Fadi Noja - SharePoint 2007/2010

SharePoint 2010 Beta

2009-11-25T13:24:00.001+11:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything here, but I thought I'd get off my lazy butt and start again. I've just finished installing SharePoint 2010 and am playing around with it. What I'll do over the next few months is post some of the nice features as well as some of the issues faces with SP2010.

SharePoint SP2 Crash

2009-04-30T11:02:00.004+10:00

I've come across this error today,

[SPDatabaseGbwSequence] [ERROR] [4/30/2009 10:43:38 AM]: Upgrade object too new (build version = 12.0.0.6341, schema version = 2.0.0.0). Current server (build version = 12.0.0.4518, schema version = 3.0.1.0).

During the SharePoint wizard running after installing WSS and MOSS Sp2. The site still functions. Im looking into what hotfix has been installed that caused the schema to be upgraded and why SP2 is using the old schema. The install failed but the sites still function. Watch this space and I will let you know of a fix/workaround.

Fadi

===================

Found the problem. It was GroupBoard. When you install Group Board it updates the schema. The fix is simple, uninstall group board, re-run the wizard, re-install GroupBoard and the problem is gone.

If you go to http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://technet.microsoft.com/de-de/library/cc288269.aspx&ei=6zD5SZqxOqjhtgfl9o2uDw&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=6&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsharepoint%2Bhotfix%2BSPDatabaseGbwSequence%2Bschema%2Bversion%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1C1_____enUS323US323 you can see the fix. Only the German technet site talks about the error, the english one (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288269.aspx) doesn't have the exact error message.

If that doesn't work, try forcing the upgrade by ding the following:

"STSADM.EXE -o upgrade -inplace -forceupgrade –url http://site" for each web application you have.
then run wizard "psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait –force"

Fadi

WSS/MOSS Service Pack 2 is out!!!!!

2009-04-29T09:47:00.002+10:00

SharePoint and MOSS SP2 are out now. Go to

Download links are :

MOSS: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=b7816d90-5fc6-4347-89b0-a80deb27a082

WSS: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=79bada82-c13f-44c1-bdc1-d0447337051b

Please test it out on a dev or test environment before installing it on a prod. Also, if it fails, just follow the steps I set out for SP1 crash (stsadm -o upgrade -forceupgrade)

Fadi

Removing the Name ActiveX control (Name.dll) From a Public Facing SharePoint Site

2009-04-23T11:58:00.002+10:00

If you have a public facing site, some users that are using IE7 have come across this issue. there's 2 ways to do this.

1, Modify the master page:

2. Install feature

http://www.codeplex.com/SPAXO

Fadi

SharePoint SP2 release date

2009-04-17T09:12:00.001+10:00

SP2 for SharePoint will be out on the 28th of April 2009. To find out more details about what it includes, go to http://blogs.technet.com/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2009/04/16/service-pack-2-for-the-2007-microsoft-office-system-due-to-ship-april-28th.aspx

Fadi

Error: There is no web named "" when running content deployment

2009-04-08T13:22:00.001+10:00

Hi all,

This error doesn't always appear during content deployment, it can also appear during site creation. I came across it the other day while content deployment was happening. After a bit of playing around with SharePoint, it turned out not to be a SharePoint error. The SQL box had run out of space. After deleting some unwanted databases, ran content deployment again and it worked fine.

Fadi

Page not Found error

2009-04-04T00:58:00.002+11:00

Over the past couple of weeks, I've had many people ask me to fix their "page not found" error. Most of the say it appeared after:

Backup/restore
Export/import
Create new site/sub site

99% of these people's problems was the master page couldn't be found (hence the "page not found" error). To fix this, you can either edit the site in SharePoint Designer (which is now free) and fix the master page (by either editing it, or uploading it, or publishing it), or create a feature that sets the master page and activate that feature.

If you have this problem and it's not the master page, please let me know and I can see if I can help.

Fadi

SharePoint Designer available for free

2009-04-03T09:16:00.001+11:00

For those of you that are interested, SharePoint Designer is available free of charge from April 2.

Here's the link

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepointdesigner/archive/2009/04/02/download-spd-for-free-today.aspx

Feb CU installation issues...

2009-03-28T16:27:00.002+11:00

Not sure if any of you have had issues installing the Feb CU, but I've come across an issue that I thought I should share.

The installation worked fine, however the wizard failed. After hours of investigating why it failed, it turned out that a web.config was set to read only. After changing it, the wizard worked.

If you want to install the WSS and the MOSS Feb CU (I recommend you do, it fixes a lot of content deployment issues), here's the steps:

Run the WSS CU setup
Restart the server
Run the MOSS CU setup
Run the configuration wizard

If you are only using WSS, you can skip the step of installing the MOSS CU.

Fadi

Internet Explorer 8

2009-03-20T12:17:00.001+11:00

IE8 if finally out. I recommend everyone download it. I'm playing around with it now, and I like some of the new functionality like the way the search box works.

Go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx to download it.

Getting SharePoint to work on Vista

2009-03-11T11:08:00.002+11:00

I did some searching and came across this interesting post. It actually shows you how to get SharePoint to work on Vista with SQLExpress as the database.

http://community.bamboosolutions.com/blogs/bambooteamblog/archive/2008/05/21/how-to-install-windows-sharepoint-services-3-0-sp1-on-vista-x64-x86.aspx

Fadi

Content Deployment

2009-02-27T11:51:00.002+11:00

Many of you have played around with content deployment and gone insane trying to get it to work. After much trial and error, I've found the best way to get it to work is to create a blank site on the destination server. On the source server, set up content deployment and the first time around, do a full deployment. Once the full deployment has finished, change it to incremental deployment.

If you need more details, just email me and I'll be more than happy to help out.

Fadi

WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 SP2

2009-02-13T09:36:00.002+11:00

SP2 for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 has been announced. The release date is scheduled between February and April this year (2009).

Some of the improvements include:

Improved Read-only content databases
ECM Performance and Manageability
Improved Index Rebuild Timer Jobs
Upgrade Checker

I'll let you know closer to the release date if there's anything further included (I'm sure there will be).

Fadi

SPDisposeCheck Released

2009-02-10T14:32:00.002+11:00

SPDisposeCheck v1.3.1 has been released (well a couple of weeks ago now). It will help improve your SharePoint assemblies. It inspects you assemblies and checks that you are correctly disposing of certain objects. Go to http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/SPDisposeCheck to download it.

Fadi

Audit Logs KB

2009-02-09T09:35:00.002+11:00

Hi,

I'm not sure how many out there are using the out of the box Audit Logs, but I've come across an issue where if you try to generate a log, the whole system slows down. After doing some research, I came across this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958127, but that doesn't address the issue where its not a custom report, as the other reports you have no control over the date range. If you've come across this before and know of a work around, please let me know.

Fadi

Bad SharePoint site Part 2

2009-01-29T14:16:00.004+11:00

A few days ago I told you guys about a bad site created in SharePoint (http://www.deewr.gov.au/). Anyway, I was going through the site today and came across this
(go here to see the large image http://www.dhf.com.au/deewr.jpg)

look at all the things like "This is a default IPOD menu" and "Please edit me before use" and the "Please enter content here". So please people, when developing a site, make sure the content editors know how to put content on the page.

Fadi

SharePoint 2009 / WSS 4.0 / Office 14

2009-01-28T09:14:00.002+11:00

Rumors of a new version of SharePoint/Office is already going around the net. From what I know, the beta is scheduled to be released in March 2009. Here's some features that are included:

Native AJAX and Silverlight support
More offline capabilities
Microsoft Office files HTML viewers (following the line of OWA and EWA)
Bi-directional BDC
Native support for SQL Server tables as SharePoint lists
Publishing module rewritten, to change the faulty Export / Import process
More Business Intelligence capabilities for MOSS, as PerformancePoint 2007 matures
Social networking improvements, maybe with Knowledge Management module included out-of-the-box

As soon as I know if there's any other features, I'll keep you posted. I know with SP2 of WSS3 there's a pre-upgrade checker as well as XSTL-based list view that will be available in WSS4.0.

Fadi

VSeWSS 1.3 CTP available for download...

2009-01-27T14:15:00.001+11:00

VSeWSS 1.3 CTP is out. You can download it from

https://connect.microsoft.com/Downloads/Downloads.aspx?SiteID=428

The new features in VSeWSS 1.3 are:

· Can be installed on x64 Server OS machines running SharePoint x64. Previously only x86 Server OS could be used.
· Separate build commands for package, deploy and retract are added
· Command line build, package and retract commands are included enabling continuous integration and build servers. Previously command line build of SharePoint projects was very difficult
· Refactoring support for renaming of Web Parts. Previously renaming a web part required changes in several files in the project
· WSP View improvements for consistency of deleting feature elements, merging features and adding event receivers to features
· Solution Generator can now generate solutions from publishing sites. Previously only regular sites could be generated
· Allowing partial trust BIN deployments of web parts. CAS configuration must still be provided by the developer.
· New project item template for SharePoint RootFiles items
· Deployment will now optionally remove conflicting existing features on the development server prior to redeployment. Previously any feature name conflicts would result in an error
· Ancillary assemblies such as for business logic can now be added to the SharePoint Solution WSP
· Hidden features related to Site Definition projects are now shown in WSP View. They are no longer hidden
· For advanced users a fast deploy is included to update only the compiled assembly on the SharePoint development installation
· The User Guide is now installed with the extensions instead of being a separate download
The final release of VSeWSS 1.3 is planned for the North American Spring of 2009.

Cumulative update packages for the 2007 Microsoft Office core suite applications and for 2007 Microsoft Office servers

2009-01-23T09:59:00.002+11:00

Hi,

There's been a KB article release by Microsoft titled "Cumulative update packages for the 2007 Microsoft Office core suite applications and for 2007 Microsoft Office servers". I recommend downloading it and installing it.

To download it, go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960709

It contains the following hotfixes:
956137 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956137/ ) Description of the Office Migration Planning Manager (OMPM) hotfix package (Offscan.exe): October 28, 2008
OMPM
OCT
958651 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958651/ ) Description of the 2007 Office system hotfix package: October 28, 2008
OCT
project.msp
959381 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959381/ ) Description of the Project 2007 hotfix package: November 12, 2008
Project
ifswfe.msp
959382 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959382/ ) Description of the Forms Server 2007 hotfix package: November 11, 2008
InfoPath
ime32.msp, ime64.msp (Japanese)
959636 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959636/ ) Description of the Input Method Editor (Japanese) 2007 hotfix package (Ime32-ja-jp.msp, Ime64-ja-jp.msp): December 16, 2008
Input Method Editor
coreserver.msp
959637 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959637/ ) Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 hotfix package (Coreserver.msp): December 16, 2008
MOSS/Search
ipeditor.msp, infopath.msp
959638 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959638/ ) Description of the InfoPath 2007 hotfix package (Infopath.msp): December 16, 2008
InfoPath
ifswfe.msp
959639 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959639/ ) Description of the Forms Server 2007 hotfix package (Ifswfe.msp): December 16, 2008
InfoPath
excel.msp, xlconv.msp, oartconv.msp, oart.msp
959640 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959640/ ) Description of the Excel 2007 hotfix package (Excel.msp, Xlconv.msp, Oartconv.msp, Oart.msp): December 16, 2008
Excel and Graphics
excel.msp, xlconv.msp, xlview.msp
959641 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959641/ ) Description of the Excel 2007 hotfix package (Excel.msp, Xlconv.msp, Xlview.msp): December 16, 2008
Excel Viewer
Outlook.msp
959642 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959642/ ) Description of the Outlook 2007 hotfix package (Mso.msp,Outlook.msp): December 16, 2008
Outlook
Project.msp
959643 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959643/ ) Description of the Project 2007 hotfix package (Project.msp): December 16, 2008
Project
sts.msp
959644 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959644/ ) Description of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 hotfix package (Sts.msp): December 16, 2008
WSS
Word.msp
959645 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959645/ ) Description of the Word 2007 hotfix package (Word.msp, Wordconv.msp): December 16, 2008
Word
mso.msp
959647 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959647/ ) Description of the 2007 Office system hotfix package (Mso.msp): December 16, 2008
Office Core
WSS uber-package
960010 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960010/ ) Description of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 cumulative update package (WSS server-package): December 16, 2008
WSS
MOSS uber-package
960011 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960011/ ) Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 cumulative update package (MOSS server-package): December 16, 2008
MOSS
mso.msp
960053 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960053/ ) Description of the 2007 Office system hotfix package (Mso.msp): November 19, 2008
Office Core
access.msp
960307 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960307/ ) Description of the Access 2007 hotfix package (Access.msp): December 16, 2008
Access
mstore.msp
960308 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960308/ ) Description of the 2007 Office system hotfix package (Mstore.msp): December 16, 2008
AWS
oart.msp, oartconv.msp
960310 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960310/ ) Description of the 2007 Office hotfix package (Oart.msp, Oartconv.msp): December 16, 2008
Graphics
SPD.msp
960311 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960311/ ) Description of the SharePoint Designer 2007 hotfix package (Spd.msp): December 16, 2008
SharePoint Designer
PowerPoint.msp
960312 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960312/ ) Description of the PowerPoint 2007 hotfix package (PowerPoint.msp): December 16, 2008
PowerPoint
pjsrvapp.msp, pjsrvwfe.msp
960313 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960313/ ) Description of the Project Server 2007 hotfix package (Pjsrvapp.msp, Pjsrvwfe.msp): December 16, 2008
Project Server
WSSmui.msp
960314 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960314/ ) Description of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 hotfix package (Wssmui.msp): December 16, 2008
WSS
OCT
960404 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960404/ ) Description of the 2007 Office system hotfix package (OCT): December 16, 2008
OCT
OMPM
960405 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960405/ ) Description of the Office Migration Planning Manager hotfix package (OMPM): December 16, 2008
OMPM
ime32.msp, ime64.msp (Korean)
960497 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960497/ ) Description of the Input Method Editor (Korean) 2007 hotfix package (Ime32-ko-kr.msp, Ime64-ko-kr.msp): Decemeber 16, 2008
Input Method Editor
msdaipp.msp
960498 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960498/ ) Description of the 2007 Office system hotfix package (msdaipp.msp): December 16, 2008
Office Core
ipeditor.msp, infopath.msp, powerpoint.msp, mso.msp
960499 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960499/ ) Description of the 2007 Office system hotfix package (Infopath.msp, Ipeditor.msp, Mso.msp, Powerpoint.msp): December 16, 2008
InfoPath
nlgmsproof.msp, proof.msp (German)
960500 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960500/ ) Description of the 2007 Office system hotfix package (Nlgmsproof.msp, Proof-de-de.msp): December 16, 2008
Proofing Tools
cpao.msp
960501 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960501/ ) Description of the Outlook 2007 hotfix package (Cpao.msp): December 16, 2008
Outlook Calendar Printing Assistant
offfiltx.msp, onifilter.msp, visfilter.msp
960502 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960502/ ) Description of the 2007 Office system hotfix package (Offfiltx.msp, Onifilter.msp, Visfilter.msp): December 16, 2008
iFilter Pack
xmleditverb.msp
960534 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960534/ ) Description of the 2007 Office system hotfix package (Xmleditverb.msp): December 16, 2008
InfoPath
outlook.msp, mso.msp
960535 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960535/ ) Description of the Outlook 2007 hotfix package (Mso.msp, Outlook.msp): December 16, 2008
Outlook
960930 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960930/ ) Description of the Word 2007 hotfix package (Wordconv.msp): December 16, 2008
Word

Internet facing SharePoint Sites

2009-01-14T15:42:00.003+11:00

Not sure if any of you are aware, but I've been working on an internet facing site for the past few months (scheduled to go live in March). There's a few things to keep in mind when developing internet facing site:
1, Size: Many people still have dial-up connections, so make your page small
2, Accessablity/usablity: make sure it works on all browsers/platforms
3, Managability: make use administrators can easily manage content on the site.
4, Search: out of the box search doesn't do partial keyword search.

Another thing to keep in mind is performance. Content deployment etc all have impact on the performance of the site.

Once the site goes live, I will publish the url and you can all see it. If you want an example of how not to develop a site, go to http://www.deewr.gov.au/ and you will see what I mean. I don't think they tried it on any browser other than IE7. It doesn't work under IE6 or IE8 properly, nor under Firefox (I haven't tried any other browser). Plus the page is heavy and takes minutes to fully load with a dial-up connection.

Fadi

New year, new issues

2009-01-09T10:04:00.002+11:00

Here's a new issue and fix from Microsoft (please note, most of this is copied off their site)

Error message when you click Checked out to me in the "Manage Content and Structure" page after you filter the picture library by a custom column: "Cannot find column [repro]"

SYMPTOMS
In a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) site, you filter the picture library by a custom column in the "Manage Content and Structure" page. Then, if you click Checked out to me, you may receive the following error message:
Cannot find column [repro]

RESOLUTION
To resolve this issue, install hotfix rollup 959637. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base
:
959637‚ Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 hotfix package (Coreserver.msp): December 16, 2008

Long time no post

2009-01-07T09:41:00.002+11:00

Hi Everyone,

It's been months since I last posted anything. I've been flat out with too many projects. Anyway, I will try my best to keep the post coming.

Here's a quick one for you, there's a bug with SharePoint where if you delete an out-of-the-box permission group, you can't then enable the Office Publishing Feature. Microsoft's work around is to restore SharePoint to a version before deleting the group. I would recommend not deleting any group that's out of the box, just create your own and leave the others alone.

Fadi

ps, I hope everyone had an enjoyable break and has a happy new year.

Post

2008-09-24T10:25:00.002+10:00

Hi guys,
Sorry it's been a while since my last post, but I've been flat out with a project. I have a list of a lot of issues I've come across and work arounds, so in the next week or so I'll have heaps of posts.

Fadi

SharePoint SiteMap Generator - Version 2

2008-08-27T16:36:00.000+10:00

I came across an interesting feature that builds the sitemap.xml. Check it out
http://www.thesug.org/blogs/lsuslinky/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=14

Fadi

Content Deployment's Next Run Changing Time

2008-07-25T08:40:00.002+10:00

Not sure if anyone has come across this, but if you are using Content Deployment and you have a Scheduled Job and you go to the "Manage Content Deployment Paths and Jobs", every time you refresh the screen, the Next Run time changes! Not the hours or minutes, but the seconds.

If anyone knows why, can you please let me know cause I'm curious about it.

Fadi

SharePoint Infrastructure Updates Available (Post SP1)

2008-07-17T09:27:00.003+10:00

The Infrastructure Updates for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 are now available.

Key updates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 include:

Platform performance improvements and fixes.
Several backup and restore fixes.
Several core Workflow fixes.

Key updates for SharePoint Server 2007 include:

New Search features such as federated search and a unified search administration dashboard.
Several core fixes to Search to improve performance and scale.
Platform performance improvements and fixes.
Several core fixes to the publishing Content Deployment features to improve reliability.

It is strongly recommended you install these updates which are also cumulative and include previous roll ups.

Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB951695) - x86 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=256CE3C3-6A42-4953-8E1B-E0BF27FD465B&displaylang=en
Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB951695) - x64 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3A74E566-CB4A-4DB9-851C-E3FBBE5E6D6E&displaylang=en
Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB951297) - x86 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3811C371-0E83-47C8-976B-0B7F26A3B3C4&displaylang=en
Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB951297) - x64 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6E4F31AB-AF25-47DF-9BF1-423E248FA6FC&displaylang=en

Ill let you know if I have any issues with installing them....

Fadi

Jobs...

2008-07-14T14:12:00.001+10:00

Are you looking for SharePoint work and live in Australia? There's plenty of openings going here. Email me and let me know and Ill forward your CV to the right people.

Fadi

Content Deployment Scheduled time keeps changing

2008-07-10T09:48:00.002+10:00

Not sure if anyone has come across this before, but if you go "Manage Content Deployment Paths and Jobs" and have a scheduled job for content deployment. If you refresh the screen, you will notice that the time it's scheduled for keeps changing. Not the hours or the minutes, but only the seconds. Keep refreshing it, and it keeps changing. Does anyone know why?

Error “Guid should contain 32 digits with 4 dashes” during content deployment

2008-07-09T08:59:00.002+10:00

I started getting an error saying “Guid should contain 32 digits with 4 dashes” during content deployment. After a lot of research I finally found the problem.

If you are referencing fields via GUID and including { and }, that is what causes this error.

eg field id="ab78ad79-6a48-1182-c3e5-93a3ed3e7831"
not field id="{ab78ad79-6a48-1182-c3e5-93a3ed3e7831}"

After going through all the site and removing the { and }, I did a content deployment and it worked.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!!!!!

2008-06-28T19:27:00.002+10:00

For months now, I've been arguing with people about when to use SharePoint. One line that I keep repeating to people is "just because you can, doesn't mean you should". Does because SharePoint in capable of doing something, doesn't mean you should develop the application in SharePoint.

So before deciding to develop in SharePoint, please sit back and decide if SharePoint is the appropriate application or is there some other development platform you can use that will make your job easier and speed up development.

Fadi

SharePoint User Group Presentation

2008-06-21T13:01:00.002+10:00

This week, Sam Balaz and myself presented at the Canberra SharePoint User Group. Our presentation was based on the lessons learned when we developed and deployed an internet facing website.

If anyone is interested in finding out some of the problems we faces and how we found work arounds, just contact me.

Fadi

App Pool Monitor/HDD Monitor/Service Monitor

2008-06-12T10:06:00.002+10:00

I've had a couple of people ask me for the source code for the app pool monitor. So here it is ( http://www.dhf.com.au/apppool.zip ). This actaully also checks for services, and if they're down it will restart them and email you. I've done it as a simple aspx page, but it shouldn't be too hard to convert it to an app. If you look at the web.config, you will notice there's some settings there you need to change, like email address etc etc. The code needs to be cleaned up a little, but it should give you something to start with.

Optimizing SharePoint

2008-06-10T11:46:00.003+10:00

Here's a very useful article I came across regarding Optimizing SharePoint.

http://blogs.technet.com/waynemo/archive/2008/03/19/moss-server-performance-considerations.aspx

It goes through and talks about the recommendations, the reason and the benefits. It's come in very handy for me when it comes to Internet deployment.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools: Visual Studio 2008 Extensions, Version 1.2

2008-06-05T09:14:00.002+10:00

They've finally released Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools Version 1.2.

Do download, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7bf65b28-06e2-4e87-9bad-086e32185e68&displaylang=en

Included in this release is:

Visual Studio 2008 Project Templates

Web Part
Team Site Definition
Blank Site Definition
List Definition
Empty SharePoint Project

Visual Studio 2008 Item Templates (items that can be added into an existing project)

Web Part
Custom Field
List Definition (with optional Event Receiver)
Content Type (with optional Event Receiver
Module
List Instance
List Event Handler
Template

SharePoint Solution Generator
This stand-alone program generates a Site Definition project from an existing SharePoint site. The program enables developers to use the browser and Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer to customize the content of their sites before creating code by using Visual Studio.

I still haven't played with it, so I'll let you know how it goes.

Fadi

SharePoint 2007 Best Practice Analyzer

2008-05-29T08:53:00.002+10:00

A very useful tool that analyzer your WSS.

"The SharePoint 2007 Best Practices Analyzer will collect all the data from your database, registry, etc�and apply a set of comprehensive �best practice� rules against the data set.� A detailed report listing is provided after the completion so you can make your SharePoint 2007 Portal faster and more flexible"

To download it, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=cb944b27-9d6b-4a1f-b3e1-778efda07df8&displaylang=en

To run it, go to a command prompt and type:

sharepointbpa.exe -cmd analyze

If you have any problems, let me know.

Fadi

70-631 Configuring Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services

2008-05-28T15:34:00.002+10:00

I finally decided to stop being lazy and go sit an Exam. I sat exam 70-631 Configuring Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and passed it. Not too hard, but there's some questions there that I don't think should be in a SharePoint exam.

eg, What does ISA config got to do with SharePoint config? As a SharePoint administrator, I don't think you need to know the exact steps to setting up rules in ISA, or MOM, or SQL. Now, Im not saying that you shouldn't know it, but for a SharePoint exam, it should only ask you questions about SharePoint.

Anyway, if anyone needs a hand with it, just ask me.

Fadi

Optimize Blob Cache by including most used file extensions and increasing the cacheabilty value

2008-05-26T10:50:00.003+10:00

To do this, it's very simple.

Please ensure that the “Office Sharepoint Server Publishing” feature is activated on all Publishing sites. Also, you should update the location to the best performing drive, add in extra paths, and add in the max-age to expire based on your situation. For example:

Current setting: <BlobCache location="C:\blobcache" path="\.(gif|jpg|png|css|js)$ " maxSize="10" enabled="false"/>

Example Setting: <BlobCache location="E:\blobcache" path="\.(gif|jpg|png|css|js|htc)$ " maxSize="10" max-age="86400" enabled="true"/>

If you have any problems, let me know.

Fadi

Good Tool

2008-05-15T11:57:00.001+10:00

Just a quick one, if your after real time diagnostics of multiple servers in a SharePoint farm, go to http://www.codeplex.com/sharepointloggingspy and download the app. I found it very useful.

Fadi

Switching off Versioning for Content Deployment

2008-05-13T15:48:00.003+10:00

I don't know if any of you are using content deployment, but for those who are, you would have realised that the destination db is usually the same size as the source (if not bigger). The main reason for this is every time you deploy, it creates a new version of the document. The best way to get round this is to switch off versioning. Here's a little script i've written where you pass in the URL and it will switch off versioning for every list in every site.

class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string strurl = args[0];
try
{
using (SPSite spsite = new SPSite(strurl))
{
SPWebCollection web = spsite.AllWebs;
for (int i = 0; i < web.Count; i++)
{
foreach (SPList list in web[i].Lists)
{
if (list.EnableVersioning)
{
list.EnableVersioning = false;
list.Update();
}
}
}
spsite.Dispose();
Console.WriteLine("Application run successfully!");
}
}
catch (Exception e) {
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
}
}
}

Let me know if you have any problems running it. Sorry about the formating of the code, this blog editor doesn't import in properly from VS2005.

Fadi

Vista Bluescreen

2008-05-12T11:57:00.004+10:00

A guy work with (thanks Phil), has experienced a problem with Vista. To get it to crash and report this error

To replicated the problem, simply follow the steps after Vista loads:

AVG antivirus was began its usual scan.
MSN loaded up as usual.
Open up Windows Media Center and selected "Live TV".
Open up Virtual PC and began to run WS2003 to do some site definition testing.
I Opened IE7 to go to Gmail.

Could anyone that's able to replicate this problem let me know. We're trying to figure out if it's hardware related or a Vista bug.

Fadi

Partial Keyword Search/Wildcard Search Webpart part # 2

2008-05-06T17:35:00.001+10:00

I have the web part working now! I will upload the code onces I've cleaned it up a bit, but it works. I still want to performance test it and modify the results. I'll modify it to work with the current search web parts in the future, but for now it writes to a data view and I am modifying it so you can specify the XSL through the web part task pane. If anyone knows how to add the "XSL Editor" to that pane, please let me know that way I don't have to spend time researching it.

Fadi

Partial Keyword Search/Wildcard Search Webpart

2008-05-05T16:42:00.001+10:00

Im in the process of writting a webpart that does partial keyword search (or wildcard search). I have it working and Im prettying it up at the moment. I will post the code up there once i've completed the web part, so if anyone want it, shoot me an email and Ill forward it to them once it's complete.

Fadi

Excluding and AD Group from a site.

2008-05-02T14:20:00.002+10:00

I was asked what's the best way to exclude specific users from a SharePoint site that all authenticated users had access too.

It's very simple. Simply create a AD group and add those users to the group, then through Central Admin, create a policy to deny them access. To do this:

Go to Central Admin,
Click Application Management
Click Policy for Web Application
Click Add Users
Select the Web Application you want to deny users access to
Click next
In the users box, put the AD group (or if you didn't create the AD group, simply put the Usernames in there)
Click the Deny All or Deny write check box (or if you want to only give a specific user access, grant all)
Click Finished

Now the users in that group can't access the site, even though Authenticated Users have permission on the site level.

If you need any help doing this, please ask.

Fadi

Instructions on restoring a content database to a new farm.

2008-04-20T19:53:00.002+10:00

Over the past week I've been working on a system where I've had to restore a very large content database from one farm to another. STSADM kept failing. The easiest way was to do a SQL backup of the database and restore it on the new farm's SQL server. Once we did that, through central admin we created a new web application, removed the content database associated with it from within central admin and added the restored content database.

Please note, you might sometimes see that once you attach it, it comes up saying sites as 0. To fix this, open up your restored database and configuration database in SQL Server. Then find the sites table in the restored database and located the ID of the site. Now open up the configuration database and find the SiteMap table. Located the row with the same site ID and then delete it. You should now be able to attach the restored database without issue.

Let me know if you have any problems with this.

Fadi

Backup and Restore

2008-04-09T22:16:00.002+10:00

Many of you may have come across this, but I thought i'd write about it. We have a SharePoint application who's database has hit over 50gb (should split it, but ill post about that later). Anyway, TSM backups keep failing and stsadm backups work fine, however fail during the restore process. A qucik way to fix this is to use Central Admin backup and restore. Its simple, and it worked fine for the problem we were having.

I still HIGHLY recommend spliting the content database to more than one db as it's getting very big and SQL will manage it much better. As I said, I will post about how to split it later when I get a chance.

Web Applications and System Accounts

2008-04-03T16:38:00.002+11:00

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post but I've been flat out fixing some SharePoint issues. I will add a post about it in a few days (it's a huge issue involving performance).

Anyway, I'm building a new farm for a client. It's a pretty large farm involving 6 servers (not including the DB). One thing I recommended was to have a different system account for each application they install on the farm. The main reason for this is to limit problems like accounts being locked or passwords being changed etc. This way, if a system account becomes locked, only the application using that system will stop functioning (instead of the entire farm). Now there's a bit more maintenance involved, however in the long run it's worth the work.

Fadi

SharePoint and Silverlight

2008-03-19T15:06:00.001+11:00

If anyone is interested is setting up Silverlight in any of their SharePoint webparts, there's an interesting site http://www.ssblueprints.net/sharepoint/. They have some basic examples (including a hello world webpart). If you're still having problems, let me know and I should be able to help you out.

Changing Alternate Access Mapping

2008-03-11T13:03:00.002+11:00

I'm not sure if anyone else has come across this, but I thought I would put it in my blog. If you go through Central Admin and modify an existing Alternate Access Mapping, it doesn't modify the Host Header in IIS. eg, if for Custom you had it pointing to http://web1 and the new one is http://web2, the host header for that site in IIS will still point the web1 and when a user hits web2, they will hit the default website. Simply modify the host hear to also accept web2 and problem solved.

Exclude Search from hitting a specific list

2008-03-04T10:42:00.003+11:00

I had someone ask me how to exclude search from searching specific lists. It's very simple.

To exclude all the items in the document library or list then go to advanced settings of the list and check the option to remove from search results at the bottom (set it to no). This will stop the search from hitting that specific list.

Fadi

Exception occurred. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80020009 (DISP_E_EXCEPTION))

2008-03-04T10:25:00.003+11:00

If some of you have come across this error and don't know how to fix it, I have found 2 possible fixes.

1, Recreate the site collection

2, Webtempcustom.xml file in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\1033\XML directory was corrupt and it was causing the problem.

You can try to fix the xml file, but much easier just to re-create the site collection.

Fadi

On a different subject, Outlook Crashing

2008-02-26T09:17:00.002+11:00

On a different subject, I had Outlook 2007 keep crashing on me yesterday when ever I'd reply to an email or Start a new email. The Office Diagnostics didn't find a problem.

After much looking into it deeper, I managed to find the problem. Some of the customised menu items (I think it was the google search) was causing the problem. After deleting the file outcmd.dat - find it in the hidden folder -c:\Documents and Settings/username/ApplicationData/Microsoft/Outlook - just rename it to outcmd.old. When you restarted Outlook 2007, it will create a new fresh file. Lost my menu customizations, but no big deal - at least it does not crash now.

"0x80040E14" or "HTTP 500" error message when you connect to your Windows SharePoint Services Web site after you install a Windows SharePoint Services

2008-02-25T10:17:00.002+11:00

If anyone has come across this error:

Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040E14. Troubleshoot issues with Windows SharePoint Services.
HTTP 500 - Internal server error

either in search error logs or event error logs, specially after installing a service pack or a hot fix, there's an easy fix.

The main cause of this error is when the content databases in Windows SharePoint Services are not updated correctly during the installation.

Simply go to a command prompt and type:
cd /d %commonprogramfiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\60\Bin stsadm -o upgrade -forceupgrade
This is a fix for both WSS 2.0 and WSS 3.0. If you're still having the problem, please let me know.

Cascading Drop Down Lists

2008-02-22T09:08:00.001+11:00

I was trying to find a way to do Cascading Drop Down Lists in SharePoint, and I came across this interesting article.

http://datacogs.com/datablogs/archive/2007/08/26/641.aspx

It shows you how to do it. If you have any problems, let me know.

Fadi

Performance with large lists...

2008-02-21T13:37:00.002+11:00

I have been looking around and playing with lists with over 2000 items in them. Although it is not hard limited to it, some (not all) systems with list over 2000 items do have performance issues. Here's a couple of links that are usefull:

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2545505&SiteID=1 (SQl and workflow issues)

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/07/25/scaling-large-lists.aspx (white paper that gives a good comparision of different accessing strategies)

http://blog.krichie.com/2007/02/14/can-you-really-have-more-than-2000-items-per-folder-in-sharepoint-now/ (performance)

I will play around with it a bit and see if I can find some solid evidence that SharePoint lists should not have more than 2000 items. If anyone has such proof, please send it to me.

Fadi

AJAX and Web parts.

2008-02-20T14:49:00.003+11:00

If anyone has followed my example of the Web Part that uses AJAX, they would have found some strange issues. When you modify the web.config, you will notice that it's still posting back to the server. The only way to let the changes to the web.config kick in is to restart your server. IISreset doesn't do it. Im still investigating why a reboot is needed. If anyone know why, please let me know.

NEW:
if you restart the http service as well as IIS it will fix the issue. To restart the http server and IIS, here's the steps:

net stop http /y
net start http /y
IISReset /start

let me know if you experience the same issues I did.

Fadi

Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040E2F, what does it mean?

2008-02-19T17:47:00.002+11:00

Some of you during a restor (STSADM restore that is) might have come across this erorr:

Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040E2F

This HRESULT simply means, "Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint ", which generally means one thing, you have entries in the database for this site previously, possibly orphaned, that is preventing the restore to continue.

Sometimes a simple -overwrite after the restore command would work, but sometimes the problem isn't that there was orphaned data to begin with, but rather "New" data related to the site added outside of the restore, that then causes the restore to fail.

The reason in this case, may be due to the fact that while the restore is progressing, the site isn't locked and therefore users accessing the site is causing the duplicate entries.

2 easy ways to fix this:

Lock the site from Central Admin
Switch off the site from IIS and remember to start it once the restore is complete.

This should fix your problem. If you are still having this issue, let me know and ill see if i can help.

New Daylight Savings Issue with SharePoint 2007

2008-02-19T14:12:00.002+11:00

With daylight savings time changing in Australia, this could cause some issues with WSS 2.0 and WSS 3.0. There's an easy fix for this problem. Go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-au/bb978329.aspx and follow the instructions. If you still have a problem following the instructions, please let me know and I will put details instructions up here for you to follow. But basically there's a few things to do:

Apply the latest cumulative time zone updates to the host Windows Server operating system.
Apply the latest hotfix or service pack to WSS to rectify known daylight saving issues and obtain the most recent version of TIMEZONE.XML.
Update TIMEZONE.XML to reflect the changes in daylight saving time.
Use the SharePoint TZMOVE function to adjust any time-dependent data items that fall between the old and new daylight saving times.

Announcing the Final Release of VSeWSS 1.1 (and the upcoming version 1.2)!

2008-02-12T14:02:00.000+11:00

Its out, download it from here. Here's some of its features:

What's New in VSeWSS 1.1?

"WSP View", aka "Solution Package editing"
No more hidden, non-editable solution content!
Create new Features
Reorder Elements between Features
Conflict validation against existing Features
Rename existing Features
Change Feature activation order

Visual Basic support!

New Item Templates:

"List Instance" project item
"List Event Handler" project item
"SharePoint Template" item template, e.g. "layouts" files

Faster F5 speed (The tool no longer performs an IISReset. Now it only recycles the app pool.)
Solution Generator: you can now choose which lists should be included when exporting a site.
Many bug fixes, e.g.

No more GUIDs in Feature Names
Support complex project names, e.g. with periods.
Can deploy assemblies to the bin folder, instead of GAC

Plus many more. Download it and let me know what you think.

Fadi.......

AJAX/ASP.net in a Sharepoint Web Part

2008-02-11T11:30:00.002+11:00

I've been playing around with AJAX and web parts. Here is a sample web part that uses AJAX. Simple two linkbuttons that if you click one, is says hello xxxxx (and xxxxx is what you put into the text box) and the second link says goodbye xxxxx. If you need any help modifying it, please let me know. Remember, you need the service pack installed for this to work.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

namespace Sample.SayHello
{
public class SayHelloWebPart : WebPart
{
private Label displayName;
private TextBox inputName;
protected override void CreateChildControls()
{
base.CreateChildControls();
//Fix for the UpdatePanel postback behaviour.
EnsurePanelFix();
LinkButton btnHello= new LinkButton();
LinkButton btnBye = new LinkButton();
UpdatePanel refreshName = new UpdatePanel();
ScriptManager scriptHandler = new ScriptManager();
displayName = new Label();
inputName = new TextBox();
//Set up control properties.
this.displayName.ID = "displayName";
this.displayName.Text = "Hello!";
this.inputName.ID = "inputName";
btnHello.ID = "btnhello";
btnJan.Text = " Hello ";
btnBye.ID = "btnBye";
btnBye.Text = " Goodbye";
scriptHandler.ID = "scriptHandler";
refreshName.ID = "refreshName";
refreshName.UpdateMode = UpdatePanelUpdateMode.Conditional;
refreshName.ChildrenAsTriggers = true;
//Add the EventHandler to the Button.
btnHello.Click += new EventHandler(ClickHelloHandler);
btnBye.Click += new EventHandler(ClickByeHandler);
//Add the user interface (UI) controls to the UpdatePanel.
refreshName.ContentTemplateContainer.Controls.Add(this.inputName);
refreshName.ContentTemplateContainer.Controls.Add(btnHello);
refreshName.ContentTemplateContainer.Controls.Add(btnBye);
refreshName.ContentTemplateContainer.Controls.Add(this.displayName);
//The ScriptManager control must be added first.
this.Controls.Add(scriptHandler);
this.Controls.Add(refreshName);
}
private void ClickHelloHandler(object sender, EventArgs args)
{
this.displayName.Text = "Hello "
+ this.inputName.Text.ToString() + ".";
}
private void ClickByeHandler(object sender, EventArgs args)
{
this.displayName.Text = "Goodbye "
+ this.inputName.Text.ToString() + ".";
}
private void EnsurePanelFix()
{
if (this.Page.Form != null)
{
String fixupScript = @"
_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.push(""_initFormActionAjax"");
function _initFormActionAjax()
{
if (_spEscapedFormAction == document.forms[0].action)
{
document.forms[0]._initialAction =
document.forms[0].action;
}
}
var RestoreToOriginalFormActionCore =
RestoreToOriginalFormAction;
RestoreToOriginalFormAction = function()
{
if (_spOriginalFormAction != null)
{
RestoreToOriginalFormActionCore();
document.forms[0]._initialAction =
document.forms[0].action;
}
}";
ScriptManager.RegisterStartupScript(this,
typeof(SayHelloWebPart), "UpdatePanelFixup",
fixupScript, true);
}
}
}
}

===========================================

Sorry, let out the web.config changes. This blog won't let me post up the changes, so email me and i will send it back.

The search request was unable to connect to the Search Service

2008-02-05T16:10:00.000+11:00

There was a SharePoint farm not returning search results. The error it returned was

"The search request was unable to connect to the Search Service"

After looking at it, it was a very simple fix. The server wasn't configure to server search queries. A simple ticking of the box in central admin and it fixed the problem. To fix this:

Go to Central Admin
Operations
Services on Server
Office SharePoint Server Search Service Setting
Make sure "User this server for serving search queries is ticket

Problem solved.

Another thing that could be causing it is the Account used to search might not have the right access needed or the Search services aren't running. Check that

Office SharePoint Server Search and
Windows SharePoint Services Search

Should be both running. If you're still having problems, let me know and I'll try to help you out.

Fadi...

ASP.NET (AJAX) in SharePoint 2007

2008-01-29T15:15:00.000+11:00

SP1 has AJAX 1.0 in it. Which mean you can use the functionality of AJAX in your webparts. I'm currently playing around with it, and Ill keep you posted of any problems I might encounter. If anyone has does it before, i'd be interested in seeing their webpart.

Anyone need help?

2008-01-21T13:30:00.001+11:00

I've been helping a few people over the past few weeks with some issues they're having, but a lot of them have been very small and simple task. So I thought I'd ask people for some complex problems they might be having or are experiencing. If you have anything that you're having problems with, please let me know.

On another note, .net 3.0 SP1 is out now. I recommend you download it and install it on your system. It's help me eliminate some of the errors I've been seeing in the event logs.

Creating Event Handlers

2008-01-11T10:58:00.000+11:00

People are still confused about event handlers and how to write them. Here's a good example from Microsoft on how to do it

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms453149.aspx

If you still have difficulty creating an event handler, please let me know.

SharePoint Service Pack 1 crash

2008-01-07T10:23:00.001+11:00

Hi,

Some people have had SharePoint stop working after the installation of Service Pack One. This is mainly due to the upgrade process not completing. You can force an upgrade by running the following command from a command prompt:

psconfig -cmd upgrade -force

This will force the upgrade process to run again and should fix the problem for you.

# Added 11 Jan 2008

You might want to also try this:

Click Start, click Run, type cmd in the Open box, and then click OK.
At the command prompt, type the following lines, and then press ENTER after each line:

cd /d %commonprogramfiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\60\Bin

stsadm -o upgrade -forceupgrade

Let me know how it goes.....

Fadi

New year, new bugs

2008-01-07T09:42:00.000+11:00

Well, the new year is here and the bugs haven't stopped. Im not sure if any of you have had the issue where you have both Office 03 and Office 07 installed on a box and SharePoint doesn't work the way it should. Things like datagrid views crashing ie. I have a fix for it. If you want to know how, email me. I will upload it in a couple of days.

Could not start the windows sharepoint services timer service on local computer. The service did not start due to a logon failure

2007-12-18T10:09:00.001+11:00

I don't know if any of you have come across this, but it cause the Sharepoint wizard to fail during the upgrade process of the service pack. The problem turned out to be very simple. The Timer Job service was running under an account that had expired. To fix it, go to the service, click Log On, and make sure the account it uses is valid and not locked or disabled.

SharePoint and MOSS service pack is out!!!!

2007-12-13T17:43:00.000+11:00

SP1 for both MOSS and WSS is out now. Go to microsoft.com and download them. Please install WSS service pack before installing MOSS service pack.

Here is the link for WSS 3.0 SP1:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=4191A531-A2E9-45E4-B71E-5B0B17108BD2&displaylang=en

Here is the link for MOSS S1:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD59175C-AD6A-4027-8C2F-DB25322F791B&displaylang=en

It's a bit tricky to install it on a farm with more than one server, so if you have any questions, simply ask me.

Content Deployment issues and a new wizard

2007-12-11T11:32:00.000+11:00

Im not sure if everyone else has had an issue using the SharePoint content deployment, but most of the time it doesn't do what it's meant to do, deploy the content. A very useful tool I've come across is the Content Deployment Wizard (
http://www.codeplex.com/SPDeploymentWizard). Very simple to use. Let me know what you think of it.

Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040E14

2007-12-05T16:47:00.000+11:00

If any of you have come across this error "Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040E14" while trying to do a STSADM restore, it's a very simple problem. It means the SQL server has run out of space for either the logs or the data file. Simply delete some un-needed files from the HDD that the SQL server is writting to and it fixes the problem.

Limitations of SharePoint 2007

2007-11-30T15:22:00.000+11:00

I've had several people ask me what the limitations of SharePoint 2007 are. Things like the maximum document upload size, maximum number of items per folder per document library and the maximum number of subsites per site collection. These figures must be taken into consideration when designing the SharePoint architrecture:

Site object	Guidelines for acceptable performance	Notes	Scope of impact when performance degrades
Site collection	50,000 per Web application	Total farm throughput degrades as the number of site collections increases.	Farm
Web site	250,000 per site collection	You can create a very large total number of Web sites by nesting the subsites. For example, 100 sites, each with 1000 subsites, is 100,000 Web sites. The maximum recommended number of sites and subsites is 125 sites with 2,000 subsites each, for a total of 250,000 sites.	Site collection
Subsite	2,000 per Web site	The interface for enumerating subsites of a given Web site does not perform well as the number of subsites surpasses 2,000.	Site view
Document	5 million per library	You can create very large document libraries by nesting folders, using standard views and site hierarchy. This value may vary depending on how documents and folders are organized, and by the type and size of documents stored.	Library
Item	2,000 per view	Testing indicates a reduction in performance beyond two thousand items. Using indexing on a flat folder view can improve performance.	List view
Document file size	50MB (2GB max*)	File save performance is proportional to the size of the file. The default maximum is 50 MB. This maximum is enforced by the system, but you can change it to any value up to 2 GB.	Library, file save performance
List	2,000 per Web site	Testing indicates a reduction in list view performance beyond two thousand entries.	List view
Field type	256 per list	This is not a hard limit, but you might experience list view performance degradation as the number of field types in a list increases.	List view
Column	2,000 per document library 4,096 per list	This is not a hard limit, but you might experience library and list view performance degradation as the number of columns in a document library or list increases.	Library and list view
Web Part	50 per page	This figure is an estimate based on simple Web Parts. The complexity of the Web Parts dictates how many Web Parts can be used on a page before performance is affected.	Page

Accessibility Kit for SharePoint® (AKS)

2007-11-29T09:24:00.000+11:00

Accessibility Kit for SharePoint® (AKS) is out now. Go to http://aks.hisoftware.com and download it.

"The AKS will deliver a kit that can significantly reduce the time, knowledge, and effort required to implement a SharePoint-based Web site that conforms to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints, which are collectively known as WCAG 1.0 AA. The AKS can also be used to address the exceptions that have been identified in the U.S. government’s Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act’s Voluntary Product Accessibility Template or VPAT documents for MOSS 2007. "

I will let you know if it delivers what they promise.....

Monitoring Application Pools and Restarting them

2007-11-05T14:23:00.000+11:00

Hi,

I was trying to find an application that would monitor the state of application pool on an IIS server but didn't have any luck. Instead I decided to write a simple .net page that would loop through all the app pools and if it's down, it would restart it and email me to say it's down. I will extent this to actually monitor SharePoint sites and see if they are down and if so, to also notify me.

Here's the code:
=======================================

Partial Class _Default
Inherits System.Web.UI.Page
Dim LogDir = "C:\AppPoolLog"
Dim ToAddress = "notify@someemailaddress.com"
Dim FromAddress = "system@someemailaddress.com"

Protected Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
showAppPools() 'Runs showAppPools Sub
End Sub

Sub showAppPools()
Dim obj, apool
obj = GetObject("IIS://localhost/W3SVC/apppools")
For Each apool In obj
apppoolStatus(apool.name)
Next
obj = Nothing
End Sub

' This will get the status of the app pool
Sub apppoolStatus(ByVal apppool)
Dim obj
obj = GetObject("IIS://localhost/W3SVC/apppools/" & apppool)
Select Case obj.apppoolstate
Case 0
writetoLog(apppool, "0") 'Do not know what this status is
Case 1
writetoLog(apppool, "1") 'Do not know what this status is
Case 2
writetoLog(apppool, "Up")
Case 3
writetoLog(apppool, "3") 'Do not know what this status is
Case 4
writetoLog(apppool, "DOWN")
startapppool(apppool)
emailSendCDOSYS(apppool)
writetoLog(apppool, "Restarted")
End Select
obj = Nothing
End Sub

' This will write information to a log file
Sub writetoLog(ByVal apppool, ByVal response)
Dim fso
Dim lday = DatePart("d", Now())
Dim lmonth = DatePart("m", Now())
Dim lyear = DatePart("yyyy", Now())
Dim logdate = lmonth & lday & lyear
fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Dim objFSOwriteline = fso.OpenTextFile(LogDir & "\" & logdate & ".log", 8, True)
objFSOwriteline.WriteLine(response & "," & apppool & "," & now())
objFSOwriteline.close()
objFSOwriteline = Nothing
fso = Nothing
End Sub

' This starts the down app pool
Sub startapppool(ByVal apppool)
Dim obj
obj = GetObject("IIS://localhost/W3SVC/apppools/" & apppool)
obj.start()
obj = Nothing
End Sub

' This send a email regarding the down/restarted app pool
Sub emailSendCDOSYS(ByVal apppool)
Dim Mailer
Dim sch = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/"
Dim cdoConfig = Server.CreateObject("CDO.Configuration")
With cdoConfig.Fields
.Item(sch & "sendusing") = 2 ' cdoSendUsingPort
.Item(sch & "smtpserver") = "smtp.someemailaddress.com"
.update()
End With
Mailer = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
Mailer.Configuration = cdoConfig
Dim Message = "===============================================" & vbCrLf
Message = Message & "Application Pool: " & apppool & " has been restarted" & VbCrLf
Message = Message & "Date/Time: " & now() & "" & VbCrLf
Message = Message & "===============================================" & VbCrLf
Dim Subject = "Application Pool: " & apppool & " has been restarted"
Mailer.TextBody = Message
Mailer.Subject = Subject
Mailer.To = ToAddress
Mailer.From = FromAddress
Mailer.Send()
Mailer = Nothing
End Sub

End Class

==================================

Once I modify it to monitor SharePoint sites, I will upload the code.

InfoPath Forms not deleting/Updating/Installing

2007-10-31T13:21:00.000+11:00

I was investigating a problem where InfoPath forms were hanging when deployed or uploaded. It would say "Installing" or "Deleting" or "Updating" but hang there for days.

After hours of testing and using stsadm to delete and install features realised what the problem was. Someone had installed the daylight savings hotfix for WSS and didn't install it on all the servers in the farm. After installing it on the last server, it started to work.

Hotfixes HAVE TO be installed on EVERY server in the farm, even if it's a Reporting Server. Even though this issue was due to daylight savings, you MUST install ALL hotfixes on ALL servers in the farm.

Creating Features and Event Handlers

2007-10-04T09:21:00.000+10:00

I had a new SharePoint developer ask me 2 simple questions:

1, How do I create simple Features?
2, How do I create simple Event Handlers?

I sent him these 2 links from Microsoft's MSDN and within an hour he was able to do both.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms475286.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms453149.aspx

'75a0fea7-8d3c-455d-89d3-4ece8739402d' error

2007-09-27T10:39:00.000+10:00

If you've come accross this error before, you will realise there is NO help anyway. I came across it after doing a backup of a site and restoring it on a new farm. When you went to a site, and clicked Site Actions/Manage Content and Structure, you would have got the error:

Feature '75a0fea7-8d3c-455d-89d3-4ece8739402d' for list template '420' is not installed in this farm. The operation could not be completed.

After careful examination, we realised what the problem was. The original farm had the "Microsoft Application Core Template" installed. After installing it, the problem went away.

Microsoft's Important change to licensing for Internet Sites (MOSSFIS)

2007-09-27T10:37:00.000+10:00

Microsoft has changed their licensing for Internet Sites in SharePoint. Please read this:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/09/24/important-change-to-moss-2007-for-internet-sites-mossfis-licensing.aspx

Microsoft Project Server 2007 with SharePoint

2007-09-25T11:49:00.000+10:00

I have just installed MS Project Server 2007 with SharePoint. It is one of the easiest setups you will come across. Once it's setup, you create a PWA (project web access) site, and you're up and running.

If anyone needs step by step instructions on how to set it up, simply email me. I will update this post once I have finished the documentation.

Changing the location of Microsoft SQL Embedded Edition (MSEE) files

2007-09-10T20:17:00.000+10:00

Windows SharePoint Services v3 uses Microsoft SQL Embedded Edition (MSEE) for its data store. When MSEE is installed, the data files are installed to your C: drive by default. Well, like any good admin - we don't want data (that can grow exponentially) living on our system partition. However, you can't successfully move the data files for an MSEE instance using your normal SQL tools (most notably SQL 2005 Management Studio). Yep, you've got to resort to the command line . . .

First, you will need to have the Microsoft SQL Server Native Client and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Command Line Query Utility installed.
1) Identify the Sharepoint DB you want to move (look under SystemRoot%\SYSMSI\SSEE\MSSQL.2005\MSSQL\Data)

2) Stop SharePoint services.

3) Open a command prompt

4) Go to the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Command Line Query Utility folder (under C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\binn)

5) Enter the following command & hit enter:
sqlcmd -S \\.\pipe\mssql$microsoft##ssee\sql\query -E

6) Enter the following commands & hit Enter after each:
EXEC sp_detach_db GO

7) Repeat step 6 for each database you want to move.

8) Move the individual .mdf & ldf files for the detached databases to the new location.

9) Attach moved databases. Return to your command prompt and enter the following command then press Enter:

EXEC sp_attach_db @dbname = N'',
@filename1 = N'\.mdf',
@filename2 = N'\.ldf'

The line breaks above are for ease of reading. When entering the command, don't use line breaks, just the the lines wrap. E.g.:

EXEC sp_attach_db @dbname = N'WSS_Content',
@filename1 = N'D:\SharePointDB\WSS_Content.mdf',
@filename2 = N'D:\SharePointDB\WSS_Content_Log.ldf'

10) Type GO and press Enter.

11) Repeat steps 9 & 10 for each database you moved.

12) Type Exit to exit from SQLCMD

13) Type Exit to close Command Prompt

14) Start SharePoint services you stopped previously.

15) Verify access to SharePoint sites.

SharePoint Server 2007 SDK: Software Development Kit

2007-09-07T09:07:00.000+10:00

Download the lasted SharePoint Server 2007 SDK (1.2). I've played around with it a bit, and one feature that I really like is the BDC Editor.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6d94e307-67d9-41ac-b2d6-0074d6286fa9&displaylang=en

New tools and samples included with the MOSS SDK: Developer tools and samples for the following areas of MOSS development (new items in bold):

Business Data Catalog Samples and Utilities
- Microsoft Business Data Catalog Definition Editor
- Sample Pluggable SSO Provider
- WSHelloWorld Web Service
- WSOrders Web Service
- Excel Services User Defined Function Sample
- WSOrders Custom Proxy Sample
- Amazon Web Service Sample
- AdventureWorks Metadata Samples
- SAP Sample

Document Management and Content Processing Samples
- Comment Scrub Document Converter
- Term Replacement Document Inspector

Search Samples
- Sample Protocol Handler
- Custom Content Source

Records Management and Policy Samples
- De-Duplication Router
- Document Integrity Verifier
- Records Center Web Service Console Application
- Search, Collect, and Hold Tool
- Sample Custom Barcode Generator
- IRM Document Protector

Workflow Samples

Custom Workflow Report Query Generator

Custom Workflow Report XLSX Injector

Visual Studio Workflow Templates

Enterprise Content Management Workflow Activities

List Item Activities

Hello World Sequential Workflow

State Based Approval Workflow

Modification Workflow

Replication and Contact Selector Workflow

Intersystem Purchase Order

Confidential Approval Workflow

Group Approval Workflow

Approval Workflow Sample

Multi-Stage Workflow

Server-side Collect Signatures Workflow

Let me know what you think of it.

Microsoft Templates for SharePoint

2007-09-05T09:45:00.000+10:00

Just a quick one, before rushing to develop a SharePoint site, check out Microsoft's free templates.

http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/templates.mspx

I've used a couple of them and modified them to meet my clients needs. Another useful list is Microsoft's Fantastic 40.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sharepoint/wssapps/templates/default.mspx

They're all free and work under WSS.

SharePoint 2007 Maximum Limitations

2007-08-29T14:58:00.000+10:00

The following is a list of names and other parameters with the maximum allowable size on each.

Entity Max Permissible Size
Site Name 128 characters
Site URL 255 characters
Display name 128 characters
Connection string 384 characters
Email address 128 characters
Version numbers 064 characters
Virtual Server Friendly Name 064 characters
SQL Database Name 123 characters
SQL Database Column 128 characters
SQL Database Table Name 128 characters
SQL Role Name 128 characters
Server Name 128 characters
Windows User Name 300 characters
Windows Password 300 characters
Dependencies per object 032 objects
Zone enumeration value 004 zones
Default SQL command timeout 300 seconds
Number of simultaneousworkflows that can be run* 015

If during your course of using the product, you inadvertently cross these limits, then you would end up with errors. These are hard limits.

* This is the maximum number of simultaneous workflows that can be in memory executing code. (NOTE: there is no limit to the number of workflow instances in progress in the database)

To Raid or not to Raid, that is the question!!!!

2007-08-29T14:26:00.001+10:00

I was doing some research on best practices for hardware for a SQL box. Some people say to use Raid, some people say not to. Here's some articles from Microsoft for the SQL version and hardware configuration.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb432135.aspx

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190764.aspx

I'll try to dig up some articles that don't recommend using Raid.

Configuring Multiple Authentication Providers for SharePoint 2007

2007-08-28T20:33:00.000+10:00

Have you ever tried to configuring multiple authentication providers for SharePoint 2007 and had a problem? Here is an interesting article that could just solve your problem.

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2006/08/16/702010.aspx

It's pretty helpful and has saved me hours of research.

Pricing for SharePoint 2007

2007-08-27T13:20:00.001+10:00

If you've ever wonders how much SharePoint will cost your organisation, here's a useful site:

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/mpla/

After you choose your region, the product you are after and answer some questions about your organisation, you will get the details of pricing. Here is the pricing based on a 1,000 seat corporate deployment with Software Assurance, access to upgrades and internet access.

SharePoint 2007 Server - $11,572
SharePoint 2007 Server for Internet Access - $107,115 (AUD) - for hosting public websites. This license does not require Client Access Licenses (CALS)
Standard Client Access License - $243 (AUD)
Enterprise Client Access License - an additional $195 (AUD) - this provides access to the BDC, Excel Services and InfoPath web forms

If you have any questions regarding licencing and which licence is best for your organisation, either contact me or contact Microsoft.

SharePoint Service Pack 1

2007-08-27T13:02:00.001+10:00

Just head that service pack 1 for Microsoft SharePoint is to be release in the next couple of months. If you're interested in knowing when it's out, subscribe to this blog and Ill send everyone an email the day its out.

WSS Visual Studio 2005 Extensions

2007-08-22T11:29:00.000+10:00

For development, please fwd to any other sharpeoint developers...
v1.1 of the extensions is out:
http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepointdesigner/archive/2007/08/21/announcing-the-ctp-for-vsewss-version-1-1.aspx

What's New in VSeWSS 1.1?
WSP View, aka "Solution Package editing"
New Item Templates: "List Instance" project item, "List Event Handler" project item, "_layout file" project item
Faster F5 speed
Many bug fixes

Download it have let me know what you think.

Search query default row limit to 50 rows

2007-08-19T19:05:00.000+10:00

If you don't specify a RowLimit to the query object, the default is 50. You can change it by setting the RowLimit property to the number that you want:

Visual Basic (Declaration)
Public Property RowLimit As Integer

Visual Basic (Usage)
Dim instance As Query
Dim value As Integer
value = instance.RowLimit
instance.RowLimit = value

C#
public int RowLimit { get; set; }

If you require any further details, please contact me with any specific questions and Ill try my best to answer them.

Import User Profile Information of Enabled User Accounts from Active Directory to SharePoint Portal Server 2003

2007-08-19T18:37:00.000+10:00

To import user profile information of user accounts that are enabled in Active Directory to SharePoint Portal Server, follow these steps:

1. On the Site Settings page of the portal site, on the User Profile, Audiences, and Personal Sites page, click Manage profile database.

2. On the Manage Profile Database page, click Configure profile import.

3. On the Configure Profile Import page, in the Source area, click Custom source.

4. In the Access Account area, type the user account name and password of the user account that has appropriate permissions to access Active Directory.

5. In the Full Import Schedule area, click to select the Schedule full import check box, and then specify the full import schedule that you want.

6. In the Incremental Import Schedule area, click to select the Schedule incremental import check box, and then specify the incremental import schedule that you want.

Note If the Schedule incremental import option is not available (appears dimmed), click to select the Import from Active Directory by using the incremental method check box in the Source area.

Important To perform incremental imports for Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Active Directory, the user account that you use to perform the import operation must have the Replicating Directory Changes permission. This permission is not required to perform incremental imports for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory. To assign the Replicating Directory Changes permission to the user account that you use to perform the import operation, follow these steps:
a. Start Active Directory Users and Computers.
b. On the View menu, click Advanced Features.
c. Right-click the domain object, and then click Properties.
d. Click the Security tab.
e. In the Group or user names list, click the user account that you want to use to perform the import operation.

If the user account is not displayed in the list, click Add, type the name of the user who you want to add, and then click OK.
f. In the Permissions for UserName list, click to select the Allow check box next to the Replicating Directory Changes permission, and then click OK.

7. Click OK.

8. On the Manage Connections page, do one of the following as appropriate to your situation:

• Click the name of the domain that you want to edit, and then click Edit.
-or-
• Click New connection to add a new domain controller that contains the user profiles that you want to import.

9. On the Edit Connection or Add Connection page (as appropriate to your situation), in the Search Settings area, do the following:

a. In the Search base box, type the distinguished name (DN) of the Active Directory object from where you want to import the user profiles.

The DN of the search base object defines the location in Active Directory where you want to start your search. The following are examples of DNs:
• DC=DomainName, DC=com
• CN=Users, DC=DomainName, DC=com
• OU=OrganizationalUnit, DC=DomainName, DC=com

b. In the User filter box, type the following LDAP search filter:
(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)( !(userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2)))
c. Under Scope, specify the scope level, page size, and page time-out options that you want.

10. Click OK.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools: Visual Studio 2005 Extensions.

2007-08-19T18:33:00.000+10:00

Creating complex SharePoint solutions and deploying those solutions has always been sub optimal in the old versions of SharePoint. In SharePoint 2007 (Wss3, MOSS 2007) our trouble is over. We now have powerful deployment capabilities in the form of features and SharePoint solutions.

But creating SharePoint 2007 solutions and creating the feature and solution configuration files was still something for the experts only, until today...

Rumors have been around for a while that Microsoft would provide Visual Studio 2005 extension to help us create SharePoint solutions. In the mean time people had their own shot at making development and deployment easier. A good example is this blog post by Tony Bierman.
Tonight I got a pointer from Mark Arend (thanks Mark!) to the Novermber CTP version of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools: Visual Studio 2005 Extensions.

I directly downloaded the stuff, and must say I was impressed. It does a lot of the things I was currently working on in the construction of a SharePoint Software Factory, and a lot more.
From the download page:

This Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services contains the following tools to aid developers in building SharePoint applications: Visual Studio 2005 Project Templates
Web Part
Team Site Definition
Blank Site Definition
List Definition Visual Studio 2005 Item Templates (items that can be added into an existing project)

Web Part
Custom Field
List Definition (with optional Event Receiver)
Content Type (with optional Event Receiver)
Module SharePoint Solution Generator
This stand-alone program generates a Site Definition project from an existing SharePoint site. The program enables developers to use the browser and Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer to customize the content of their sites before creating code by using Visual Studio.
Based on the elements in your project web part manifests, features and a solution file are automatically created and published when you do an explicit publish, or when you do F5 debugging.

If you have questions or want to discuss this new stuff: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/newsgroups/dgbrowser/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.sharepoint.development_and_programming

The next days I will blog a lot more on my experiences with these extensions, I already did some deep-diving. But now it is time to get some sleep.

One small teaser, the SharePoint Solution Generator in action:

Team-Based Development in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

2007-08-14T10:52:00.000+10:00

If you work in a team-based development for MOSS, this article might be of interest to you

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb428899.aspx

Using STSADM to backup and restore sites

2007-08-14T09:15:00.000+10:00

To perform a simple backup of a site, use the following syntax:
stsadm.exe -o backup -url http://server_name/site -filename file_name.dat
To back up a site and overwrite an existing backup file, use the following syntax:
stsadm.exe -o backup -url http://server_name/site -filename local_drive:\path_name\file_name.dat -overwrite

Simply follow the following steps to restore the site:

1. Goto to Central Administration on the server the site is to be restored to.
2. Create a new web application to restore the site to (note the url for step 5)
3. Copy the backup file from where ever you saved it to the server
4. At the command prompt goto "c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN"
5. run the following command:stsadm -o restore "http://url" -filename "C:\backupup.bak"
6. Go back to central adminsistration.
7. Goto "Site Collection Administrators"
8. Click on "change site collection" & choose the web application based on http://url
9. Add the approprate administrator accounts based on the domain (eg. in username)
10. Reset IIS
11. Visit the site http://url

STSAdm Problems

2007-08-14T09:11:00.000+10:00

Many clients I've helped have had various issues using the STSADM account and the most common problem is insufficient rights. Make sure that you have the relevant rights in SQL to be able to perform the commands you are trying to execute.

Failed to connect to an IPC Port: Access is denied.

2007-08-02T10:03:00.000+10:00

While trying to deploy an Infopath form, we came across this error:

Failed to connect to an IPC Port: Access is denied.

The code built and deployed locally without any issues, but when I tried to associate the workflow to list, I was seeing an error:

C:\>stsadm -o execadmsvcjobs
Executing .Executing SharePoint Worker Process Group Update2849f6c6-fdb5-48a1-a1b1-f3cab0bd3e76.The SharePoint Worker Process Group Update2849f6c6-fdb5-48a1-a1b1-f3cab0bd3e76 job failed with the following error. This job will be skipped. Failed to connect to an IPC Port: Access is denied.
Operation completed successfully.

It turned out that the system account who is accessing the database needed to be marked as a sysadmin in SQL2005 on all system and SharePoint/WSS databases. Once marked, everything worked fine.

NLB (Network Load Balancing) and SharePoint... Troubleshooting and Configuration tips.

2007-07-30T11:12:00.000+10:00

For those of you who have had issues with NLB (Network Load Balancing) and SharePoint, I would recommend you read this article.

http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2007/01/05/nlb-network-load-balancing-and-sharepoint-troubleshooting-and-configuration-tips.aspx

It's helped me out with NLB and SharePoint.

Classic Office 2003 menus for Office 2007

2007-07-30T10:40:00.001+10:00

If you know anyone who hasn't got used to the ribbon in Office 2007 yet then this is for them. This add-in for Office 2007 gives you a new 'Menu' ribbon which contains all the standard Office 2003 menus and toolbars.

You can download it from Addintools

Changing Authentication Modes

2007-07-30T09:51:00.000+10:00

I had a client who accidentally chose Kerberos instead of NTLM and wanted to change it. It's pretty basic.

Go into Central Admin, then Application Management, and then click "Authentication providers".

Then simply choose the web application you want to change, and click on the specific zone you are after modifying.

From there, simply choose the authentication mode from "IIS Authentication Settings" that you are after.

You can also go to a command prompt and change it by using stsadm -o authentication -url -type but that's mostly used to change from basic to integrated authentication.

Add/remove a shared assembly to/from the .NET GAC

2007-07-26T12:06:00.000+10:00

Each computer that .NET is installed on has a Global Assembly Cache (GAC) located in the Assembly folder in the Windows directory (usually: C:\WinNT\Assembly). The GAC contains information about shared assemblies which are components that can be shared among several applications (Ex. a DLL).

Shared assemblies must have globally unique names derived from their strong names (public keys generated to distinguish assemblies from other assemblies that may have the same names) which is Microsoft's solution to DLL hell. The GAC, not the registry, is the store for this information. When an application loads the GAC is examined by the Common Language Runtime to determine if the version of a shared component exists that is compatible with the one referenced by the application.

The gacutil.exe that ships with .NET can be used to add or remove a shared assembly from the GAC.

To add a shared assembly, from the command line enter:

gacutil.exe /i myassembly.dll

To remove a shared assembly, from the command line enter:

gacutil.exe /u myassembly.dll

When viewing the GAC in Windows Explorer shfusion.dll is used to provide the user interface. You can locate and rename this DLL to view the GAC like any other folder.

To setup SSL on multiple Sharepoint 2007 web applications using host headers under IIS 6.0

2007-07-24T11:59:00.000+10:00

I am frequently required to setup several web applications on my development box and for convenience almost without fail will use host headers to distinguish between them rather than configure and maintain multiple IPs.

This approach serves well until secure http is required and I need to assign SSL certificates to my web applications.

If you have ever tried this you will know that the IIS Manager does not have anywhere to allow you to specify a host header when configuring the SSL for the web application.

The solution I use goes as follows:

1) Install the IIS Resource Kit for IIS 6.0 - it comes packaged with a selfssl utility to generate self-signed certificates. (Of course, feel free to generate them with Perl scripts or any other method since they are not from trusted sources they're only useful for dev and testing purposes anyways.)

2) Create/extend the required web applications using the Administration interface of MOSS (ensuring to select 'Use SSL').

3) Use the selfssl utility to generate and assign a certificate to the first of your web applications as follows:

selfssl /N:CN=*.mydomain.com /K:1024 /V:3650 /S: /P:443

This will generate a 3650 day certificate with a 1024 bit key and assign it to the web application with the site id supplied.

4) Use IIS Manager to assign the same certificate to the other web applications.

5) If you restart IIS at this point only 1 of your sites will actually start - you still need to manually configure the secure bindings for the remaining sites:

cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set /w3svc//SecureBindings ":443:"

This will set the secure bindings for the site identified on the supplied host header.

6) If you wish you can also now configure the web applications in IIS Manager to require SSL.

7) iisreset and you're done....

Reporting Services not showing up in SharePoint Central Administration 2007

2007-07-23T16:28:00.000+10:00

Several people have installed Reporting Services 2005 sp2, SharePoint 2007 and the RS Add-In for SharePoint. After configuring it, they realise that Reporting Services does not showing up in SharePoint Central Administration.

After carefully examing the system, and checking that it's all configured properply, I asked the simple question "did you use the same account to install the RS Add-In as you did to install Sharepoint?". I got a dumb look by the person I asked and they said "should it matter?".

The answer to that is in theory it shouldn't matter. Although in the Central Admin, the links weren't there, RS seems to be there and you could activate it as a Site Feature. But even if you activate it, it won't work as it hasn't been configured from Central Admin. So even though "in theory" it should work, it doesn't.

The easiest way to fix this is to un-install RS Add-in, log in to the server using the same account you used to install sharepoint, then re-install RS Add-in.

How To Add a New Managed Path to Windows SharePoint Services

2007-07-12T16:13:00.000+10:00

If you have used WSS and SPS before, then you have probaby created a "Team Site" or something under the "sites" folder. When you do that you get a URL like this:

http://myportal/sites/myteamsite

But what if you want something different, like?

http://myportal/teamsites/myteamsite

It turns out this is fairly simple. To get started, open Windows SharePoint Services Central Admin. In the "Virtual Server Configuration" section click the "Configure virtual server settings" link. In the virtual server list, click the server that you want to configure. (Most people only have "Default Web Site" here.)

Now you are on the "Virtual Server Settings" page. In the section called "Virtual Server Management", click on "Define managed paths".

You should see this screen:

Scroll down to the bottom of the screen to the "Add a New Path" section and type "/teamsites".Click OK and you are done. You should now be able to create sites under /teamsites (or whatever other path you defined.)