Thinking out aloud - Dave Hunter's blog

I've moved!

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 09:39:24 PST

I haven't posted for a while, during this period I have moved to a new blog. Any new posts will be on www.davehunter.co.uk/blog.

Technorati Charts - SharePoint 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 04:31:31 PDT

Technorati has a charting feature that allows you to see the volume of blog posts during a period of time graphically. Here's a few SharePoint 2007 related charts ....Posts that contain SharePoint 2007 per day for the last 30 days.Posts that contain SharePoint 2007 ECM per day for the last 30 days.Posts that contain SharePoint 2007 Search per day for the last 30 days.Posts that contain

SharePoint 2007 Hotfix KB 936867

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:29:27 PDT

I recently had problems when the security inheritance was broken for a document library on a WSS site for a MOSS 2007 installation. After raising a support request Microsoft issued a hot fix. The hotfix package also addresses KB 934577, 935958, 937038.934577 - Not public936867 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936867935958 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935958937038 - http://

SharePoint 2007 Forms Authentication with Sql Server

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 02:47:00 PDT

Dan Attis has two great articles about configuring forms authentication against SQL Server with MOSS.Part one - Configuring Forms Authentication with SharePointhttp://devcow.com/blogs/jdattis/archive/2007/02/23/Office_SharePoint_Server_2007_Forms_Based_Authentication_FBA_Walkthrough_Part_1.aspxPart two - Configuring Forms Authentication with MySiteshttp://devcow.com/blogs/jdattis/archive/2007/03/

SharePoint 2007 Maximum Limitations

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 01:38:52 PDT

The following is a list of names and other parameters with the maximum allowable size of eachEntityMax Permissible SizeSite Name128 charactersSite URL255 charactersDisplay name128 charactersConnections diving384 charactersEmail address128 charactersVersion numbers064 charactersVirtual Server Friendly Name064 charactersSQL Database Name123 charactersSQL Database Column128 charactersSQL Database

Get a hotfix without calling MS

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 04:56:28 PDT

You can now request hotfixes via the web. This saves time phoning up a MS customer service operator, explaining the problem, hot fix number and product the hot fix relates to.Hotfixes that haven't been made public are also available.Screen shot of the MS Hotfix Request Formhttps://support.microsoft.com/contactus2/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1410&WS=hotfix

Tip - Quickly find out an assembly's public key

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 04:57:45 PDT

When working with MOSS / WSS you need to find out the Public Key Token of your assembly for a feature, manifest or the web.config file.One of the ways to retrieve the Public Key Token is to build the project (making sure the assembly is signed) and drop the assembly in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC).You can however use the SN.EXE (.NET Strong Name Tool) with the -T parameter (please note the

SharePoint 2007 menu item feature - attach to debugger

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 09:18:47 PDT

The SharePoint team have posted an article about adding a new menu item to the site actions allowing users to easily debug SharePoint 2007. The updated menu looks like:http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/04/10/debugger-feature-for-sharepoint.aspx

SharePoint 2007 SQL Server Failure Audits in Event Log

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 02:47:21 PDT

Q. Are your event log's getting full of SQL Server Failure Audits for a service account or database access account you have created for MOSS?Q. Have you also re-installed MOSS?If you have answered yes to both of the above questions then you will have SQL Server Agent Jobs that are associated with old Shared Services databases running.To resolve thisOpen SQL Server Management Studio.Expand SQL

MOSS Case Study - Endsleigh Insurance

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 05:03:07 PDT

Endsleigh InsuranceEmployees Gain Better Access to Corporate, Industry Information with Enterprise Search.Read how we (CIBER UK) helped Endsleigh Insurance migrate from their SharePoint 2003 platform and improve productivity using MOSS and enterprise search.http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000000373

SharePoint 2007 Running SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 02:47:33 PDT

In SharePoint Portal Server 2003 you may have needed to impersonate a user with higher priveledges than the current user executing the code. You did this using WindowsIdentity.Impersonate() method. In SharePoint 2007 and WSS V3 you have SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges call. The code looks like:SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate() { // put your code here. any code within these

MOSS SDK download updated

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 04:52:08 PDT

The MOSS 2007 SDK download has been updated and ready for download http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6d94e307-67d9-41ac-b2d6-0074d6286fa9&displaylang=en.OverviewThe Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SDK is designed for solution providers, independent software vendors, value-added resellers, and other developers to learn about the new Office SharePoint Server 2007

WSS V3 SDK download updated

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 04:22:05 PDT

The WSS V3 SDK has been updated and ready for download http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=05e0dd12-8394-402b-8936-a07fe8afaffd&DisplayLang=enOverviewThe Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SDK contains conceptual overviews, programming tasks, and references to guide you in developing solutions based on Windows SharePoint Services as a platform. The SDK includes information about

Adding web.config settings to you WSS or MOSS site

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:45:51 PDT

This article describes how to add web.config settings automatically to your new web applications under WSS V3 and SharePoint 2007.You need to create a file in the format of webconfig.[name].xml, copy the file to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\CONFIG folder and the settings in the file will be merged with the web.config file on any new web application.

Blog tools - Colour code you C#, HTML or XML code

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:27:34 PDT

I found this great tool for formatting your code ready for your blog. http://www.manoli.net/csharpformat/.Turns this:

Visual Studio .NET 2005 - Code Snippets Demo

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 12:24:22 PDT

The above Code snippets demostrates the following snippet typesSimple expansionTemplate expansion (with variables)SurroundOpen the snippet managerCtrl+K, Ctrl+BTo activate a snippet ... start typing the name of the snippetTab,Tab (in C#)?,Tab (in VB.NET) .. and the snippet will appear. If it's a templated snippet:Tab advances to the next fieldShift+Tab moves to the previous fieldEnter completes

Hosting UserControls vs Delegate Control

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 02:47:56 PDT

There are two main approaches for adding user controls to your site: Deploying them to the "wpresources" folderUsing the DelegateControlMany people have blogged about each technique, but which is the best or the recommended approach?Tony Rahbun has posted an article called "WebParticles: Developing and Using Web User Controls as WebParts in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007" http://

SharePoint 2007 Supported Browsers and Languages

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 02:40:49 PDT

Supported Web Browsers Internet Explorer 6 and 7 are recommended for site administration.Firefox 1.5, Mozilla 1.7 Netscape 8.1, Safari 2.0 (Mac) are supported for the front-end.For more information please see http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/ff6c5b8c-59bd-4079-8f0b-de4f8b4e0a861033.mspx?mfr=trueMulti-lingual Languages Supported on the front end through

SharePoint 2007 Backup Failed - Cannot open backup device

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 02:48:22 PDT

You may have seen this error Error: Object SharePoint_Config failed in event OnBackup. For more information, see the error log located in the backup directory. SqlException: Cannot open backup device '\\servername\backup\spbr0001\0000001.bak'. Operating system error 5(error not found).After reading this article http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/b4dfe06a-40a5-4826-8d4b-

Use Cases vs Requirements

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 06:17:13 PDT

I'm about a quarter of the way through MCPD 70-547 Designing and Developing Web-Based Applications using Microsoft .NET Framework, I have already picked up some good tips. One that comes to mind is about Use Cases and Requirements.Mike Snell talks about why you need both use cases and requirements. His mentions a real world example, in which he takes two projects. One project captures the

SharePoint 2007 Virtual Labs

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 09:22:26 PDT

Here's a list of SharePoint 2007 Virtual Labs Building InfoPath Forms that Run as Both Rich Client and Browser Applications Virtual Lab - become familiar with browser-based scenarios for Office InfoPath 2007 forms.Creating Workflows for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Virtual Lab - learn how to create workflows for Office SharePoint Server 2007Getting Started with the Business Data

TechEd IT Forum 2007 - Powered by SharePoint 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 11:17:05 PDT

Microsoft's website for TechEd IT Forum 2007 (12-16 November 2007 Barcelona, Spain) is built upon SharePoint 2007. It's also a nice example of a usable flash / html mix site which doesn't look like a typical SharePoint 2007 site.http://www.mseventseurope.com/teched/07/itforum/pages/default.aspx

Removing hidden and damaged webparts from a page

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 07:24:37 PDT

You can remove hidden or damaged webparts from a page by appending "?contents=1" to the url (if the url already contains a querystring parameter replace "?" with "&"). This will bring up a screen listing all the webparts on the page (both visible and hidden). You can then select any web part and remove it.If a webpart is causing significant damaged to a page (ie throwing an exception which isn't

Devil wears Prada featuring Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Hunter) — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:42:31 PDT

Not sure how geniune this is, but worth taking 5 minutes out to watch :)