-08:00

Expert in Corporate Networking/Collaboration Systems and Enterprise Information Architecture. Subject matter expert in Microsoft Technologies with emphasis on SharePoint (SharePoint Server, SharePoint Foundation and Versions 2-3), SQL Server and .NET/Silverlight Technologies. Expert in all aspects of SharePoint implementations and conversions (2003-2007 and 2007 to 2010).

Noted technical author including MOSS 2007 The Complete Reference.

Direct contact: david_sterling@sterling-consulting.com - +1 704-202-2282.

HOME FOR SALE! Mooresville, North Carolina

2009-09-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

Currently selling a home and golf lots in Mooresville, North Carolina. Nestled inbetween the 4th and 6th holes of the Mallard Head Golf Course. Oustanding Schools, close to shopping and 1.5 miles to Lake Norman! 35 miles from downtown Charlotte.

3 Bedrooms (with oversized master suite), 2 full bath, custom built bar (seats 12), quality oak trim throughout - all appliances less than 1 year old.

For more information please go to : http://www.homeandpropertyforsale.com/

Contact me directly - david_sterling@sterling-consulting.com

Unable to open the Adventure Works Catalog with Default Site

2009-09-16T07:20:00.000-07:00

I've heard of many cases in which using the Commerce Server default data (the Adventure Works Catalog) fails to load after a successful install and several solutions though I've not seen a post regarding Commerce Server 2009 with SharePoint which requires a different fix.

The symptom is demonstrated by error messages when you try to open the Adventure Works Catalog using the Catalog Manager; if you check the System Event Log, you'll see a message similar to this:

Failed to retrieve the AzMan Scope named CatalogScope_Adventure Works Catalog

The CS2009 fix for this is under Start > All Programs > Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 > Tools > Upgrade Wizard. Simply run this utility on the catalog and Viola!

Commerce Server Web Services Connection Failures - Authentication Errors

2009-09-16T07:03:00.000-07:00

After installing and configuring Commerce Server 2009, you may encounter connection and permsissions errors when attempting to use the Catalog Manager, etc. While there can be several causes, a few tips:

No permission to connect/General Permissions Errors/Unable to connect to services under Default Site:

The setup documentation for Commerce isn't clear on the SharePoint integration; while it correctly tells you to add the users to the IIS_WPG group, it is necessary to add the same users to the WSS_WPG. The IIS_WPG (Internet Information Services Worker Process Group) is the default group used for running services for IIS/ASP.NET sites. WSS_WPG, added when SharePoint is installed, serves the same purpose but for SharePoint sites Only.

NOTE: One way to avoid the above problem completely is to put all of the Web Services into a single IIS site (provisioned through IIS, not SharePoint) then modify all of your connection strings to point to the new location.

Authentication Errors:

If you get authentication logged in the System Event log, it can indicate that permissions are wrong in the Authorization file for the service (i.e. CatalogAuthorizationStore.xml). You verify this using the azman.msc snap-in to view the settings. Per the documentation, the web service machine groups (CatalogWebSvcGroup, etc.) are added to the Administration Roles using azman.msc; however, in a domain environment, it is often necessary to add the specific Domain User accounts (i.e. \CatalogWebSvc) to the Administrator/Catalog Administrator Roles (same for Orders, Profiles and Marketing).

Pipelines: The PCF file 'c:\inetpub\wwwroot\CatalogWebService\pipelines\basket.pcf' does not exist

2009-09-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

When deploying a commerce site, you might encounter the following error attempting to use the Catalog Web Service (Catalog Manager, Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager):

Pipelines: The PCF file 'c:\inetpub\wwwroot\CatalogWebService\pipelines\basket.pcf' does not exist

To correct:

1) First check the CSApp.ini files in each of the services to verify they are pointing to the right site and that the path defined is correct
2) Check web.config of the web services to verify the Site name specified is correct

Commerce Server Failed to start monitoring changes to '' because access is denied

2009-09-15T12:59:00.000-07:00

A tip for those of you trying to configure Commerce Server 2009 under SharePoint.

After deploying a site then trying to access the Catalog Web Service (or other services), you may encounter the error:

Commerce Server Failed to start monitoring changes to '' because access is denied

The problem here is that the Web Service Accounts in Commerce do not have access to SharePoint - simply add them to the WSS_WPG group (Start > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Local Users and Groups) in addition to the IIS_WPG as instructed in the documentation.

Adding the Rich Text/HTML Editor control to a Web Part

2009-08-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

You might have tried this but had limited success (see warning below) however it is really quite easy to add this control to a web part...just do the following:

In your Web Part project, add a reference to the SharePoint Publishing DLL - in your project, right click on References then under the .NET tab, locate "Microsoft COntent Publishing and Management"

Next, add the using statements in the code:

using Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.WebControls;

Next, define the control you want to create:

Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.WebControls.HtmlEditor DescriptionEditorField = new HtmlEditor();

(note because of the Using, you don't need the full namespace but I showed it here for reference)

Next, in the OnLoad method, define and add the control to the web part:

//
//-----------------------------
// DescriptionEditorField
//-----------------------------
//
DescriptionEditorField.ID = "DescriptionEditorField";
DescriptionEditorField.ToolTip = "Description Field";
DescriptionEditorField.PopupEditorMode = true;
DescriptionEditorField.AllowHtmlSourceEditing = true;
DescriptionEditorField.UseIntranetMode = true;
DescriptionEditorField.DisableCustomStyles = false;
DescriptionEditorField.DisableBasicFormattingButtons = false;
DescriptionEditorField.EnableExtensions = false;
DescriptionEditorField.DefaultAssetLocation = "/";
DescriptionEditorField.DefaultAssetImageLocation = "/";
//
this.Controls.Add(DescriptionEditorField);
//

NOTE 1: You MUST use the Popup mode for this to work correcting in a Web Part! If set to "false", it will display but you will not be able to edit.

NOTE 2: For this to work correctly, be SURE that base.Render(writer); is NOT in the Render method (if it is, the control will render twice!)

In the Render method, you can render the control as:

DescriptionEditorField.RenderControl(writer);

WARNING:

When using certain controls (like the Menu Control), it may require that HtmlEditor controls BE RENDERED EVEN IF NOT USED. The effect if you do not, is that you get a JavaScript error on the page indicating it cannot find the control. To prevent this, you can simply check to determine if you want to render or not and if not, set the visibility to false:

DescriptionEditorField.Visible = false;

Happy Coding!!!

Errors in SharePoint Search

2009-02-15T06:34:00.000-08:00

Error in SharePoint search...

You may get an error similar to this:

Application Server Administration job failed for service instance Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance (5fef29c9-308d-4817-bee0-13e39773b7da).
Reason: Object ea615eb7-2b01-4f8c-8db2-ebb2aa357519 not found.

To fix this, you will have to recreate (create a new) SSP; move all applications to point to the new SSP then delete the old one.

Note: After doing so, you must open SQL and under Tasks, remove the SSP Job:

SSPName_Configuration_Job_DeleteExpiredSessions

(Where SSPName is the name SSP you deleted)

If you don't you will start seeing Failure Audit errors in the event log:
Login failed for user 'NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM'. [CLIENT: ]

MOSS and Windows 2008, Event IDs 6875, 7888 and 4965

2009-02-09T10:43:00.000-08:00

If you have just installed MOSS on Windows 2008 and have a problem creating Publishing Sites (the create never finishes), check your event log - if you see Events 6875, 7888 and 4965 these indicate permissions problems, etc.

As it turns out, the fix is simply to update the MOSS Farm Account as follows:

cd c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\bin

Run the STSADM Command to update the account info:

stsadm -o updatefarmcredentials -userlogin acctname -password acctpassword

Then run an IISReset /noforce

If you have only a single server setup (or standalone server instance), you are done - if in a farm, login to each of the remaining servers and repeat the above adding the "-local" switch:

stsadm -o updatefarmcredentials -userlogin acctname -password acctpassword -local

Cannot write to the Event Log from SharePoint or .NET Application

2009-01-13T12:35:00.000-08:00

You may find when working with posting events to the Event Log that they fail - this can happen when using SICG's SharePoint Helper as well as any .NET application you happen to be building.

The problem is that (depending on the system settings), the ASPNET account does not have the correct permissions - to correct:

Open the Registry Editor (regedit), locate the following entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/EventLog

Right click on this and grant the ASPNET account Full Control.

Cannot use Web Folder view in SharePoint

2008-12-18T08:03:00.000-08:00

A common issue I hear from many clients - web folder browsing not working in Document and Image Libraries.

The cluprit is on the server - to work correctly the 'Web Client' Service must be running on all front end machines.

To fix (on each server), login and open Administrative Tools > Services. Scroll down until you find the WebClient service. Right click on the name and select Properties. On the properties page, change the Startup type to Automatic then click Apply. Next click the Start button then the OK button to close.

SharePointHelper Now in BETA

2008-12-18T07:50:00.000-08:00

After much work, SICG's SharePointHelper is now in BETA.

SharePointHelper eliminates many of the common tasks needed when developing on or for SharePoint in applications, web parts, etc. Features include alert management, task management, database access, import/export files, manage lists and more.

The current BETA will be running for 30 days; if you are interested in the tool and seeing the documentation, please contact SICG at sicg@sterling-consulting.com.

JScript Error using SharePoint HtmlEditor Control

2008-10-03T07:36:00.000-07:00

Just one of those "had the problem" and know others will...

When using the HtmlEditor in a web part, you may find that you start receiving JScript errors even though you a) may not have rendered the control and b) the code seems to execute fine all the way through the Render Event.

The problem is that the Control requires anchoring to the physical control on the page; if you define it in the OnLoad or CreateChildControls methods but DO NOT render the control, this situation will occur.

To get around this, you must render the control and Hide it using a Div as in:

writer.Write("

");
CreateHeaderEditorControl.RenderControl(writer);
writer.Write("

");

NOTE: Do not use Visible=false; the control is not rendered and you will get the same error.

Unable to setup MOSS SSO Service

2008-07-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

When attempting to setup Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Single Sign On Service, you receive the message:

You do not have the rights to perform this operation.

Even though you are logged in as the System Account or an account that is a farm administrator. The problem here is the actual Microsoft SSO service; open Services (Start > Administrative Tools > Services) and find the MS SSO Service. Right click on the service and select properties - click the Log On tab and check to see what account it is using - if it is the Local System, that is incorrect (this is the default setting). You must change this to be SharePoint Service account or the account running the Application Pool for SharePoint.

VMWare installation on XP prompts for Host

2008-03-25T16:17:00.000-07:00

Had this problem? Install VMWare on XP and for some reason, you cannot connect to the host? Unlike the other problem I've mentioned in another blog, this one has been troublesome...

The fix:

1) Make sure IIS is installed before you install VMWare - if you don't, uninstall and start again

2) After IIS is installed, disable the default web site then install VMWare

3) If neither of the above work, add your IP/Machine Name to the Hosts file

If none of the above work, you are likely missing a service pack or have an old copy of VMWare.

Get or Set the Windows Default Printer in C#

2008-03-25T16:09:00.000-07:00

I like many of you, struggled to find all of the pieces needed to get or set the default printer for a system. This is particularly useful for InfoPath - the InfoPath Interop Assembly doesn't provide any way to set the printer - it will simply print to the default.

Having had this issue, the following code resolves it all - and by the way, I included what you need for using statements (hate when folks leave that out!):

using System.Runtime.InteropServices; // Needed for DLLs
using System.IO; // Needed for FileInfo (to open the file)
using System.Xml; // Needed for the XML document namespace (if using InfoPath)
using System.Management; // Needed to Get/Set the printer

namespace WindowsApplication1
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
// Code by David M. Sterling - Sterling International Consulting Group
// www.sterling-consulting.com
//
// Add the function to return the default printer:
//
[DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
public static extern bool GetDefaultPrinter(StringBuilder pszBuffer, ref int pcchBuffer);
//
private const int ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND = 2;
private const int ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER = 122;
//
//===========================================================
///

/// SetTheDefaultPrinter
///

//===========================================================
/// Printer name as string
///
///
public int SetTheDefaultPrinter(string PrinterName)
{
int ReturnVal = 0;
string DeviceIdPath = "win32_printer.DeviceId='" + PrinterName + "'";
using (ManagementObject PrinterObj = new ManagementObject(DeviceIdPath))
{
ManagementBaseObject ReturnedParameters =
PrinterObj.InvokeMethod("SetDefaultPrinter", null, null);
ReturnVal = (int)(uint)ReturnedParameters.Properties["ReturnValue"].Value;
}
return ReturnVal;
}
//
//===========================================================
///

/// GetDefaultPrinter
///

//===========================================================
/// Printer name as string
///
public string GetDefaultPrinter()
{
int pcch_Buffer = 0;
if (GetDefaultPrinter(null, ref pcch_Buffer))
{
return null;
}
int lastWin32Error = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error();
if (lastWin32Error == ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER)
{
StringBuilder psz_Buffer = new StringBuilder(pcch_Buffer);
if (GetDefaultPrinter(psz_Buffer, ref pcch_Buffer))
{
return psz_Buffer.ToString();
}
lastWin32Error = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error();
}
if (lastWin32Error == ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND)
{
return null;
}
return "Error : unable to obtain the current default printer";
}

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string TheNewPrinterName = "HP Deskjet 6800 Series";
//
string DefaultPrinterName = GetDefaultPrinter();
//
SetTheDefaultPrinter(TheNewPrinterName);
//
// Print away...
// ...
// When done:
//
SetTheDefaultPrinter(DefaultPrinterName);
}

Link to the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 The Complete Reference Site and Blog

2008-03-18T09:51:00.000-07:00

Alas, while not published inside the book, the official site for "Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 The Complete Reference" by Osborne/Mcgraw-Hill is:

http://www.mosstcm.com

(You might have thought mosstcr, but the name of the book changed!).

From this site you can view the local blog as well as download the source from the book and the bonus web chapter on the Business Data Catalog.

Button Click Event does not fire on the first click

2008-03-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

Having come across this several times and forgotten how I'd fixed it, I figured this will help more than a few...

The problem occurs in Buttons, DataGrids and other event driven controls in Web Parts and Controls. On the first time through, the primary event (like the Click event on a button), the event does not fire. On the second click however, everything seems fine. If you follow through in Debug, you'll file that the event is actually skipped and the control proceeds to the render event.

In most cases, the fix is simple: one of the controls within the control/web part has AutoPostBack = true where it doesn't need it. Typically, this is a cut and paste error - for example, adding AutoPostBack to a TextBox.

This, by the way, though very odd, is somewhat expected. The invalid postback on the control tells ASP.NET that it's already happened, when indeed it hasn't since the specific control cannot perform the actual postback.

VMWare Prompts for Host to login to after installation

2008-03-15T05:04:00.000-07:00

For those of you that use VMWare (and Virtual Server) like I do, there can be a very annoying issue with VMWare after install in which it will prompt you for a Server to login to (note: this applies to VMWare 1.04). Regardless of what you enter, the login will fail usually with the message "target machine actively refused" the connection.

While not always a guaranteed fix, you can try this simple one. On the system in question, open a command prompt and enter:

gpupdate /force

This is will update the Group Policies on the local system (note that in some cases, you may have to reboot). Once complete, try opening VMWare Server again and you should see the normal local host option.

Alerts (Immediate and Workflow) not working in WSS/MOSS

2008-03-02T07:22:00.001-08:00

You may have an issue in which SharePoint Alerts are not being sent, though you receive an alert when it is created.

The primary issue centered around the Timer Service and a few jobs that must be running for alerts to work. A few things to check for first:

1) Verify the Timer service is running and that it's identity (running as) is the SharePoint Service account (Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services). Locate the SharePoint Timer service in the list and see if it is running. If not, right click on it and start it. If it stops again, the user is likely incorrect. Right click on it and select Properties then on the Identity tab, verify the account in use (Local Service or similar is NOT correct); set this to be the SharePoint Service account, close out the properties and try to start it again. If it stops again, you will have to go to the Domain Policies and make sure that the service account has "Run as a Service".

2) Verify the necessary jobs exist (SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration > Operations > Timer Job Definitions):
Immediate Alerts
Workflow
Workflow Auto Cleanup
Workflow Failover

If they do exist, check the Timer Job Status (SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration > Operations > Timer Job Status) and see if any of these are displaying errors (you should also check the System Application Event Log).

If the jobs do not exist, you may be in for some work depending on the installation. If the site was a restore, you may have created an issue Microsoft has identified - you can see this solution here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942989

However, as I discovered with one of my clients, a site that had been migrated (not the situation explained in the link above) was missing these jobs. After much investigation, I was able to simply add the jobs as follows:

Login to the server, get down to the command line and set your directory to be the SharePoint bin folder (usually c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\bin). Verify the STSADM.exe file (the SharePoint command line utility) is there to make sure you are in the right folder.

Add the jobs to the site experiencing the problem by adding the jobs manually as so (Note: you should ONLY do this for the job(s) missing).

First you can verify whether the job already exists by using the command:

stsadm -o getproperty -propertyname job-immediate-alerts -url http://yoursite:port

If the job does not exist, you will recieve a message:

Property Exist="No"

If the job does exist, you will see a different message, such as:

Property Exist="Yes" Value="every 5 minutes between 0 and 59"

(In both cases, the message preceeded by a left arrow and closed with a slash-right arrow; this blog will not permit me to enter the exact syntax as it interprets it as HTML).

Verify this for all the job types:

Job Type: Property Name:
Immediate Alerts job-immediate-alerts

Workflow job-workflow

Workflow Auto Cleanup job-workflow-autoclean

Workflow Failover job-workflow-failover

To add the individual jobs:

Immediate alerts:

stsadm -o setproperty -propertyname job-immediate-alerts -url http://yoursite:port -propertyvalue "every 5 minutes between 0 and 59"

Workflow:

stsadm -o setproperty -propertyname job-workflow -url http://yoursite:port -propertyvalue "every 5 minutes between 0 and 59"

Workflow Auto Clean:
stsadm -o setproperty -propertyname job-workflow-autoclean -url http://yoursite:port -propertyvalue "daily between 22:00:00 and 06:00:00"
Workflow Failover:
stsadm -o setproperty -propertyname job-workflow-failover -url http://yoursite:port -propertyvalue "every 15 minutes between 0 and 59"

Use the Get Property command to verify that the jobs are created. Note that the URL MUST BE SPECIFIED AND CORRECT or you will simply receive 'Property Exist="No"'.

Hope this helps! Sure beat trying to follow the Microsoft solution (which may or may not have corrected the problem).

Unable to run Repair on SharePoint installation

2008-02-27T07:11:00.000-08:00

Should you need to run a Repair operation on MOSS or WSS, it usually works well and can fix some unusual problems. However, on some in cases, you may encounter an error that looks like this:

In specific (in case you can't read the image), the message is:

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 configuration did not complete succesfully.

An installation package for the product Microsoft Office Shared Coms English Language Pack cannot be found. Try the installation again using a valid copy of the installation package 'osrvmui.msi'.

The cause is painfully simple - during the Repair operation the original installation media (DVD/ISO) MUST BE Mounted before hand. Unlike Microsoft Office, when the repair operation checks for this file, rather than request the media, it simply fails the operation.

A bit of an opener...

2008-02-27T07:08:00.000-08:00

While I've usually very little time to keep up a blog, this one will be a start of some tidbits that I come across in the various projects and development SICG does.

Some of these will be notes that I was unable to add to my book, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 The Complete Reference. While impressive at 800 pages, the original manuscript was over 1700 pages - a lot had to be cut down due to publishing requirements.

I hope you'll find these tidbits useful!