Technical Ramblings

Zero Downtime Patching in SharePoint Server 2016

2017-10-11T15:03:00.001-04:00

Recently needed to do an update of eight farms for a client. Now I can never do as thorough of a job as Microsoft and others have done describing the process so I will not even attempt it. (see also links at bottom).

What I needed was a way to walk through the whole phase as simply as possible so I wrote and/or borrowed code for a PowerShell script to streamline the process

Basic steps of the script

Copy updates to all servers in farm
Prompt user to remove a web front end (WFE) user from Network Load Balancer(NLB)
Enable Side By Side SharePoint code on that WFE
Trigger the coping of Side By Side files to the c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\16\template\layouts\{current SharePoint version number}
Prompt user to install patch on this WFE (may possibly automate this) and reboot server
Prompt user to add WFE back into NLB and remove other WFE (could add a loop for more than 2 WFE)
Enable Side by Side on second WFE
Trigger SharePoint file copy
Prompt to install patches on second WFE and reboot server
Disables the Distributed Cache(DC) on the first server designated with the "DistributedCache" role
Prompts user to install patched on this server and reboot.
Re-enables the distributed cache on this server
Disables the DC on the second server
Prompts to install patches and reboot server
Re-enables the distributed cache on this server
Runs database upgrade on all content databases
Runs PSConfig on each server one at a time maintaining availability of all services
Set Side By Side to the new version that has just been installed on all servers

Command Line

PS> .\SP-UpdateFarm.ps1 -farmaccount "test\test-farm" -weburl "https://test-partner.example.com/" -wfeSvr01 "TESTWFE01" -wfeSvr02 "TESTWFE01" -otherSvrs01 @( "TESTAPP01", "TESTSRCH01", "TESTDCS01") -otherSvrs02 @( "TESTAPP02", "TESTSRCH02", "TESTDCS02") -test $true

Parameters

[string] $farmaccount ="The Farm account to connect to SharePoint"
[string] $weburl ="Web application URL to the use for upgrading"
[string] $wfeSvr01 = "Name of the first Web Front End"
[string] $wfeSvr02 ="Name of the Second Web Front End"
Array $otherSvrs01="Other servers in your HA farm all 01"
Array $otherSvrs02 ="Other servers in your HA farm all 02"
[string] $patchFolderUNC ="UNC to copy the upgrade files from"
[string] $patchInstallFolder="The folder to place the upgrade files in on remote servers"
[bool]$test ="run through script connecting to servers but not actually performing actions"

Gotchas

if you have a folder in the "web server extensions\16\template\layouts" folder that looks like a version number for example 1.2.3.4 it can be deleted when you enable the Side By Side
remote powershell must be allowed for this to work
you must run as Farm account
PowerShell must be run as Administrator

SP-UpgradeFarmZDP.ps1

See also:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt767550(v=office.16).aspx
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt743024(v=office.16).aspx
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/pla/2016/03/10/zero-downtime-patching-in-sharepoint-server-2016/
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc748824(v=office.16).aspx

Nintex Task Form NullReferenceException

2015-09-15T14:36:00.000-04:00

Brief history, a client of mine had workflows created in Nintex on Sharepoint 2010 that did not use Nintex forms. These workflows were ported to SharePoint 2013 with Nintex Forms. After that none of the a “Request review”, “Request data” or a “Request approval” activity would work.
The simplest way to recreated the error was to preview the form but you would get the same error if you published and ran the workflow.

Exception Details: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Source Error:
An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace:

[NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.]
Nintex.Forms.SharePoint.ApplicationPages.PreviewNintexForm.GetDefaultValuesForWorkflowVariables() +557
Nintex.Forms.SharePoint.ApplicationPages.PreviewNintexForm.InitializeData() +846
Nintex.Forms.SharePoint.ApplicationPages.PreviewNintexForm.OnInit(EventArgs e) +645
System.Web.UI.Control.InitRecursive(Control namingContainer) +186
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +2098

After "debugging" the Nintex's code I determined that it was using a XML file stored in a hidden SharePoint list. This XML file contained the form as well as the workflow variable definitions.
It turns out that earlier versions of Nintex stored blank variables as . The new version stores them as the code did not support the old format.

All I had to do was go through all the workflow variables and assign them a single space as the default value and the forms started working again.

Select all items in a MultiLookupPicker

2014-09-11T15:04:00.000-04:00

I had a client that wanted all options in a multi-select lookup field to be selected when a new item was created

Then the user could deselect what they did not need, more common to need all. Well it turns out you can't specify the default values for a multi-lookup field.

I came across this post from Bil Simser (thanks) that gave me the ideas for this JavaScript function to select all the possible options in a specific MultiLookupPicker item. The argument is the name of the field you want to select from, there could be more than one on the page.

jQuery.fn.exists = function () {
    return this.length !== 0;
};

SD.SP2010.MultiLookupPicker.SelectAll = function(pickerTitle) {
    if (jQuery("[id$='_SelectCandidate'][title^='" + pickerTitle + "']").exists()) {
        // append the new options to our results (this updates the display only of the second list box)
        jQuery("[id$='_SelectCandidate'][title^='" + pickerTitle + "']").children().detach().appendTo("[id$='_SelectResult'][title^='" + pickerTitle + "']");
        var data = jQuery("[id$='_SelectCandidate'][title^='" + pickerTitle + "']").closest("table").siblings("[id$='MultiLookupPicker_data']").val();
        data = data.replace( /\|t \|t /g , "");
        // append the new options to our hidden field (this sets the values into the list item when saving)   
        jQuery("[id$='_SelectCandidate'][title^='" + pickerTitle + "']").closest("table").siblings("[id$='MultiLookupPicker']").val(data);
    }
};

Using SharePoint CSOM to access a list's information using folder/internal name

2014-04-15T16:11:00.001-04:00

Been quite some time since I posted anything but I could not find any place on the net that talked about getting a SharePoint list using the CSOM and the lists internal/folder name. I finally came up with this kludge using the SPService, but basicly what I am doing is searching the default view URL for the list folder name.

The reason I needed to do this was I had a client request to setup alerts form one list that had URLS that pointed to another list. The alerts really needed to be on the referenced list and not what the user was currently selecting in the list view.

$().SPServices({
    operation: "GetListCollection",
    async: false,
    completefunc: function (xData, Status) {
        $(xData.responseXML).find("List").each(function() {
            if ($(this).attr("DefaultViewUrl").indexOf(listInternalName) >= 0) {
                 listName = $(this).attr("Title");
                 listId = $(this).attr("ID");
            }
        });
    }
});

Hope someone else finds this useful.

Enabling in browser support for PDF

2012-06-07T15:22:00.004-04:00

A very old post I forgot to publish about enabling SharePoint browser support of PDF

If you have a default SharePoint 2010 setup you would notice that when you go to open a Pdf file SharePoint prompts you to save it rather than opening.

The cause of this behavior is SharePoint 2010 Browser File Handling. This property is on SharePoint Web Application level and its value determines how files are treated in the browser. “Strict” specifies that MIME content types which are not listed in “AllowedInlineDownloadedMimeTypes” are forced to be downloaded. “Permissive” specifies that the HTML and other content types which might contain script are allowed to be displayed directly in the browser. Source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.administration.spwebapplication.browserfilehandling.aspx

“AllowedInlineDownloadedMimeTypes” is a collection of MIME types. This list of MIME types does not contain MIME type of Pdf documents by default. It is important to understand that by adding Pdf MIME type to IIS settings you will not solve this issue.

Solution #1 (via User Interface):

The solution is to change Browser File Handling property on Web Application level. For that you need to be a Farm Administrator. Steps to change Browser File Handling property:

Go to SharePoint 2010 Central Administration > Application Management > Manage Web Applications

Select the row of your web application

Click General Settings in the ribbon

Scroll down to Browser File Handling and select Permissive

Click Ok

Now, your Pdf document will be opened in the browser.

By default, option is set to Strict when creating a web application. When set to Strict, a Pdf document (and other file types) can only be Saved (downloaded), but in Permissive mode, the Pdf document can be opened in the browser by default (this is a setting you can change. See Document Library Settings -> Open in the Client).

Limitation #1:

Once you enabled “Permissive” Browser File Handling, SharePoint will allow all documents be opened in the browser. Today, there is no “out-of-the-box” option to allow Permissive option for Pdf documents only.

Migrate SharePoint 2010 My Sites from default Web Application

2012-05-07T16:09:00.003-04:00

Recently I had a client that had setup their "My Sites" in the same web application as their default intranet and wanted to move them to a new web application.
I found several posts on how to exporting my sites like this one and migrating My Sites to a new Content Database but none that actually tacked the issue of moving to a new Web Application.
Well this turned out to be easier than I thought.

Migrate the "My Sites" content to a new content database.

$db = Get-SPContentDatabase WSS_Content
Get-SPSite http://portal/personal/* -Limit ALL | where { $_.ContentDatabase -eq $db }
Get-SPSite http://portal/personal/* -Limit ALL | where { $_.ContentDatabase -eq $db } | Move-SPSite -DestinationDatabase WSS_Content_My_Sites -Confirm:$false

Remove this new content database from the current Web Application.
In Central Admin -> Application Management -> Manage content databases. Select Content DB, in my case WSS_Content_My_Sites and select Remove content database
Create a new Web Application to house the My Sites.
Central Admin -> Application Management -> Managed web applications -> Select New from the ribbon. There is no need to create a new site collection since we are going to drop the content database that will be created.
Re-attach the content database previously removed to this new Web Application
Central Admin -> Application Management -> Manage content databases.
Make sure you select the correct Web Application and use the correct database name.
Set the Self-Service Site Creation for the new My Site Web Application.
Central Admin-> Application Manager -> Manage web application -> select site then Self-Service Site Creation in ribbon
Update links in SharePoint to create new "My Sites" in this new location.
Central Admin -> Application Management -> Manage service applications
Select User Profile Service then Manage in the ribbon
Under My Site Settings -> Setup My Sites -> update My Site Host location
Remove the content database that was created with the new "My Site" Web Application

How to get a SharePoint person field's email adress

2012-01-11T11:33:00.000-05:00

This week I had the need to access the email address of a user that was in a person field of a SharePoint list.

Well I incorrectly assumed that this was some flavor of a SPUser object, turns out the person field in a SPList is a special type SPFieldUser.

Well lets cut to the chase this is the code to access the email address of a SPListItem person column;

private bool EmailUser(SPListItem spListItem, string recordColumn, string subject, string message)
        {
            SPFieldUser spFieldUser = (SPFieldUser)spListItem.Fields[recordColumn];
            SPFieldUserValue spFieldUserValue = (SPFieldUserValue)spFieldUser.GetFieldValue(
                                                    spListItem[recordColumn].ToString());
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(spFieldUserValue.User.Email) == false)
                return SPUtility.SendEmail(spListItem.Web, false, false, spFieldUserValue.User.Email, subject, message);
            else
                LogWrite("Error", string.Format("Send Email Error Message")
                                                ,spFieldUserValue.User.Name));
            return false;
        }

How to change the view used by XsltListViewWebPart

2011-10-28T12:35:00.000-04:00

So I was in a situation that I needed to change what view was being displayed on a page dynamically.
I am using the the XsltListViewWebPart to display all the values of a list to the user and depending on the user and different properties of the list items I needed to filter the view as well as assign a different XSL file.

The biggest problem I had was that the list view GUID is created only at deploy time and I could find no other way to assign a different view.

I came across several posts that had examples of changing the view or adding a new XLVWP to the page at deploy time
http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/4843/reusing-the-xsltlistviewwebpart and http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/zh/sharepoint2010programming/thread/983d2098-d742-4708-8bdc-437aa07b3b9d

So I wanted to take this a little further and be able to dictate what view was used on the fly. Using a QueryString of the ListID and the ListViewName I then assign the appropriate view in the OnInit event as shown below.

public partial class RecordHistory : DialogLayoutsPageBase
{
     protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
     {
     }
     protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e)
     {
         base.OnInit(e);
         string[] strLists = Request.QueryString.GetValues("ListID");
         string[] strListViewName = Request.QueryString.GetValues("ListViewName");

         if (strLists == null || strLists.Length < 1)
         {
             throw new SPException(SPResource.GetString(Strings.MissingRequiredQueryString, "ListID"));
         }
         SPList spList = SPControl.GetContextWeb(Context).Lists.GetList(new Guid(strLists[0]), true);
         SPView view = spList.Views[strListViewName[0]];
         this.xlvwpRecordHistory.ViewGuid = view.ID.ToString();
         this.xlvwpRecordHistory.ViewId = int.Parse(view.BaseViewID);
         this.xlvwpRecordHistory.XmlDefinition = view.GetViewXml();
     }
}

As always there are many ways to do this that might be better but this worked and I found no other examples of this on the web.
Please let me know if you have a better idea

Basic steps for Moving a SharePoint site collection between domains

2011-06-06T11:41:00.000-04:00

Before you start

Make sure SharePoint versions are the same on source and destination servers, service packs and patches.

Permissions

There are some basic permissions that need to be configured (if they have not already).

See Add-SPShellAdmin. If you are using Windows authentication to connect to SQL Server, the user account must also be a member the SQL Server dbcreator fixed server role on the SQL Server instance where the database will be created. If you are using SQL authentication to connect to SQL Server, the SQL authentication account that you specify when you create the content database must have dbcreator permission on the SQL Server instance where the database will be created.

Add-SPShellAdmin -UserName Domain\User Name

Migrate Data

Backup Site Collection on Farm A.

On the server farm that contains the original site collection open a SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

In the power shell window type the following command:

Backup-SPSite –Identity http://FarmASiteCollection -Path TempPathAndFileName.bak -Force

Force will overwrite a previously backup file.

Create Content Database on Farm B.

Assuming the appropriate Web Application already exists then you just need to create a new content database.

On the server for farm B open a SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

In the power shell window type the following command:

New-SPContentDatabase -Name ContentDbName -WebApplication WebApplicationName
-DatabaseServer DBServerName

Restoring Site Collection on Farm B.

In the power shell window type the following command:

Restore-SPSite –Identity FarmBSiteCollection -Path TempPathAndFileName.bak
-DatabaseServer DBServerName -DatabaseName ContentDbName

Restore Access/Permissions

You need to add a user via command line because the restored site will deny all of your login attempts (unless your server is on the same domain as the original source server).

Using the central administration console, you will note that the site collection still references the original administrators which are now invalid on this new domain.

NOTE: you can view using following steps >> Central Administration >> Application Management >> Site Collection Administrators (on Farm B SharePoint central administration domain).

· Now you need to change ownership of the site collection using following command.

Set-SPSite –Identity FarmBSiteCollection -OwnerAlias “domain/User”

· Now if you refresh central admin console you will see the new administrator as an owner, you can change the secondary administrator at this point as well using same utility.

Set-SPSite –Identity FarmBSiteCollection - SecondaryOwnerAlias “domain/User”

· Now reset the IIS and you can login the main site collection as an administrator.

· Then you can optionally run this to clean up the old lingering logins explicitly

Move-SPUser –Identity olddomain\UserName - NewAlias newdomain\UserName

BitCoins???? Fascinating concept.

2011-05-18T09:55:00.003-04:00

Came across this article not sure I understand all the concept but what an idea.

Is this really going to take off or just die a slow death like many cool concept?

Reader Quotas for WCF Services in SharePoint 2010

2011-03-16T16:02:00.001-04:00

Creating a WCF service in SharePoint 2010 is relatively easy. The first thing to do is follow the basic steps in Microsoft's post "Creating a Custom WCF Service in SharePoint Foundation". This will give you a nice starting point for your Service as long as you don't need to need to change any of the Binding information.

Try sending a 70k file to your nice new WCF service. Oops error!

The remote server returned an unexpected response: (400) Bad Request.*
Or
The maximum string content length quota (8192) has been exceeded while reading XML data. This quota may be increased by changing the MaxStringContentLength property on the XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas object used when creating the XML reader.

Ok no problem. If you have done any WCF Service code in the past you probably know that you need to alter some of the binding information to increase the message size and or change the attributes for the readerQuotas no big deal right?

Wrong!!!

SharePoint 2010 has this great new hosting ability MultipleBaseAddressBasicHttpBindingServiceHostFactory and it does all the work required to set up the end points and bindings. You don't need to do create a web.config file or write any WCF service code.

So right about now you should be asking yourself "Self, how do I change the binding information then?".
Well after hunting around for the better part of a day I found a couple of post that talked about using the SPWebService.ContentService to programmatic change the binding information.
For example:

But no where do any of the post talk about where do I run this code. Wouldn't make sense to run it on the client, although you do need to make some changes on the client side as well. And running it as a Event Receiver when the feature for the WCF Service is installed did not work for me ether.

So what next???
Well I finally came across a comment on one of the MSDN pages by Dan Mayernik.

First, to update the configuration for a custom WCF service -add a WebApplication level feature with nothing more then a feature receiver. The receiver should override "FeatureInstalled" as follows:

Obviously, the values listed above are the extreme cases and should be set according to what your service will need. Also, the key for the indexer used for the WcfServiceSettings collection is the name of your service file. If you place the file in a subdirectory -do not include the subdirectory name as part of the key.

Thus, if your service is deployed to the ISAPI directory under:
/MyCompany/MyCustomService.svc

the key for the WcfServiceSettings collection would be:
mycustomservice.svc

CAUTION: The key, as stated above, is case sensitive. The key should be all lowercase.

Thanks goes to Dan he saved me from loosing any more of my hair (this week)

Reusing file in Visual Studio without copying

2010-07-12T16:44:00.003-04:00

This is so silly but I just figured out how to do it and I had to post it (in case someone else is as brain dead as I was).
When you want to add an existing file to your current project in Visual Studio that's located outside the current project's directory, that file is copied into the project folder, then it's added to the project.

Well what if you don't want a duplicate file?

Maybe you want to share the same source file in multiple projects so that if you modify the code in one project (to fix a bug, for example) the updated code is immediately available to the other projects.

I know, I know, most of us would create some sort of shared library for this code and just reference this DLL or even the whole VS project, but to add a shared file all you need to do is instead of clicking the 'Open' button when adding an existing file, click the arrow to the left of this button. Then select 'Link File' from drop down, this way you create a link to the original file without coping it locally.
Simple!

SharePoint 2007 Custom workflow failed to start.

2010-01-15T11:15:00.006-05:00

I am doing some custom SharePoint 2007 Workflow development utilizing WSPBuilder and I had this one workflow that just would not run no matter what I did. I disabled all the activities in it except a Workflow History logging activity but still the workflow would not start. I am a little embarrassed to say this was driving me insane for the better part of a day.

No matter what I did when I ran the workflow I would get

1/15/2010 11:06 AM Error

System Account

Trans failed to start. 1/15/2010 11:06 AM Workflow Canceled

System Account

Workflow Trans was canceled by System Account.

I searched through the SharePoint logs over and over again and all I was seeing was unable to load workflow assembly, but I knew it would load since I had other workflows in this library and they all ran no problem.

Here is the error message out of the log file, I hope you spot the problem:

Load Workflow Assembly: System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'com.XXXX.Sharepoint.Workflows\, Version\=1.0.0.0\, Culture\=neutral\, PublicKeyToken\=$PublicKeyToken$' or one of its dependencies. The given assembly name or codebase was invalid. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131047) File name: 'com.XXXX.Sharepoint.Workflows\, Version\=1.0.0.0\, Culture\=neutral\, PublicKeyToken\=$PublicKeyToken$' at System.Reflection.AssemblyName.nInit(Assembly& assembly, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean raiseResolveEvent) at System.Reflection.Assembly.InternalLoad(String assemblyString, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean forIntrospection) at System.Reflection.Assembly.Load(String assemblyString) at ...

Well that part I was not seeing was PublicKeyToken\=$PublicKeyToken.

It turns out that when I created the feature using the WSPBuilder create SyncSharePointWorkflow option it must have had an error I did not notice and this error caused it not to add the PublicKeyToken to the elements.xml file. Or maybe it never did and I just forgot to update this line.

CodeBesideAssembly="com.XXXX.Sharepoint.Workflows, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=$PublicKeyToken$"

Anyway once I added the correct Public Key, retracted and redeployed the workflow, it ran fine.

Hope this helps someone else save a day!!!

Windows Media Center

2009-03-12T11:55:00.003-04:00

I dont know how may of you out there are using Windows Media Center for your TV viewing needs, but I have to say http://www.secondrun.tv/ is the best add-on that I have come across yet!
I have completely dropped my Dish Network and almost exclusively use this to watch my favorite shows.

The underlying connection was closed: A connection that was expected to be kept alive was closed by the server

2009-02-13T16:31:00.004-05:00

Well the bad news is that this worked for some time but then started to not work again. Looks like i am back to the drawing board.

Ok it took me 2 days to track this down but I think I have solved it.

I have 2 different .net 2.0 libraries in the same application that both access the same third-party Java web service. Oh by the way this worked no problem in .net 1.0

Well this was throwing an System.Net.WebException "The underlying connection was closed:" randomly.

InnerException: System.IO.IOException
Message="Unable to read data from the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host."
Source="System"
StackTrace:
at System.Net.Sockets.NetworkStream.Read(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size)
at System.Net.PooledStream.Read(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size)
at System.Net.Connection.SyncRead(HttpWebRequest request, Boolean userRetrievedStream, Boolean probeRead)
InnerException: System.Net.Sockets.SocketException
Message="An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host"
Source="System"
ErrorCode=10054
NativeErrorCode=10054
StackTrace:
at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.Receive(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size, SocketFlags socketFlags)
at System.Net.Sockets.NetworkStream.Read(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size)

I spent forever searching the net looking for a solution to this, with little to no success.
Well I finally came across this link. To resolve this problem you need to disable the keep-alive feature.

In the .NET Framework, you need to set the HttpWebRequest.KeepAlive property to FALSE.
To do this I created a web service reference then modified the generated Reference.cs class and added

protected override System.Net.WebRequest GetWebRequest(Uri uri)
{
HttpWebRequest webRequest = (HttpWebRequest)base.GetWebRequest(uri);
webRequest.KeepAlive = false;
return webRequest;
}

now I know this will probably add a little over-head to my application but so what it solved my devastating error :-)

My new HTPC

2008-12-10T17:03:00.002-05:00

Ok I just created a new HTPC (Home Theater PC) and let me just say how the hell did I live with out this before. I actually was able to drop my Dish Network service since most of what I was watching is offered online.
When I get a chance I hope to list everything I went thru in creating it.

.net Exception list

2008-09-09T15:45:00.003-04:00

Jeff Atwood wrote a great little block of code to list all the exceptions in .net. I just needed the most common ones so I posted them here.

System.AppDomainUnloadedException
System.ApplicationException
System.ArgumentException
System.ArgumentNullException
System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException
System.ArithmeticException
System.ArrayTypeMismatchException
System.BadImageFormatException
System.CannotUnloadAppDomainException
System.ComponentModel.Design.CheckoutException
System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization.CodeDomSerializerException
System.ComponentModel.InvalidEnumArgumentException
System.ComponentModel.LicenseException
System.ComponentModel.WarningException
System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception
System.Configuration.ConfigurationException
System.ContextMarshalException
System.Data.ConstraintException
System.Data.DataException
System.Data.DBConcurrencyException
System.Data.DeletedRowInaccessibleException
System.Data.DuplicateNameException
System.Data.EvaluateException
System.Data.ExprException
System.Data.InRowChangingEventException
System.Data.InvalidConstraintException
System.Data.InvalidExpressionException
System.Data.MissingPrimaryKeyException
System.Data.NoNullAllowedException
System.Data.Odbc.OdbcException
System.Data.OleDb.OleDbException
System.Data.ReadOnlyException
System.Data.RowNotInTableException
System.Data.SqlClient._ValueException
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException
System.Data.SqlTypes.SqlNullValueException
System.Data.SqlTypes.SqlTruncateException
System.Data.SqlTypes.SqlTypeException
System.Data.StrongTypingException
System.Data.SyntaxErrorException
System.Data.TypedDataSetGeneratorException
System.Data.VersionNotFoundException
System.DivideByZeroException
System.DllNotFoundException
System.Drawing.Printing.InvalidPrinterException
System.DuplicateWaitObjectException
System.EntryPointNotFoundException
System.Exception
System.ExecutionEngineException
System.FieldAccessException
System.FormatException
System.IndexOutOfRangeException
System.InvalidCastException
System.InvalidOperationException
System.InvalidProgramException
System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException
System.IO.EndOfStreamException
System.IO.FileLoadException
System.IO.FileNotFoundException
System.IO.InternalBufferOverflowException
System.IO.IOException
System.IO.IsolatedStorage.IsolatedStorageException
System.IO.PathTooLongException
System.Management.ManagementException
System.MemberAccessException
System.Messaging.MessageQueueException
System.MethodAccessException
System.MissingFieldException
System.MissingMemberException
System.MissingMethodException
System.MulticastNotSupportedException
System.Net.CookieException
System.Net.ProtocolViolationException
System.Net.Sockets.SocketException
System.Net.WebException
System.NotFiniteNumberException
System.NotImplementedException
System.NotSupportedException
System.NullReferenceException
System.ObjectDisposedException
System.OutOfMemoryException
System.OverflowException
System.PlatformNotSupportedException
System.RankException
System.Reflection.AmbiguousMatchException
System.Reflection.CustomAttributeFormatException
System.Reflection.InvalidFilterCriteriaException
System.Reflection.ReflectionTypeLoadException
System.Reflection.TargetException
System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException
System.Reflection.TargetParameterCountException
System.Resources.MissingManifestResourceException
System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException
System.Runtime.InteropServices.ExternalException
System.Runtime.InteropServices.InvalidComObjectException
System.Runtime.InteropServices.InvalidOleVariantTypeException
System.Runtime.InteropServices.MarshalDirectiveException
System.Runtime.InteropServices.SafeArrayRankMismatchException
System.Runtime.InteropServices.SafeArrayTypeMismatchException
System.Runtime.InteropServices.SEHException
System.Runtime.Remoting.MetadataServices.SUDSGeneratorException
System.Runtime.Remoting.MetadataServices.SUDSParserException
System.Runtime.Remoting.RemotingException
System.Runtime.Remoting.RemotingTimeoutException
System.Runtime.Remoting.ServerException
System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException
System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException
System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicUnexpectedOperationException
System.Security.Policy.PolicyException
System.Security.SecurityException
System.Security.VerificationException
System.Security.XmlSyntaxException
System.ServiceProcess.TimeoutException
System.StackOverflowException
System.SystemException
System.Threading.SynchronizationLockException
System.Threading.ThreadAbortException
System.Threading.ThreadInterruptedException
System.Threading.ThreadStateException
System.Threading.ThreadStopException
System.TypeInitializationException
System.TypeLoadException
System.TypeUnloadedException
System.UnauthorizedAccessException
System.UriFormatException
System.Web.HttpApplication+CancelModuleException
System.Web.HttpCompileException
System.Web.HttpException
System.Web.HttpParseException
System.Web.HttpRequestValidationException
System.Web.HttpUnhandledException
System.Web.Services.Discovery.InvalidContentTypeException
System.Web.Services.Discovery.InvalidDocumentContentsException
System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException
System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHeaderException
System.Windows.Forms.AxHost+InvalidActiveXStateException
System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaException
System.Xml.XmlException
System.Xml.XPath.XPathException
System.Xml.Xsl.XsltCompileException
System.Xml.Xsl.XsltException

Xsl function to testing if text only contains footnote marks

2008-07-09T13:54:00.004-04:00

The situation come up were I had a table of data and in on of the columns it had just footnote marks. Well I had to merge these footnote marks over to the previous column, but in order to do this I needed to know if the only value in the cell were marks. So I realize there are many ways to do this but I thought this was a cool way. It reads in an external xml file with all the footnote refs I want to search for the ref value is a regex.
<footnotes>
<footnote ref="\*"/>
<footnote ref="\+"/>
<footnote ref="†"/>
<footnote ref="$[a-z]$"/>
<footnote ref="$[1-9]$"/>
</footnotes>

I then concat the refs together with a | and do a replace on the string value. If nothing is left then it is a footnote ref.


<xsl:function name="txt:IsFootnoteRef" as="xs:boolean">
<xsl:param name="pText" as="xs:string"/>
<xsl:variable name="vFootnotes" select=" document('./footnotes.xml')/footnotes/footnote"/>
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="not($vFootnotes)">
<xsl:value-of select="false()"/>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:when test="not($pText)">
<xsl:value-of select="false()"/>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:when test="normalize-space($pText) = '' ">

<xsl:value-of select="false()"/>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:variable name="vFootnoteRef">
<xsl:value-of select="$vFootnotes/@ref" separator="|"/>
</xsl:variable>

<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test=" normalize-space(replace($pText, $vFootnoteRef , '' , 'i')) = '' ">
<xsl:value-of select="true()"/>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:value-of select="false()"/>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:function>

Comparing XML attributes with parents attributes

2008-03-04T13:38:00.004-05:00

I had a need to test if all/most of the attributes of a child node were equal to its parent and strip out the child node if true.

My XML structure was basically:

Helloworld

</SPECIALTEXT>

</PARAGRAPH>

Output needed to be:

Helloworld

</PARAGRAPH>

Now this only works on the first level after the PARAGRAPH but that’s all I needed, and it could be changed to do this recursively I guess. Basically I am matching on any paragraph that contains a child element SPECIALTEXT with the same style attribute and calling the template CompareKeyAttributes.
PARAGRAPH has more attributes than SPECIALTEXT in most cases so I compare only the ones that exist in SPECIALTEXT.

CompareKeyAttributes will return a string of all the
attributes that don’t match so then I just check if I care that the attribute
is different and output accordingly.

<xsl:template match="PARAGRAPH[SPECIALTEXT[@Style=./@Style] ] ">

<xsl:copy>

<xsl:apply-templates select="@*"/>

<xsl:for-each select=" child::*">

<xsl:variable name="RESULT">

<xsl:call-template name="CompareKeyAttributes">

<xsl:with-param name="PARA" select=".."/>

<xsl:with-param name="SPEC" select="."/>

</xsl:call-template>

</xsl:variable>

<xsl:choose>

<xsl:whentest="$RESULT='number' ">

<xsl:apply-templates select="child::node()"/>

</xsl:when>

<xsl:otherwise>

<xsl:copy>

<xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>

</xsl:copy>

</xsl:otherwise>

</xsl:choose>

</xsl:for-each>

</xsl:copy>

</xsl:template>

<xsl:template name="CompareKeyAttributes">

<xsl:param name="PARA"/>

<xsl:param name="SPEC"/>

<xsl:for-each select="$SPEC/@*">

<xsl:variable name="SPEC_ATT" select="name()"/>

<xsl:variable name="PARA_ATT" select="$PARA/@*[name()= $SPEC_ATT]"/>

<xsl:choose>

<xsl:when test="$PARA_ATT != .">

<xsl:value-of select="name()"/>

</xsl:when>

</xsl:choose>

</xsl:for-each>

</xsl:template>

Let me know if you find this useful or have anyway to make it better. Enjoy

Upgrading MOSS2007 to SP1

2008-02-19T12:42:00.003-05:00

Jason had some good references for upgrading MOSS07 to SP1. I have tried the upgrade on my development server with out any issues, but that is a single server env. I will try the upgrade next week on QA servers but anyway here is the link http://blogs.informationhub.com/jnadrowski/archive/2008/01/11/24045.aspx

Changing Virtual Hard Drive from IDE to SCSI

2008-01-02T10:26:00.000-05:00

Well I created virtual server with a single Virtual IDE hard drive (VHD) that ran out of space so I decided I was going to find a way to enlarge it and also switch to SCSI, because I read it was better performing. Well I found alot of post about expanding the hard drive and I will post the details of that in another post.

Here I want to post the steps to switching to a SCSI drive.

Open the Virtual Server Web Administration site and select configure your specific Virtual Machine
In the Virtual Machine Configuration windows, select Add SCSI Adapter ID 7
Make sure you leave your boot disk as IDE disk
Start your virtual machine
You should see the following when the adapter is registered "Adaptec AIC-7870 PCI SCSI Adapter". The virtual machine will now be able to boot with SCSI but this SCSI driver is very slow.
Right-click on the Adaptec driver and select Update Driver
Choose the Install from a list or specific location and Have Disk options
Browse to the C:\Program Files\Virtual Machine Additions folder and click OK
The Microsoft Virtual Machine PCI SCSI Controller driver should now be installed
Shutdown your virtual machine
In the Virtual Server Virtual Machine configuration select hard disks in the configuration section
Change your boot hard disk to the SCSI ID 0
Click OK
Start the virtual machine

good luck and remember backups..

The Local Security Authority cannot be contacted

2007-10-30T10:13:00.000-04:00

Where to start... I have setup a MOSS 2007 site running on Windows Server 2003 R2 with sp2 and all current updates. The site is setup to allow anonymous access as well as integrated Windows login. Everything seems fine, no errors on the server all is running smoothly as long as you enter the correct password. If you miss type your password, instead of prompting you 3 time like IIS should, it immediately displays "The Local Security Authority cannot be contacted". The only thing you can do from here is close your browser and start over again. I have been trying to track down this problem for weeks now with little to no luck, I even wiped out the server and reinstalled all components to no avail.

the web server does register the error:

Event Type: Failure Audit
Event Source: Security
Event Category: Logon/Logoff
Event ID: 537
Date: 10/30/2007
Time: 10:53:03 AM
User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer: XXXX-XXX
Description:
Logon Failure:
Reason: An error occurred during logon
User Name: XXXX@XXXX.XXX
Domain:
Logon Type: 3
Logon Process: NtLmSsp
Authentication Package: NTLM
Workstation Name: TELESTO
Status code: 0xC0000225
Substatus code: 0x0
Caller User Name: -
Caller Domain: -
Caller Logon ID: -
Caller Process ID: -
Transited Services: -
Source Network Address: 192.###.##.###
Source Port: 2705

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

While I am looking into this more if anyone has any ideas PLEASE let me know.

One more tidbit it does not have the same problem on all computers, some workstations seem to work as expected.

Recursively adding files to Visual Source Safe

2007-10-03T14:02:00.000-04:00

Ok first off, I have to say I hate Visual Source Safe (VSS)!
Actually hate isn't right I despise it, I loath it, it is the worst source control software I have ever used! Well I feel better getting that of my chest.

Anyway back to the reason for this post. If you need to recursively add files and folders to VSS you simple drag the folder from Windows Explorer and drop in in the correct location in your VSS project.
You might think there is a menu option to do this but there isn't. You may also think well if I hit insert I will be asked to recursively add, and you would be wrong. Then you may think Let me look in the doc, maybe it is a command line option, good luck.

Anyway I hope I am not the only id10t to forget how to do this and had to go hunting for it.

Redirecting DOS stdout stderr

2007-09-07T10:36:00.000-04:00

Every time I need to redirect DOS output I have to go look it up. There is only so much space in my brain and unless I want to forget how to speak something had to go. Well I got tired of searching thru different sites to get what I wanted, so the last time I came across this info (this happens to be from Microsoft) I posted it here.

Using command redirection operators

The following table lists operators that you can use to redirect command input and output streams.

Redirection operator	Description
>	Writes the command output to a file or a device, such as a printer, instead of the Command Prompt window.
<	Reads the command input from a file, instead of reading input from the keyboard.
>>	Appends the command output to the end of a file without deleting the information that is already in the file.
>&	Writes the output from one handle to the input of another handle.
<&	Reads the input from one handle and writes it to the output of another handle.
\|	Reads the output from one command and writes it to the input of another command. Also known as a pipe.

By default, you send the command input (that is, the STDIN handle) from your keyboard to Cmd.exe, and then Cmd.exe sends the command output (that is, the STDOUT handle) to the Command Prompt window.

The following table lists the available handles.

Handle	Numeric equivalent of handle	Description
STDIN	0	Keyboard input
STDOUT	1	Output to the Command Prompt window
STDERR	2	Error output to the Command Prompt window
UNDEFINED	3-9	These handles are defined individually by the application and are specific to each tool.

The numbers zero through nine (that is, 0-9) represent the first 10 handles. You can use Cmd.exe to run a program and redirect any of the first 10 handles for the program. To specify which handle you want to use, type the number of the handle before the redirection operator. If you do not define a handle, the default < redirection input operator is zero (0) and the default > redirection output operator is one (1). After you type the < or > operator, you must specify where you want to read or write the data. You can specify a file name or another existing handle.

To specify redirection to existing handles, use the ampersand (&) character followed by the handle number that you want to redirect (that is, &handle#). For example, the following command redirects handle 2 (that is, STDERR) into handle 1 (that is, STDOUT):

1<&2

Duplicating handles

The & redirection operator duplicates output or input from one specified handle to another specified handle. For example, to send dir output to File.txt and send the error output to File.txt, type:

dir>c:\file.txt 2>&1

When you duplicate a handle, you duplicate all characteristics of the original occurrence of the handle. For example, if a handle has write-only access, all duplicates of that handle have write-only access. You cannot duplicate a handle with read-only access into a handle with write-only access.

Redirecting command input (<)

To redirect command input from the keyboard to a file or device, use the < operator. For example, to get the command input for the sort command from File.txt:

sort<file.txt

The contents of File.txt appear in the Command Prompt window as an alphabetized list.

The < operator opens the specified file name with read-only access. As a result, you cannot write to the file when you use this operator. For example, if you start a program with <&2, all attempts to read handle 0 fail because handle 2 is initially opened with write-only access.

Redirecting command output (>)

Almost all commands send output to your Command Prompt window. Even commands that send output to a drive or printer display messages and prompts in the Command Prompt window.

To redirect command output from the Command Prompt window to a file or device, use the > operator. You can use this operator with most commands. For example, to redirect dir output to Dirlist.txt:

dir>dirlist.txt

If Dirlist.txt does not exist, Cmd.exe creates it. If Dirlist.txt exists, Cmd.exe replaces the information in the file with the output from the dir command.

To run the netsh routing dump command and then send the command output to Route.cfg, type:

netsh routing dump>c:\route.cfg

The > operator opens the specified file with write-only access. As a result, you cannot read the file when you use this operator. For example, if you start a program with redirection >&0, all attempts to write handle 1 fail because handle 0 is initially opened with read-only access.

Note

•	One is the default handle for the > redirection output operator.

Using the <& operator to redirect input and duplicate

To use the redirection input operator <&, the file you specify must already exist. If the input file exists, Cmd.exe opens it as read-only and sends the characters contained in the file as input to the command as if they were input from the keyboard. If you specify a handle, Cmd.exe duplicates the handle you specify onto the existing handle in the system.

For example, to open File.txt as input read to handle 0 (that is, STDIN), type:

<file.txt

To open File.txt, sort the contents and then send the output to the Command Prompt window (that is, STDOUT), type:

sort<file.txt

To find File.txt, and then redirect handle 1 (that is, STDOUT) and handle 2 (that is, STDERR) to the Search.txt, type:

findfile file.txt>search.txt 2<&1

To duplicate a user-defined handle 3 as input read to handle 0 (that is, STDIN), type:

<&3

Using the >& operator to redirect output and duplicate

If you redirect output to a file and you specify an existing file name, Cmd.exe opens the file as write-only and overwrites the file's contents. If you specify a handle, Cmd.exe duplicates the file onto the existing handle.

To duplicate a user-defined handle 3 into handle 1, type:

>&3

To redirect all of the output, including handle 2 (that is, STDERR), from the ipconfig command to handle 1 (that is, STDOUT), and then redirect the ouput to Output.log, type:

ipconfig.exe>>output.log 2>&1

Using the >> redirection operator to append output

To add the output from a command to the end of a file without losing any of the information already in the file, use two consecutive greater than signs (that is, >>). For example, the following command appends the directory list produced by the dir command to the Dirlist.txt file:

dir>>dirlist.txt

To append the output of the netstat command to the end of Tcpinfo.txt, type:

netstat>>tcpinfo.txt

Using the pipe operator (|)

The pipe operator (|) takes the output (by default, STDOUT) of one command and directs it into the input (by default, STDIN) of another command. For example, the following command sorts a directory:

dir | sort

In this example, both commands start simultaneously, but then the sort command pauses until it receives the dir command's output. The sort command uses the dir command's output as its input, and then sends its output to handle 1 (that is, STDOUT).

Combining commands with redirection operators

You can create custom commands by combining filter commands with other commands and file names. For example, you can use the following command to store the names of files that contain the string "LOG":

dir /b | find "LOG" > loglist.txt

The dir command's output is sent through the find filter command. File names that contain the string "LOG" are stored as a list of file names (for example, NetshConfig.log, Logdat.svd, and Mylog.bat) in the Loglist.txt file.

To use more than one filter in the same command, separate the filters with a pipe (|). For example, the following command searches every directory on drive C:, finds the file names that include the string "Log", and then displays them in one Command Prompt window at a time:

dir c:\ /s /b | find "LOG" | more

By using a pipe (|), you direct Cmd.exe to send the dir command output through the find filter command. The find command selects only file names that contain the string "LOG." The more command displays the file names that are selected by the find command, one Command Prompt window at a time. For more information about filter commands, see Using filters

Upgrading GuidanceAutomationExtensions and GuidanceAutomationToolkit

2007-08-22T13:41:00.000-04:00

Well silly me I went and checked if there was and update to the GuidanceAutomationExtensions and GuidanceAutomationToolkit and low and behold there was.
So I downloaded the new installs and went about the task of installing the new versions. Well they still don't have an upgrade path in the installation program so I had to go and uninstall the old products. I had the "Web Service Software Factory - December 2006 (refresh)" installed as well so I started there. As I expected this uninstall did not go well.
After trying multiple time to uninstall (with reboots and everything else I could think of) I accidentally installed the "Web Client Software Factory - January 2007". Well to my surprise the Web Service Factory now uninstalled. Well I assumed that was the hard part, and boy was I wrong. Next after uninstalling the accidental install of "Web Client Factory" I tried uninstalling "Enterprise Library April 2007". This went as good as the Web Service Factory. So I thought maybe something in my environment got corrupted and i repaired the GuidanceAutomationExtensions, Toolkit and Enterprise Library. Still no joy.
After doing a lot of googling I came across Savij blog. His/Her problem wasn't the same as mine but the solution worked.
I tracked down the file RecipeFramework.xml in Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Recipe Framework folder. I removed

GuidancePackage Name="StrongNamingGuidancePackage" Version="1.0" Caption="Strong Naming Guidance Package" Description="Guidance Package that simplifies strong-naming of multiple projects" Host="VisualStudio" Guid="2d4b99e7-3126-4452-8882-edfd826ea78a" ConfigurationFile="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Enterprise Library 3.0 - April 2007\Strong Naming Guidance Package\StrongNamingGuidancePackage.xml" Timestamp="633113779240000000"

GuidancePackage Name="GuidanceBlockFactory" Version="1.0" Caption="Application Block Software Factory" Description="Application Block Software Factory" Host="VisualStudio" Guid="8643B63B-A2A4-4ccc-933E-379645A3002E" ConfigurationFile="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Enterprise Library 3.0 - April 2007\Application Block Software Factory\BlockFactory.xml" Timestamp="633113779040000000"

from the GuidancePackages elements and tried to uninstall GuidanceAutomationExtensions again.
Hooray, it worked.
The only thing left now was to try the Enterprise Library and to my surprise that uninstalled successfully also.

Now I am of to try and reinstall it all again.