SharePoint Solutions Blog

Take your Windows Vista compatibility issues to Microsoft

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Rehmani MVP) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:13:00 -0500

Free, unlimited installation and compatibility support has been made available for all worldwide customers using Windows Vista SP1 until March 18, 2009. Telephone support is available worldwide. Chat and Email support is available in US and Canada only. Why mention this on a SharePoint blog?? Well, if you are having any compatibility issues with Vista and SharePoint, now is your chance to call up the vendor (Microsoft that is) and talk it out for FREE!

Here is the link for more information:

http://support.microsoft.com/common/international.aspx?rdpath=1&prid=11274&gprid=500921

-Asif

Microsoft releases important updates for SharePoint

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Bierman [MVP WSS]) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:21:00 -0500

This morning Microsoft released important updates for SharePoint. Microsoft strongly recommends that you install the updates that apply to you as soon as your patching and maintenance schedules permit.

The updates can be downloaded from the links below:

Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB951297) - x86

Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB951297) - x64

Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB951695) - x86

Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB951695) - x64

Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Project 2007 (KB951547) - x86

Read full details on the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog

Search across Site Collections

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Rehmani MVP) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:53:00 -0500

Somewhat of an old news, but I realize that we don't have a blog entry about this, what I believe, very important topic that a lot of people have asked about in the past. So here it is…

So the scenario is that you have deployed WSS in your company and you do not have a need for most of the MOSS features at this time (personalization, records management, My Sites, etc.). Using WSS, you have setup a separate site collection for each department in the company. The HR department wants to know why they can't search for information in the Marketing department directly from their own site without having to navigate to the Marketing site. You explain to them: "You are not in the same site collection. Remember when you guys had asked that you want your own database because of the sensitivity of your data… well, we had to give you your own site collection. WSS does not support search across site collections". That doesn't go well with the folks in the HR department and you are scrambling to find a solution.

Relax… you now have the option of rolling out Search Server Express 2008 (http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/serverproducts/searchserverexpress/default.aspx). It's a free product that provides searching across multiple site collections (among other powerful MOSS like search features). It has been out for a few months now, but it's still not a well known fact in the market. I was staffed part time at the Microsoft's Search Server Express booth at TechEd and until we took a nearby whiteboard and wrote down in big bold letters Free Search, we were not getting much traffic at the booth.

Ok, so you are probably a bit skeptic by now and asking: "What's the catch? Why would Microsoft make this a free product?" You are right. There is a catch! The Search Server Express 2008 cannot be scaled. It can only be installed on one server. Having said that, I don't think you should write it off and say that it's useless because it doesn't scale. Think about it… if you are a small to medium size business who needs MOSS like searching capabilities, you buy a beefed up server with a quad core processor and 32GB+ memory (not that expensive these days…) and you're all set! There is a lot of content you can index and search with this machine. Definitely worth taking a look if you haven't done so already!

-Asif

How do I make our SharePoint site stop asking me to login? – Part III

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Eaton) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:15:00 -0500

In my previous 2 posts, I explained the settings needed to allow Internet Explorer to automatically login to your SharePoint sites without presenting the popup login box. Even if you have addressed the issues I documented there however, you may still receive repetitive login boxes when opening files with the MS Office programs such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

The problem occurs when you are working on Windows Vista, and has to do with the way Vista accesses SharePoint data locations when using a fully qualified domain name without a proxy server. If you are using Windows XP as your desktop operating system, using a proxy server for internet access, or are typing a NetBIOS name to reach your SharePoint server - this problem should not exist and this solution will likely not help. The full issue and solution is now documented in the Microsoft Knowledge base in article #943280. Here is the quick and dirty answer they recommend, which has successfully fixed the problem in my own personal testing.

First of all, the way Vista accesses SharePoint data locations has been modified by Vista Service Pack 1 - so... you really should install SP1. If you cannot install SP1 or are awaiting a central deployment, you can request a specific hotfix from Microsoft instead by following the steps mentioned in the knowledge base article above.

Once you have Vista SP1 or the hotfix installed, a registry entry must be created to list the URL's to which Windows is allowed to automatically send credentials. Of course, all of the normal cautions that you receive when editing the registry should apply here. Here's how to do that:

Go to START > RUN, and type regedit.

When the Registry Editor window opens, follow this path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Services > WebClient > Parameters.

Right-click the 'Parameters' subkey, and choose New > Multi-String Value.

Type the name AuthForwardServerList.

Open the AuthForwardServerList value and type in the list of SharePoint server URL's that are trusted for your organization - one URL per line.

NOTE: You can use wildcards to reduce the number of lines needed.
(e.g. http:// *.domain.com)
You will have to type in separate URL's for both http and https URL's if you use them.
Close the Registry Editor window.

Reboot your PC, or at least go to START > ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS > SERVICES, and restart the WebClient service.

These steps should eliminate the login box from occuring within the MS Office products. See my previous posts (Part I and Part II) if your login prompts occur in Internet Explorer.

I've been presented with the 2008 Microsoft® MVP Award for Windows SharePoint Services

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Bierman [MVP WSS]) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:36:00 -0500

I have received notification that I’ve been presented with the 2008 Microsoft® MVP Award for Windows Server - Windows SharePoint Services. This is my second consecutive year of being honored with this award, but I have to say that the amount of gratitude, appreciation, and personal satisfaction in being re-awarded has not diminished at all. In fact, the opposite case is true. This type of recognition from one's peers just doesn't get old.

In truth, this award speaks volumes about the quality of folks with which I am fortunate enough to be associated. SharePoint Solutions is hands-down the best company I have ever had the opportunity to work for. Owners Jeff Cate and Kevin Pine have assembled a top-notch team of quality, hard-working people who are passionate and enthusiastic about being the best we can be for our customers. If you have purchased our SharePoint software add-on products, attended our SharePoint training classes, or engaged our expert consultants then I'm sure you'll agree.

For my part and on behalf of my wife Bekkey, please accept our humble thanks to both the SharePoint Solutions team and to the SharePoint community for letting us be part of this great team. It is truly a pleasure and an honor. We are indeed blessed to be so fortunate.

Living in Outlook all day long?

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cate) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:57:00 -0500

If so, you might be interested in this tip about how to create a folder in your Outlook tree and assign its home page to a SharePoint site. When you do that, you will be able to click on the folder and the SharePoint site will come up in the viewing pane of Outlook. There will be no need to open up your browser and navigate to the site anymore:

http://searchexchange.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid43_gci1318679,00.html?track=sy520&asrc=RSS_RSS-11_520

This is one of those small things that could produce a big productivity impact for many people.

Thanks to Mr. Brien Posey for sharing this tip.

Latest release of Extranet Collaboration Manager (ExCM) adds some nice features

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Bierman [MVP WSS]) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:23:00 -0500

The latest release of Extranet Collaboration Manager (ExCM 1.8170.2) adds some nice features which have been commonly requested from our customers:

Registration Approval Process

Define a list of approvers to review invited and/or anonymous registrations. When a user registers the account will remain unapproved until reviewed by an approver. One or more approvers will be notified of the pending registration. After reviewing the account the approver can approve or deny the request. The registering user will then be notified of the approval status.

Pre-Approved Domain Names

A list of pre-approved domain names can be defined. When a user registers for access to the site, his or her account will automatically be approved if the registering domain names exists in the pre-approved domain name list.

Account Verification

When a anonymous user registers for site access, a message will be sent to the user's e-mail address asking the user to verify the account. The user can access the site only after verification.

User Automation Job to Enforce Password Expiration and Account Activity Expiration

ExCM now contains a list of STSADM commands which can be use to create and manage user automation operations such as password expiration and account activity expiration. The job will notify users of pending expirations via e-mail. If a corrective action is not taken the account will be locked out. The age of the lockout and the notification window are customizable using STSADM. You can also customize the notification messages for each event.

The complete ExCM change log can be found here.

You can download the latest ExCM release here or contact our sales team to arrange a product demonstration.

Great SharePoint development book

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Bierman [MVP WSS]) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 09:32:00 -0500

I received a copy of Andrew Connell's new SharePoint 2007 Web Content Management Development book this week. As expected, Andrew's new book is excellent - well written with a ton of substantial content. I particularly like chapter 10 on Field Types and Field Controls.

SharePoint 2007 Web Content Management Development is a must have for any serious SharePoint developer. Seriously, buy this book today.

How do I make our SharePoint site stop asking me to login? – Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Eaton) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:48:00 -0500

In most environments, SharePoint sites should automatically log you in via your existing Windows credentials without ever asking who you are. So, if you receive the little pop-up login box – it means you have one or more of three separate issues. The symptoms for these three issues are similar, but there are differences to help you figure out which specific issue you are having. Of course, you could have a combination of issues… In my previous post, I detailed how to set the Internet Explorer Security Settings to enable automatic login to sites using the current Windows credentials. In this post, I will attempt to explain how the other two possible issues can be identified and addressed.

ISSUE #2 – Your current user account has not been given permission to the SharePoint site, page, or list you are trying to access.

SYMPTOMS: You have already performed the steps listed in ISSUE #1 – Internet Explorer Security Settings, and you continue to receive the login prompt.

It is likely that your current Windows user account has not been given permission to access the site. This issue is most common if you are working from home (or another external computer) where you are logged into your computer with a non-domain account. There’s not much you can do to prevent this one – you’ll just have to login manually when you first browse to the site. After that you should not be asked to login again until you close Internet Explorer.

This scenario is also common when you are accessing a SharePoint site / page / list for the first time or after the Site Owner has reconfigured security. In this case, you will receive the login prompt 3 times, and then a full-color SharePoint error page will appear telling you that you are not authorized. If you experience this variation, either the Site Owner or the SharePoint Admin will have to verify the SharePoint permissions to make sure that the appropriate permissions are applied for you.

ISSUE #3 – You have checked the little ‘remember my password’ box, and then your password has changed since.

SYMPTOM: The login prompt is coming up every time you click a link within the site. When you enter a valid username and password, the page loads. However, it comes up again on every new page you visit. As a side-effect, sometimes your Windows user account will get locked out after a few pages.

This repeating login box is caused by a stored password that is no longer valid, and happens because the user has at some time checked the box to ‘Remember my password’ when they were logging in. It seems like a good idea at the time, but then it comes back to bite you later when your password expires or is otherwise reset. Windows automatically tries to use the stored credentials to login to the site again and again every time you try to open another page on that site, instead of using your current credentials as it normally would.

Removing these stored passwords is possible, but it can be a challenge if your domain security policies hide some of your Control Panel options. Here are a couple of ways to try:

In Windows Vista, Open the Control Panel, and choose the ‘User Accounts’ applet.

Click the link on the left side of the window that says ‘Manage your network passwords’.
Select and Remove any sites that are related to your new password.

In Windows XP, the path is slightly different: CONTROL PANEL > STORED USERNAMES AND PASSWORDS.

If you do not have the option you need in the Control Panel, there is a way to bring up the box via the Run box.

Go to START > RUN.
Type the following:

rundll32.exe keymgr.dll,KRShowKeyMgr

If you are a domain administrator you can make a central setting with Active Directory Group Policy to disable the use of the 'Remember my password' feature, which is a good idea not only for SharePoint login purposes, but also for general network security concerns.

Logon to a domain controller and go to START > ALL PROGRAMS > ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS > ACTIVE DIRECTORY USERS AND COMPUTERS.

Right-click the domain name (or the Organizational Unit that contains the users you wish to control), and choose Properties.

Go to the 'Group Policy' tab, and edit the policy you created earlier for the IE Security Settings.

Drill down to: COMPUTER CONFIGURATION > WINDOWS SETTINGS > SECURITY SETTINGS > LOCAL POLICIES > SECURITY OPTIONS.

Enable the setting called 'Network Access: Do not allow storage of credentials or .Net Passports for network authentication'.

Close all open windows, and wait for the changes to replicate through your environment.

One or more of these issues has been the culprit in every instance of login problems that I’ve ever had to troubleshoot. If you have domain admin level privileges in your network, you can greatly decrease support calls and increase user adoption by implementing the Group Policy changes detailed in Issues 1 and 3. It is well worth the effort.

If your automatic login is working from Internet Explorer but not from your Office programs, take a look at this post.

Help! I Can’t See New Documents Checked Out to Someone Else!

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Spears) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:09:00 -0500

OK. So here's a frustrating scenario. You have a document library with a required column on it. One of your users is about to leave for vacation and uploads some documents to the library. She is in a rush and forgets to enter the required metadata. The documents remain checked out to her.

Unfortunately, no one else can see the documents because they have never been checked in. Even the site owner can't see the documents.

Fortunately, there is an easy way to handle this situation. The site owner can go to the Document Library Settings page and click on the link to Manage checked out files.

From here, he can select the documents and click the Take Ownership of Selection link.

Now, the site owner can enter the missing metadata and check the documents in so others can see them.

How do I make our SharePoint site stop asking me to login? – Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Eaton) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:53:00 -0500

This was one of the most common user requests I got during my system admin days. I was recently asked again by a student in one of my classes, so I thought it would be a good candidate for my first blog post here. In most environments, SharePoint sites should automatically log you in via your existing Windows credentials without ever asking who you are. So, if you receive the little pop-up login box – it means you have one or more of three separate issues. The symptoms for these three issues are similar, but there are differences to help you figure out which specific issue you are having. Of course, you could have a combination of issues… I’ll address the first and most common issue in this post, and then I’ll cover the other two in a later post.

ISSUE #1 – Internet Explorer Security Settings

SYMPTOM: Whenever you browse to your SharePoint site, the little popup dialog box appears asking for your user name and password. If you enter your credentials, it lets you enter the site – it’s just annoying to have to do this again each time you go to your site. If you enter the wrong credentials, leave off the domain name, or type the wrong slash, the box will reappear a total of three times. If you never get it typed correctly, you will receive a generic black and white error message stating that ‘You are not authorized to view this page’ (see example below).

If you are experiencing this combination of symptoms, you probably need to adjust your Internet Explorer Security Settings. Even if you are unsure if your symptoms exactly match – this is a good place to start troubleshooting.

In a nutshell, the SharePoint site(s) must be added to either the Local Intranet zone or to the Trusted Sites zone on the client PC. Most users are familiar with the Trusted Sites zone, and may already use it for some things. However, the default settings in Internet Explorer don’t always allow automatic login in the Trusted Sites zone – especially in IE7. Explorer won’t allow a site to be in both zones, so I recommend a package of settings to make sure that authentication continues to work. The good news is if you have Domain Admin privileges you can control all of these settings centrally by using Active Directory and Group Policy – more on that later.

Open IE on your computer, go to TOOLS > INTERNET OPTIONS, and then choose the Security tab.
Click on the ‘Local Intranet’ zone icon, and then the Sites button.
That will give you a second box, where you must click the Advanced button before entering and adding the site URL(s) – see pictures below.

If you get an error when you click the Add button, you probably need to uncheck the ‘Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone’ box. Then try again.

You should add each SharePoint portal / web application to this list, or use a domain wildcard entry (http://*.domain) if that is acceptable and relevant in your environment.

If users are able to type a short NetBIOS style name (without any domain name) for any portal, the short names should also be added.

If SSL encryption is sometimes used for any portal / web application, you should add the name(s) twice – once with the http: prefix and again with the https: prefix.
Click the Close and OK, and you should find yourself back on the Security tab.
(If you are looking for a quick fix, this alone might take care of the problem. Again though, I recommend following the rest of these steps to prevent things from ‘breaking’ again later.)

We should now adjust the default security settings for each zone to allow for future user changes. The easiest way to do this is to set the ‘Local Intranet’ and the ‘Trusted Sites’ zones to the Low security level without Protected Mode, the ‘Restricted Sites’ to the High security level with Protected Mode, and the ‘Internet’ zone to the Medium-High level with Protected Mode (click each zone icon and then move the slide all the way down for each – see picture below).

If you don’t see the slider at all, click the ‘Default level’ button. That should bring the slider back.

Protected Mode is actually not directly related to the login process, but will simplify the use of some SharePoint integration features. If you uncheck ‘Protected Mode’ for the ‘Local Intranet’ zone, you will likely receive a dire-looking warning box when you click OK. You’ll have to use your own discretion as to whether this setting is appropriate for your end users.

Some administrators or users may not want to apply the entire package of settings incorporated in the Low setting. You can make a more surgical strike by using the ‘Custom level…’ button. The relevant setting in the Custom box is at the very bottom of the list of options. It’s called ‘Automatic logon with current user name and password (see picture below).

Click OK to exit the Internet Options box, and then close all Internet Explorer windows.

Open a new Explorer window and browse to your SharePoint site. You should be logged in automatically using your Windows credentials.

If you still receive the login prompt, you apparently have one of the other issues listed at the end of this post.

If you are a Domain Admin, you probably want to apply these settings to all of your users. That way they can quit calling you about it and move on to other problems… This can be done by using Active Directory Group Policies.

Login to your domain controller using an account that has domain admin privileges, and perform the steps listed above to create the appropriate package of settings. The following steps allow you to import that package of settings into Group Policy.

Go to CONTROL PANEL > ADD OR REMOVE PROGRAMS > ADD/REMOVE WINDOWS COMPONENTS > INTERNET EXPLORER ENHANCED SECURITY CONFIGURATION.

Uncheck the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration option, and click Next until the wizard completes.This option can be re-enabled after step 10??, if you want or if your corporate policy requires it.

Go to START > ALL PROGRAMS > ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS > ACTIVE DIRECTORY USERS AND COMPUTERS.

Right-click your domain name (or whichever Organizational Unit contains the users to which you wish to apply this fix), and choose Properties.

Click the ‘Group Policy’ tab, and then the New button. Type in a descriptive name for the New Group Policy Object that appears.
Make sure that your new policy is selected and click the Edit button.

Drill down to USER CONFIGURATION > WINDOWS COMPONENTS > INTERNET EXPLORER MAINTENANCE > SECURITY > SECURITY ZONES AND CONTENT RATINGS.

When you click the button labeled ‘Import the current security zones and privacy settings’, you will likely receive a warning about ‘Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration’.

This is why we disabled the enhanced configuration in step 3, so that this policy would apply to normal workstations. Click Continue.
Close all open windows.

You can now go back to the ‘Add/Remove Windows Components’ box and re-enable the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration if you wish.

The changes will take time to replicate through your entire network or enterprise, depending on your particular Active Directory replication topology. In a single-site network, you may see the changes take effect within 15 to 90 minutes. In multi-site networks, it may take a day or more.

This package of settings could also be rolled out via Microsoft SMS server instead of Group Policy. However, SMS is certainly not my area of expertise, so I’ll just mention that it’s possible. I have personally used the above Active Directory Group Policy method with very good results. Even after all of your desktop clients receive the settings, you may still have a few users report login problems. If that is the case for you, stay tuned for my next post regarding Issues 2 and 3 that relate to login issues.

Software Engineer Position Available

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Bierman [MVP WSS]) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:01:00 -0500

Would you like to work with one of the best software engineering teams in the SharePoint industry? Would you like to gain invaluable experience and mentoring from industry-acknowledged experts? We are currently seeking to fill a mid-level software engineering position in our commercial software division. You will work with our expert development team to maintain, enhance, and augment SharePoint Solutions' award-winning portfolio of commercial software add-ons for Microsoft SharePoint.

To be considered for this position, please visit our Career Opportunities page, review the Software Engineer position's job description, and submit your qualified resume.

Using Google Gadgets to add external content and boost user buy in.

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke Hyde) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:15:00 -0500

As a SharePoint consultant, one question that I am asked frequently at the beginning of implementation projects is "How do you get users to buy in to SharePoint and start using it?" Getting users to switch to using any new application can be tough. To get your user's to visit your portal, there has to be content there that the user needs or wants. I recommend starting with content that everyone in the organization can use. Begin migrating the functional areas that all employees interact with, for example Human Resources and Company Wide Calendars.

Companies that I have worked with have had huge success using lunch menus, featured employee biographies, and bulletin boards to attract their users to the site. This type of content engages the user and will keep them coming to the site as you continue to add more business related content. One quick and easy way to add user catching content is to use Google Gadgets. Not only can Google Gadgets can help you attract users to your site, they can also keep users from navigating away from the intranet into the World Wide Web.

Google has hundreds of gadgets that you can be added to any web page. Many of these can be integrated into SharePoint using the Content Editor Web Part or the XML Web Part. Many of the Gadgets can allow users to access information from the web without leaving the comfort of your intranet page.

The example below shows how to use the Content Editor Web Part to add a weather gadget to a page.

Browse and find a Google Gadget for your page. Enter the settings for the Gadget. Click the Get the Code button. Copy the code in the box
Add a Content Editor Web Part to your homepage and modify the web part.
Click on the Source Editor and paste the code from the Google Gadget into the box.
Save the Changes to the web part. When you reload the page the weather gadget will appear on your page.

Google Gadgets can be an easy way to add external content to your SharePoint site. Be wary and selective when choosing your Gadgets. Not all Google Gadgets are appropriate for use on company portals and using too many gadgets can clutter and make your site less user friendly. Remember the goal is to add content that the users want or need. Some of the Google Gadgets that I think could be useful in a SharePoint environment are the weather gadget, the Count Down gadget (This could be used to countdown to a company event or deadline.), and Google Mini Web gadget.

Happy Gadgeting!

PowerShell for Flexible Iterative SharePoint-based Development

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Bierman [MVP WSS]) — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:00:00 -0500

This post by David Mann is a good resource for 3rd-party and MS tools to help with SharePoint-based software development:

Using Tools to make SharePoint Development Easier

While we here at the SharePoint Solutions Software Division certainly use some of the tools mentioned in David’s post, I guess maybe our development requirements are a bit "heavier" than the typical IT project since we're developing packaged products for commercial redistribution. We need the fined-grained control of a flexible, highly re-usable tool-chain.

Our developers use PowerShell extensively for various iterative "build and deploy" scenarios. For example, here's the usage menu from a PowerShell script called Deploy-ExCM which we use while working on our ExCM product:

----------

PS C:\usr\src\devteam\ExtranetCollaborationManager2009\Mainline\Dependencies> .\deploy-excm -u

Deploy-ExCM
Build and deploy utility script for Extranet Collaboration Manager

Deploy-ExCM usage information.
Arguments:
-i Recycle IIS application pool
-a Deploy artifacts (xcopy)
-g Deploy assemblies to GAC
-b Build solution (devenv)
-fui Uninstall / Install Features
-fda Deactivate / Activate Features
-bcl Update BCL assemblies to GAC
-testweb Delete and recreate test web
-wsp Build WSP package (makecab)
-light Light deployment -a
-heavy Heavy deployment -b -a -g -bcl -i

Examples:
deploy-excm -a -b -i -g
deploy-excm -b -g
deploy-excm -a -i -g -testweb -fui

----------

In our development environments, each developer using this script has a few environmental variables set in his/her Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 profile:

----------

#
# User-specific settings
#
write-output "`nSetting environment for SharePoint Solutions development.`n"
$WorkspaceRootDir = "C:\usr\src\devteam"
$PowerShellLibDir = "${WorkspaceRootDir}\DeveloperCenter\PowerShell"

# ExCM
$VBL_ExCM = "Mainline"
$BuildConfig_ExCM = "Debug"
$AppPool_ExCM = "SharePoint - 8081"
$AppRoot_ExCM = "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\8082"
$SiteUrl_ExCM = "http://devapp08:8082"
$WebUrl_ExCM = "http://devapp08:8082/downloadstest"

---------

The wide range of flags and parameters for Deploy-Excm make it a flexible and convenient tool for use while we work on the various types of artifacts involved in a SharePoint solution package. For the most common iterative build scenarios, I call the utility directly from the Visual Studio Tools menu as an External Tool. The three permutations I've added there are:

Deploy-ExCM (iterative) - this calls deploy-excm -a -i -g
Deploy-ExCM (heavy) - this calls deploy-excm -a -i -g -testweb -fui
Deploy-ExCM (makecab) - this calls deploy-excm -wsp

For your reference, here are the PowerShell scripts we're using.

1. Profile - contains developer-specific variables, pathing modifications, and PowerShell translation of vsvars32.bat:
http://www.codekeep.net/snippets/9ba5c3c9-87ea-44f2-81cd-7466f982caaf.aspx

2. Shared Functions - re-usable functions
http://www.codekeep.net/snippets/c3069a2f-3027-496c-8d0a-94e1a0894cfb.aspx

3. Deploy-* - product/project specific calls, command-line parsing:
http://www.codekeep.net/snippets/8071237c-fb1f-4426-96bb-1b4b75f96631.aspx

We try to have a "Deploy-*" script for each major product/project we work on. By sourcing PowerShell include files, much of the internal functions are re-used across scripts. If anyone has questions, feedback, suggestions or would just like to discuss further, please leave your comments and we'll start a dialog.

Does the !New tag annoy you?

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Rehmani MVP) — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:53:00 -0500

Are you a bit sick of that !New tag that appears beside a new item uploaded to a library? Well, you are not alone. I am repeatedly asked this question in our Applying SharePoint 2007 Core class: "How do I get rid of that annoying !New tag?" or "How long does an item really stays new?" J. Usually students ask these questions because they have uploaded/migrated a bunch of documents from their file share which are not really "new", but they get the !New tag assigned to them anyway.

Ok, so here are the answers:

First of all, this feature applies to not only Document Libraries, but also to other Lists such as Tasks, Issues, Contacts, Links etc. In the default installation of SharePoint, the "!New" tag gets appended to every new item in SharePoint lists and remains there for one calendar day. An administrator who has access to the SharePoint server has two options when changing the behavior of this feature:

Increase the number of days the icon should appear beside a new item in the list
Eliminate the appearance of the icon altogether

The stsadm.exe utility (located in the SharePoint server) is used to accomplish this task. Navigate to stsadm's location using a command prompt:

..\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\60\bin

The "setproperty" command will be used for this task as follows:

stsadm.exe –o setproperty –pn days-to-show-new-icon –pv (number of days) –url (Virtual server address)

For example, use the following syntax to prevent the new tag from appearing:

stsadm.exe –o setproperty –pn days-to-show-new-icon –pv 0 –url http://(your server name)

Hope this helps!

Looping Through Items in a SharePoint List with SharePoint Designer Workflows

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Spears) — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:03:00 -0500

One of the things that most frustrates me about SharePoint Designer workflows is that there is no convenient way to write loops. Not only can we not create For…Next, For…Each, Do…While, and Do…Until loops within our workflows, but there is no obvious way to loop through items in a list.

The Scenario

For example, assume you have a document library with 1,000 documents in it. You have just written a workflow with SharePoint Designer to e-mail the document creator and have him or her enter certain pieces of metadata. This will work fine for new documents going forward, but what about the 1,000 documents that already exist? You certainly don't want to have to start all those workflows manually!

The Solution

You can accomplish this automatically by setting the workflow on the library to run whenever an item is changed. Then write another workflow on another list to cycle through all the documents in this Document Library and set a processed flag to both indicate which ones have been processed.

Getting the Library Ready

First, you need some way in the document library to identify which items have been processed—that is, on which items your workflow has already initiated the workflow. You can do this by adding a custom column named "Processed", of type Yes/No (checkbox), with the default value set to "No".

Second, you'll need to modify your workflow to run when an item in the library changes. If you don't want the workflow to run every time an item changes, but only when a new item is created, you may want to check your new Processed flag at the beginning of your workflow and have your workflow set it to "Yes" after it runs.

Writing the Loop Controller

You will need another list on which the Loop Control workflow will run. I prefer to use a custom list named "Loop Controller". I also add a field to track the ID of the last processed item. This column serves two purposes: we can change this value to re-run the workflow and it also serves as a gauge to show how far along the loop controller is in its process. This field is just a number field and you can name it "Last Updated Item" with a default value of "0".

Now you are ready to write a workflow on the Loop Controller. It should be set to run manually and when an item changes.

The workflow will not have any conditions, but will have several actions together:

Look at the Document Library and get the ID for the first item that does not have its Processed value set to Yes. Store the ID for this item in a workflow variable named CurrentItemID.
Change the value of the Processed field for the item in Document Library with the ID equal to the CurrentItemID. This change will cause the workflow on the Document Library to run for that item because you wrote the workflow to run when an item changed.
Update the value in the Last Updated Item column on the Loop Controller list item. The workflow will stop after this action. However, because the item changed, and the workflow is set to start when an item changes, it will kick-off a new instance of the workflow. Through this stopping, restarting, and setting the Processed flags, you have created a workflow that will loop through the items in the Document Library.

Your completed workflow on the Loop Controller will look something like this.

Once you have finished writing the workflow on the Loop Controller list, you just need to add a new item and manually start the workflow.

If everything worked properly, then you can refresh the view of the custom list and watch the value in the Last Updated Column increase as it loops through the items.

You will notice that once the workflow can no longer locate an item in the Document Library with the "Processed" field equal to "No", the workflow will error out and stop. That's OK, because you want it to stop, otherwise you would have an infinite loop.

If you look at the history of the Loop Controller workflow, you will see where it ran once for each document in the Document Library.

If you look at the Document Library, you can see the workflow for each item was initiated when each item's "Processed" column was updated to "Yes".

When you are finished using the Loop Controller you can just delete the list and workflow.

Looping Inside a Workflow

Using this same technique of changing a value on an item, you can create workflows that run multiple times. You can even set a value in a column to act as a counter to control the number of times it runs. In some cases, by using conditions, you can simulate simple loops within a SharePoint Designer workflow.

Enjoy!

SharePoint Alerts—Activesync Synchronization Issues?

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Wright) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:04:00 -0500

I got a new toy about three weeks ago...an AT&T Tilt. A.K.A. the HTC 8925, the Tilt runs Windows Mobile 6 and is my first portable device on which I will receive email. Okay, so I'm a bit late jumping into the whole mobile email thing. I've never thought of email (or me) as being important enough to have to have in front of me 24x7. So now I have it. I'll let you know later if that's good…or bad.

Learning curve engaged. I had to figure out this Activesync thing. You know, like Active X and Active desktop and Active Directory and Active bladder…but I digress (too many of those commercials on TV). Back to Activesync. Got the Activesync thing figured out pretty easily. My biggest problem was entering my "secure" password on the keyboard to set up my OWA Exchange account correctly. Things were rockin' and rollin' and mail was downloadin' until…

…about a week into it. Suddenly, my device stopped syncing. Well, partially, anyway. Seemed like it developed a distaste for my email. However, it was still syncing my contacts, calendar and tasks without a problem. Kinda' like Powerpoint, it started sucking the life right out of me as I began my troubleshooting journey. I did all the standard Windows Mobile things…delete the account and start over, soft reset, hard reset and finally, upgrading the ROM (I originally thought the upgrade had fixed the problem).

I found several articles that talked about a problem with corrupt emails causing Activesync to stop synchronizing emails. The question for me was how to determine which of my gazillion emails might be causing the problem. I removed all my emails from my Inbox (it needed a good housecleaning, anyway). I even tried moving entire folders into my PST to no avail. Still, no sync. It was all very interesting, as the error I had originally received suddenly went away and I was left with an errorless, non-syncing mailbox.

Well, someone else in the company (thanks, Eric) started having problems and determined quickly that it might be caused by a SharePoint alert! Must be a better Googler than I. Okay, now THAT makes sense. I've seen those SharePoint alerts in the past that won't open correctly in Outlook, so I thought it sounded plausible. Sure enough, I deleted my daily alerts from my Inbox and volia, I was syncing again.

I went back and tested the scenario by forcing a SharePoint immediate alert. Sure enough, as soon as I got the alert in my Inbox, my email stopped syncing with Activesync. Follow-up provided me with article 937788 from Microsoft which seems to shed more light on the issue. I've requested the hotfix to see if it really fixes the issue.

We all love SharePoint alerts, but they appear to have some undesirable side effects. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who has had (or is having) this issue. I've seen other posts with similar issues. I found out quickly that losing your portable email can lead to withdrawl!

When Good Web Parts Go Bad

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Spears) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 10:49:00 -0500

Here's a quick tip for a Saturday morning.

At some point it's bound to happen. You'll mess up a perfectly good SharePoint page by incorrectly configuring a web part. You may add some incorrect custom HTML, JavaScript, or style sheet code to a Content Editor Web Part, and then not be able to edit or close the web part. Or you may add a page viewer web part to frame an external web page and the webmaster controlling that external page writes some code to break it out of frames.

When this happens, you need some way to close the offending web part. To do this, go to the Edit Properties page for the page that contains the bad web part. If you scroll to the bottom of Edit Properties page, you will see a link to Open WebPart Page in maintenance view. Click on this link.

From the Web Part Page Maintenance page, you can select the web part you messed up and then either Close it, Reset it, or Delete it.

Ah! You're back in business!

Close Individual SharePoint Blog Posts for Comments

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Spears) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:29:00 -0500

In a recent Extreme Makeover class, a student asked how they could close a Post in a SharePoint blog site for comments. They still wanted users to be able to read the blog post and read existing comments, but they didn't want them to be able to post comments on it. Kevin Pine and I worked together to create the following solution using some JavaScript in a Content Editor Web Part on the Posts.aspx page.

Add a Custom Column to the Posts List to Allow Comments

We needed some way for the blog owners to indicate when a post had been closed. On the Posts list, we added a new column named Allow Comments. We set the Type as Yes/No (check box) and the Default Value to Yes.

Update the Posts.aspx Page to Show the Value of the Allow Comments Column

Users can only submit comments while reading an individual post. This view of a blog post is generated by the Posts/Posts.aspx page. I clicked on the title of one of my blog posts to view the post in this page.

The Post Footer is displayed at the bottom of the post and above the comments section.

We needed the value of our new Allow Comments field to show up in the Post Footer. To accomplish this, we edited the current view by doing the following:

Click on Site Actions, Edit Page.
On the Posts web part, click on edit, Modify Shared Web Part.
In the task pane, click on Edit the current view.
Check the box beside Allow Comments, and click OK.
View the blog post again and notice that the Allowed Comments value is now visible in the Post Footer.

Add the JavaScript to Hide the New Comment Fields If the Post is Closed for Comments

The form to submit new comments only appears on the Posts/Posts.aspx page. This means that we can add some JavaScript to this page to hide it if the phrase Allow Comments: No appears in that bottom line. Here is what we did to get the JavaScript on the page.

While viewing a post in the Posts/Posts.aspx page, click on Site Actions, Edit Page.
In the Right Web Part Zone, click on Add a Web Part.
Select the Content Editor Web Part.
Click the link to open the tool pane.
Click on the Source Editor button.
Paste in the following JavaScript code and click the Save button. Note that the code is fairly well commented if you are interested in what it is actually doing.
<script language="JavaScript">
//add an entry to the _spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames array
//so that our function will run on the pageLoad event
_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.push("hideComments");

function hideComments() {
//Create an array to store all elements to which
//the ms-PstFooter class have been applied
var PostFooterArray = getElementsByClass('ms-PostFooter');

//Check to see if the first element of the array contains
//the text "Allow Comments: No"
if(PostFooterArray[0].innerHTML.indexOf('Allow Comments: No')!= -1){
//create an array to store the SPAN tag with the ID of part1
var commentSPAN = document.getElementById("part1");
//Replace the comment form controls with my own HTML statement
commentSPAN.innerHTML = '<b>Comments have been closed on this post.</b>';
}
}

function getElementsByClass(theClass) {
//From: http://www.seandempsey.com/code/getElementsByClass.php
var allPageTags = new Array();
//Populate the array with all the page tags
allPageTags=document.getElementsByTagName("*");
var Elements = new Array();
//Cycle through the tags
var n = 0;
for (i=0; i<allPageTags.length; i++) {
//Pick out the tags with our class name
if (allPageTags[i].className==theClass) {
Elements[n] = allPageTags[i];
n++;
}
}
return Elements;
}
</script>
In the tool pane, expand the Appearance section.
Set the Chrome Type to None.
Click OK to close the tool pane.
Click Exit Edit Mode.

Testing the Solution

My first blog post had the check box for the Allow Comments field checked. I can see the fields to post a comment.

If I uncheck the Allow Comments field and view the post, I can see that the comments have been closed.

Changing Host Header for the MySite Host

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Wright) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 18:12:00 -0500

I was playing around with SharePoint on my virtual machine and had set up a new installation of MOSS when I noticed I had entered a host header incorrectly (at least incorrectly from the standpoint of being consistent with my previous installations). I entered "MySite" instead of "MySites" as the first part of the host header. I know, I know, it's probably more correct to use the singular, but I was trying to be consistent with what others had done.

All I wanted to do was to change the host header and have SharePoint recognize the change. I performed the standard internet search and didn't get instant gratification, so I started playing around. I found that making the changes in three places and an IISRESET seemed to take care of my problem.

First, in Central Administration under Operations, Global Configuration, Alternate access mappings, edit the internal URL.

Next, open up IIS Manager and select the properties of the MySites web app. Change the host header by clicking on the Advanced… button.

Again in Central Administration, navigate to the Shared Services provider and click on My Site settings in the User Profiles and My Sites section. Change the personal site provider URL.

Perform an IISRESET. All should be well.

Get a Virtual PC image with SharePoint Solutions software pre-installed

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Bierman [MVP WSS]) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:44:00 -0500

Now you can download a Virtual PC hard drive image (VHD) with a forms-based SharePoint Extranet AND our entire software product line already installed and pre-configured for your evaluation. This downloadable virtual hard-drive image is pre-installed with:

SHAREPOINT SOLUTIONS EXTRANET COLLABORATION MANAGER
SHAREPOINT SOLUTIONS SITE PROVISIONING ASSISTANT
SHAREPOINT SOLUTIONS ALERT MANAGER 2007
MICROSOFT WINDOWS SERVER 2003 R2 ENTERPRISE EDITION
MICROSOFT SQL SERVER 2005 ENTERPRISE EDITION
SERVICE PACK 1 FOR MICROSOFT SQL SERVER 2005
MICROSOFT OFFICE PROFESSIONAL 2007
MICROSOFT OFFICE SHAREPOINT DESIGNER 2007
MICROSOFT WINDOWS SHAREPOINT SERVICES 3.0
MICROSOFT OFFICE SHAREPOINT SERVER 2007
MICROSOFT .NET FRAMEWORK 2.0
MICROSOFT .NET FRAMEWORK 3.0

The VHD evaluation images are designed to last for 30 days from the date the virtual machine is first run. After 30 days the image and all the software on the image will expire. Free registration is required for download.

Update from Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Bierman [MVP WSS]) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 12:30:00 -0600

By all accounts, Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2008 is a resounding success. There seems to be a lot of enthusiasm from both attendees and exhibitors alike.

Here's a photo of our SharePoint Solutions' booth:

Our session yesterday on SharePoint Extranets and FBA was standing-room-only. Here's a photo of myself presenting:

SharePoint and Office 14: Looks like I may have guessed right for once

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cate) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:26:00 -0600

For once, it looks like I may have guessed correctly about some enhancements we can expect in the next version of Microsoft SharePoint and Office: Office 14.

Three weeks ago, I was the keynote speaker at the SharePoint Information Worker Conference 2008. In my keynote, I gave my best guess at some of the enhancements we might see in the next version of SharePoint (expected sometime in late 2009).

Today, while listening to Bill Gates' Keynote address at the Microsoft SharePoint Conference in Seattle, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that I may have guessed right on my #1 prediction.

Gates said that a top priority for the next version of SharePoint is to beef up SharePoint Lists. SharePoint's List features don't sound as sexy and appealing as some of its other features, such as BI and the Business Data Catalog, but Lists are really the bedrock of the product and have proven to be a breath of fresh air to information workers who previously had to rely on Excel spreadsheets and Access databases for their seemingly endless need for tracking applications.

Unfortunately, so far SharePoint's List features have not been robust enough to develop true database applications. Fundamental features that application developers have come to expect in a relational database management system have been absent so far in SharePoint Lists due to a layer of architecture between SharePoint Lists and the underlying DBMS, SQL Server.

As I understood Gates today, that is all going to change in the next version of SharePoint. In the next version, SQL Server will "understand" SharePoint Lists and it will be possible to create a List that will, in effect, create a native table in the SQL Server database. Furthermore, because it is native, this will allow developers to make use of the more robust features of the DBMS and will eliminate the current performance issues with SharePoint Lists that have over 2000 rows.

In my mind, this improvement will also open the door for thousands of ISVs to port their vertical market applications to SharePoint as a platform, if they choose to do so.

I think this is great news for SharePoint as a development platform.