Coskun Cavusoglu SharePoint

Bug found on SharePoint Service Pack 2, re-enter the Product ID number to fix it

coskunc — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:35:00 GMT

Yesterday the SharePoint Team blog posted an announcement on a bug they recently found. It's not that major but it's still something you need to take care of. Jeff Teper, Corporate Vice President, SharePoint says that

The Bug:
"During the installation of SP2, a product expiration date is improperly activated. This means SharePoint will expire as though it was a trial installation 180 days after SP2 is deployed"

Fix for the Bug:
They say that they will post a new KB article (Currently not active) in the next 2 days that will help you fix this issu.
The work around is to re-enter the Product ID number (PID) on the Convert License Type page in Central Administration.

Make sure you install SP3 on SQL 2005 if you are using SharePoint Integrated Mode

coskunc — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:19:00 GMT

If you haven't already you should definitly consider installing Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3, because it provides various updates including updates to how items are fetched using the SharePoint object model. It seems to bring 30 to 50% less latency after the SP3 is installed. Here is the link to the document released by Microsoft that lists all of the new features and improvements that are included in SQL Server 2005 SP3 - What's New document.

Below is the bit from the document that talks about what they have improved on SSRS with SharePoint integrated mode.
In SharePoint integrated mode, reports typically run slower than the same reports run in native mode. The main cause of this latency can be attributed to SharePoint object model calls that are made. In SQL Server 2005 SP3, the number of SharePoint object model calls that SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (SSRS) makes are optimized. This optimization reduces some of the latency when you compare report performance with native mode.

FREE Webinar on Reporting Services and SharePoint

coskunc — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:56:00 GMT

I wanted to let you know that I'm going to be presenting a FREE webinar on SharePoint and SQL Reporting services.

Read the webinar invite below to register!!!

Thanks,

Coskun
----

Put the Pedal to the Metal
Reporting through SharePoint - Webinar

Date: Thursday, May 7th

Time: 2 to 3 pm Eastern (1 to 2 pm Central)

There is no charge for this webinar

SharePoint guru Coskun "Cujo" Cavusoglu will be your driver and discuss how Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services has two gears: Native and SharePoint Integrated. Native mode is like driving on a highway (smooth and fast) but there is a speed limit. Incorporating Reporting Services into MOSS via SharePoint Integrated mode enables users to put the pedal to the metal and speed through tasks.

We will explore how the integration works and how to get the most out of your investment if you set up Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated mode. You will learn the functionalities that didn't make it to the integrated mode, or unsupported scenarios, that you should be fully aware of before putting the foot to the floor. Both pros and cons will be discussed.

You can register here.

Chicago’s very own SharePoint Saturday on June 13, 09

coskunc — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:03:00 GMT

Call for Speakers - SharePoint Saturday Chicago – June 13, 2009

If you are interested in speaking at SharePoint Saturday Chicago on June 13th, 2009, they are currently looking for sessions on SharePoint.

For more information please visit - http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/chicago/default.aspx

TechDays Slides - OFC202 Put the Pedal to the Metal When Reporting through SharePoint

coskunc — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:48:00 GMT

Hi All,

Thank you for attending my session on Microsoft TechDays April 1st.

And here is the link to download the PPTs.

Thanks,

Coskun

SharePoint Designer 2007 is FREE -Yay! I mean yikes!

coskunc — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:28:00 GMT

Although a lot of SharePoint users were really happy with the news yesterday some were not so happy. Having SharePoint Designer on every desktop can be a scary thought if you don't have the proper governance in place.

Luckly there are several ways you can control the usage of SharePoint Designer in your environment. You can control SharePoint Designer usage at the Site level using permissions, at the Server level customizing site definitions, at the Web Application level usign central administration, and finally at the computer level using Group Policy. To get a very detailed step by step walktrough to how you can accomplish this you should visit the SharePoint Designer Team blog and read this blog post.

Locking Down SharePoint Designer
http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepointdesigner/archive/2008/11/25/locking-down-sharepoint-designer.aspx

50% off Microsoft Certification exam – exclusive offer for TechDays attendees!

coskunc — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:19:00 GMT

As you may already know Microsoft is hosting a Virtual TechDays for Developers and there are some great sessions on SharePoint and related Microsoft Technologies.

You can register to this FREE event by using the following link - http://www.msfttechdays.com/Modules/Registration/Submit.aspx

Make sure once you register , chose the ones you’re planning to attend - I'm doing a session on SQL Reporting Services 2008 and SharePoint 2007. Find my or other sessions by using the following link- http://www.msfttechdays.com/public/sessionlist.aspx

If you attend the Virtual TechDays event on April 1st you get the following!

Get a second chance to pass your Microsoft Certification exam In the real world, you might need more than one chance at certification. With Second Shot, if you do not pass any IT professional, developer, or project manager certification exam on your first try, you can retake the exam without an additional cost. Along with enjoying the benefits of Second Shot, you can access a collection of Microsoft E-Learning courses, which provide 8 to 20 hours of on-line instructional content to help you master a product and prepare for a certification. Normally priced up to US$350, these e-learning collections are just US$35 when you register for Second Shot. Limit one per customer. Register Now!

50% off Microsoft Certification exam – exclusive offer for TechDays attendees! As a special benefit for attending the sessions live on April 1st, all TechDay attendees will be given a special URL and discount code to register for a Microsoft certification. You must take your exam by May 31, 2009. This offer is available worldwide and is not combinable with any other offers.

MSDN Premium Subscriptions Attendees who complete one or more session evaluations during the day of the event will be entered to win one of several MSDN Premium Subscriptions that includes Visual Studio Professional edition, Expression Web and Blend, Operating Systems, SQL Server, Servers, Office, Dynamics, MSDN Library, Managed Newsgroups, Online Concierge, 4 technical support incidents, and more.

Wow! New SharePoint Themes - And they look pretty good.

coskunc — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:19:00 GMT

I was looking at my tweetdeck and saw that theMossMan (Randy - coolest guy in Florida) posted on hos blog about the new themes that are now available to us. Good post my friend, Branding MVP's rock :)

Check out his post to learn more about the new themes. http://blog.drisgill.com/2009/03/microsoft-released-10-new-sharepoint.html

Also don't forget to vote on your favorite, I liked Contoso and Events the most...

You can download these from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0a87658f-20b8-4dcc-ad7a-09ad22641f3a

Speaking at Virtual Techdays Developers 2009 (1 april)

coskunc — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:16:00 GMT

Virtual l TechDays 2009 is a 24-hour day of ONLINE technology learning with 95 LIVE sessions delivered anywhere.

In this FREE event, I will be speaking on the topic of Reporting Services 2008 in SharePoint integrated Mode. So make sure you look at the sessions and sign-up for the ones you're intrested in.The sessions are presented via LiveMeeting. See the list of session on ttp://www.msfttechdays.com/public/sessionlist.aspx

Here is a detailed version of my topic, for those of you intrested in SQL Reporting Services 2008 in SharePoint Integrated Mode

OFC202 Put the Pedal to the Metal When Reporting through SharePoint

-->

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services has two gears: Native and SharePoint Integrated. Native mode is like driving on a highway--smooth and fast but there's a speed limit. Incorporating Reporting Services into Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 via the SharePoint integrated mode enables users to put the pedal to the medal by speeding through their tasks. They can have all reports, documents, and data sources within a single site. In this session, an overview of the differences in standard mode and SharePoint integrated mode are discussed, along with interactive demonstrations.

http://www.msfttechdays.com/public/sessionlist.aspx

Visual Studio 2008 Extensions for SharePoint 2007 v 1.2 is out!

coskunc — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 11:27:00 GMT

You can now dowload the SharePoint extensions for Visual Studio 2008

Click Here to download.

The new face of MSDN Forums

coskunc — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:02:00 GMT

If you haven't noticed MSDN has gone through a facelift. If you try to get to it through their site you might not be a ble to get to it so here is the direct url .

It's pretty slick - check it out http://forums.msdn.microsoft.com

TechEd 2008 Tweener Weekend - June 7/8 (Microsoft .Net Community Summit)

coskunc — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:21:00 GMT

Are you arriving early to next weeks Teched? Are you staying a couple more days? DO you live in there area but weren't able to go to TechEd? Well if that is the case I want to let you know that the Florida .NET community his hosting a Tweener event at Orlando's OCC.

I'm going to be presenting at the Tweener event also called the ]inBetween[ event run by the Florida .NET community on WCF click here to register for this session http://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=128291 .

A close friend of mine and a co-author Jacob Sanford, is going to be speaking around the fundamentals of Windows SharePoint Services 2007 with other SharePoint gurus Josh Carlisle, Mikhail Dikov, Doug Ware, and Ted Pattison.

The topics they will cover are:

Installation
What's new in 2007
Core Concepts
Building WebParts

Click here to register - - http://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=128289

There will be other presentations and open sessions which is located at the inbetween web site.

Now there is another thing called Open Space sessions where anyone can signup and speak about the technology they wish to speak about. It's a first come first speaks bases and you can sign up here for Open Space.

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Visual Studio 2008 Extensions for SharePoint 2007 v 1.2

coskunc — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:47:00 GMT

I am currently at TechEd 2008 and I stopped by a BreakOut session on SharePoint Development and heard the good news and wanted t oshare it with you. Many of you know that the new version (1.2) of Visual Studio 2008 extensions for WSS was going to be out on June. I was expecting that this was going to be launched at this event but they didn't.

The word is that it will be out next week.So Stay Tuned !!!

Also they launched a website today you should chek it out @ - http://www.microsoft.com/click/SharePointDeveloper/

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How to convert a PhotoShop design into a SharePoint Site... A new SharePoint Design book will be available soon!

coskunc — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:58:00 GMT

If you’re looking for a book that walks you through how you design a SharePoint site in PhotoShop , to cutting that PhotoShop into HTML to making that a Master Page this is the book you’ve been waiting for. The name of the book is Professional SharePoint 2007 Design and it is a Wrox book. The book also covers the main concepts for designers such as Master Pages, CSS, Themes, Navigation and Publishing.

You can acces the book at amozon by visiting the following link.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047028580X

I’ll be at the WROX booth at TechEd2008 this week, please feel free to stop by if you have any questions or would like to vent about of your design issues with SharePoint.

On a personal note the past few months I’ve been pretty quiet in my blog because I’ve been working on this book with 3 other great SharePoint guys Randy Drisgill, Jacob Sanford and David Drinkwine and I want to thank my co-authors for this great experience!

Running SharePoint on Vista is no longer a dream!

coskunc — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:07:00 GMT

Are you one of those people who installed Windows Server 2003 on your laptop because you don't like working on remote SharePoint installations?

Well no worries Bamboo just announced that their architect Jonas Nilsson created an installer that allows you to install WSS 3.0 SP1 and MOSS on Vista.

Download the files here - http://community.bamboosolutions.com/media/p/193.aspx

You can also read about it at

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

Thanks Jonas, I think a lot of developers are going to be using this.

Also as Jonathan mentioned in his comment - this is probably not supported by Microsoft.

Quick Tip: How to Show Web parts Based on Security!

coskunc — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 02:39:00 GMT

In most cases I see that SharePoint users using audiences to secure their web parts. But as most of you know this is really not a security feature. Audiences don't look at security, it will either hide or display the web part based on the audience settings.

If you really need to have Web Parts show based on security what you have to do is use the SecurityTrimmed control. All you have to do is open your default.aspx in your SharePoint Designer and add the following code snippet.

<Sharepoint:SPSecurityTrimmedControl runat="server" PermissionsString="ManageWeb">
<WebPartPages:WebPartZone id="g_CC57BF5FF56740B099B0728E5C262566" runat="server" title="Secure Zone">
</WebPartPages:WebPartZone>
</SharePoint:SPSecurityTrimmedControl>

This will add a Web Part Zone named SecureZone to your default.aspx page which will allow you to add web parts that will only be displayed to Administrators. The way you decide who gets to see the Web parts is by changing the value of the PermissionsString. In this case it is set to ManageWeb which is what only administrators have. So the web parts that are added to this web part zone will one be displayed to administrators.

Some of the other Permission Strings are as follows:

ManagePermissions
ViewUsageData
ManageSubwebs
ManageWeb
AddAndCustomizePages
ApplyThemeAndBorder
ApplyStyleSheets
CreateGroups
BrowseDirectories
CreateSSCSite
ViewPages
EnumeratePermissions
BrowseUserInfo
ManageAlerts
UseRemoteAPIs
UseClientIntegration
Open
EditMyUserInfo

Silverlight BluePrint for SharePoint

coskunc — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 09:17:00 GMT

If you already haven't check out this site, it will give you a high level understanding of how you can integrate SharePoint with Silverlight. Now that the new version of silverlight is out I think it's time to integrate it into SharePoint.

http://www.ssblueprints.net/sharepoint/

This site has the following sample's code, video and documentation ready for download.

Hello Silverlight Web Parts and the SilverlightPart
Silverlight Navigation Controls
Siverlight Social Networking Web Part
Visual How-To center with Silverlight
Picture Viewer sample
Silverlight Custom Field Types

Here are the sample screen shots of the silverlight controls

Custom Field Type Example

Picture Viewer Sample

Silverlight Navigation Controls

Microsoft SharePoint Online!

coskunc — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:58:00 GMT

Microsoft has announced today their Software as a Service SAAS platform is now available. Their platform includes SharePoint, Exchange, and Live Communications servers. They announced that CocaCola will be fully moving to this platform.

You can get more information on this by visiting: http://www.microsoft.com/online/sharepoint-online.mspx

How delete webparts from a page using the browser (spcontnt.aspx)

coskunc — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:53:00 GMT

I'm not sure if you've run into this when you're developing custom webparts or adding 3rd party webparts to a page but this happens to me quite often, I get an error stating that the page cannot be displayed and I right of way I know it's a web part I added to the page that's causing the issue but I can't get to the page to delete the web part. I don't want to open SharePoint designer either, so how do you delete the web part with the browser if you can't accesss the page?

Use the following URL on any SharePoint site to see the webparts you have installed on your SharePoint page

/_layouts/spcontnt.aspx?&url=[your_page_url_goes_here]

So if the page you're having issues with looks like the following

http://www.yourserver.com/site1/default.aspx

To see the web parts on that page you would use the following link

http://www.yourserver.com/_layouts/spcontnt.aspx?&url=/site/default.aspx

When you get to that page you'll see that you can Close, Reset or Delete web parts on the page that you specified.

Hope this helps!

Presenting at a SharePoint event in Istanbul, Turkey

coskunc — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 20:11:00 GMT

I haven't had much time to blog the last 2 months due to my busy schedule but I'm hoping to start bloging again soon. But I wanted let the Turkish readers of sharepointblogs.com that I was invited to present at a SharePoint event held at Microsoft Turkey's Headquarters at Oct 24 2007.

The event will be in Turkish and it will be around real life examples of what SharePoint can do for Turkish businesses. Hope to see you there!

To sign-up for the event you can use the following link

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7582846

May Wisconsin SharePoint Users Group Meeting

coskunc — Tue, 15 May 2007 19:46:00 GMT

For those of you who live in the Wisconsin area I wanted to let you know that I will be presenting at the Wisconsin SharePoint Users Group May 22nd. The title of the presentation is "Migrating from SharePoint 2003 to SharePoint 2007". If you're interested in the Upgrade to MOSS 2007 topic please join us at Milwaukee

This session will discuss methods and best practices to mitigate the risks and facilitate the process in migrating to WSS 3.0 and MOSS. We will discuss:
• Concerns to address before the upgrade
• Pros and cons of three upgrade scenarios (In-Place, Parallel, Content DB)
• What to do with unghosted/customized pages
• Learn what to do with your Web Part resources
• If you have to move your custom site definition...
• Converting a WSS 2.0 site to WSS 3.0
• Issues to consider with SPS
• 3rd party tools that can help

URL to the meeting announcement:
http://www.culminisconnections.com/sites/WSUG/Lists/Announcements/DispForm.aspx?ID=5&Source=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eculminisconnections%2Ecom%2Fsites%2FWSUG%2Fdefault%2Easpx

Chicago SharePoint User Group Event April 19- Best Practices on "How to Customize SharePoint Sites"

coskunc — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 03:35:00 GMT

Hi everyone, CSUG is meeting April 19th again. This time Todd Bleeker is in town and will be talking about Unghosting, Master Pages, CSS, Themes, and the Content Editor Web Part (of course).

Sign-Up to this Event by visiting the following link https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=117591

Event Code: 117591

4/19/2007 -- 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Welcome Time:
4/19/2007 5:30 PM Central Time

Location:
Microsoft Corporation
77 W. Wacker Dr.
Suite 2300
Chicago, IL 60601
USA

driving directions

"My opinions do not reflect those of my blog host, SharePoint Experts"

Creating sub tasks in a SharePoint task list! - "SharePoint Nested Tasks"

coskunc — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 02:46:00 GMT

How can I create sub tasks in SharePoint task lists? This is one of the things I hear my clients ask for all of the time and I hate to tell them that this requires custom code. Well no worries anymore there is a great team of people working on this for you!

Ishai Sagi (Owner of the Sharepoint Tips And Tricks site and also a recognized SharePoint MVP) has started a codeplex project named "SharePoint Nested Tasks" to

The following is taken from the Architecture document for SharePoint Nested Tasks located here.

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

SharePoint Nested Tasks is meant to provide SharePoint users with the ability to create sub tasks in a (potential infinite) hierarchy. Currently, tasks in both SharePoint and Outlook do not support sub tasks that branch from a parent, and the need for this tracking of a hierarchy of tasks is apparent.

For example, a decision maker may assign a task to a team leader, who will in turn assign sub tasks to people in his team. The team leader wants to see the status of the sub tasks aggregated into the view of the task that is assigned to him, and he also wants to make changes to the parent task that will affect the entire tree of tasks.

Are you interested, have any ideas, comments? Well check out the project site and let us know!

http://www.codeplex.com/SharePointSubTasks

Here are some screen shots from the architecture document

The indexing status remains in the Crawling state

coskunc — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 03:19:00 GMT

If you are getting a cannot connect to database error with SharePoint 2007 or indexing status remains in the Crawling state. The following might be the solution for you.

I was troubleshooting this issue and saw that my transaction logs were growing really fast and the server we were using didn't have much disk space allocated for the transaction logs. It was a 14 GB transaction log for a 9MB content database which is not an expected behaviour.

- After further investigation I saw that the log files were showing

CGathererQueueManager::FlushQueue failed with recoverable error 0x80040e2f CGathererFilterSink::CommitLinks : pGatherAddLink->AddLinkComplete error=0x80040e2f

and

SqlCrawl::ExecuteCommand fails Error 0x80040e2f

- We also saw that the number of handles that are opened by the MSSearch.exe process had increased which was using a good portion of the memory.

- And last but not least we saw that the number of TCP connections to the SQL Server had increased.

Now that we knew that the issue was a Search issue we looked into the search settings and found out that our Search service was hung up on Crawling full.

Tried stopping the search service using the following command from the command line but it wouldn't stop the service.

stsadm -o osearch -action stop

The Office SharePoint Server Search (osearch) service was stuck in Stopping mode but wouldn't stop.

Further looking into it we found an entry at Mike Hanley's blog that talked about how their Search service was stuck in the "Crawling Full" state. But I didn't like the fact that we had to recreate the indexes and recreate the SSP. So I looked further with the tips I found in Mike's entry and found this KB Article which explains how to fix the issue without creating indexes and a new SSP.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930887

After reading this article I found out that this was happening because the Database server that SharePoint 2007 was using was a SQL 2005 server which has maintenance plans that rebuilds indexes. This issue was occurring because the Rebuild index task did not restore all the options that were set on the indexes that are used by SharePoint Server 2007 after indexes are rebuilt. The Ignore duplicate values option is turned off after indexes are rebuilt.

(Taken from the KB article in my own words)

Here is the RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, you need to disable the maintenance plan that contains the Rebuild Index task. Then, use SQL Server Management Studio to locate the indexes that are specified in the following table, as appropriate for your situation. For each index, make sure that the Ignore duplicate values check box is selected.

Go into your SQL management studio and change the following tables in your search database to have the Ignore duplicate values check box enabled

* (You may have to temporarily click The Unique check box on the General tab on the Index Properties page so that the Ignor Duplicate check box is not grayed out)

Database	Table name	Index name
Search	MSSAlertDocHistory	IX_AlertDocHistory
Search	MSSAnchorChangeLog	IX_MSSAnchorChangeLog
Search	MSSAnchorPendingChangeLog	IX_MSSAnchorPendingChangeLog
Search	MSSCrawlChangedSourceDocs	IX_MSSCrawlChangedSourceDocs
Search	MSSCrawlChangedTargetDocs	IX_MSSCrawlChangedTargetDocs
Search	MSSCrawledPropSamples	IX_MSSCrawledPropSamplesByDocid
Search	MSSCrawlErrorList	IX_MSSCrawlErrorList_hrResult
Search	MSSCrawlHostList	IX_MSSCrawlHostList_Name
Search	MSSCrawlQueue	IX_MSSCrawlQueue
Search	MSSDocSdids	IX_MSSDocSdids

Before you re-enable the maintenance plan, delete the Rebuild Index task or replace the Rebuild Index task with an Execute Transact-SQL Statement task. The Execute Transact-SQL Statement task should restore all options on indexes.

Right or Left Aligning the Search Box in your SharePoint sites

coskunc — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 22:08:00 GMT

I had to tackle this issue at one of my clients and the way I solved this issue was by creating a table and putting the PlaceHolderSearchArea in that <TD> and aligned the <TD>

<table style="width: 100%; float:right;">
    <tr >
     <td width="100%"></td>
     <td id="SearchBox" align="right" style="text-align:right;">
      <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderSearchArea" runat="server">
       <SharePoint:DelegateControl runat="server" ControlId="SmallSearchInputBox"/>
       </asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
     </td>
    </tr>
</table>

This did the trick for me but I really did not have much time to better understand what was causing this issue and I came accross the answer in Heather's post. (for those of you who have not visited her site yet please do it's a gold mine of information.)

Heather found out that there was an empty table cell to the right of the search inputs with a width set to 100%. So you need to take care of that in order to move around your search box. To get her solution(CSS Code) to this click on the following link which will take you to her post about this topic.

SharePoint CSS Trick: Align your Search Inputs

<coskun\>

(I liked Lawrence's signature. he signs his name as a html tag and I think I'll use this as well. Pretty geeky and I like it :)