Sharepoint

New Blog Location

2015-10-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

Recently My colleague Paul Galvin introduced me to Medium a simple story telling engine. I like the interface of Medium and I am in moving my blog to Medium. I will try to cross post here when ever I can but you can start following my blog here

Release Locked Files using Powershell

2015-03-26T12:52:00.001-07:00

In recent times I have been writing lot of PowerShell scripts for number of different things. I believe that we all have been doing that. PowerShell is no doubt a powerful tool for not just for both developers and administrators. Microsoft moving away from features and custom solutions PowerShell is the becoming the elixir for almost everything in SharePoint. In this blog we will see a simple script that will be useful for SharePoint Administrator.

We are would have come across users complaining about file is locked by a user. The user might have edited the file last and left for a vacation and someone else is looking to edit the same file the user will see a message that the file is locked by a user for editing. How do we get lock release?

We could either call the person who has locked it and ask him to close it or
Call our best friend PowerShell to help us out here.

Which one of this is easy? I bet PowerShell because he is a true friend and will never let us down at any cost. Enough of stories let's get to the script.

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.Powershell

# Get Web URL from User

$webUrl = Read-Host "Enter the Web URL : "

# Get Document Library Name from the user

$listTitle = Read-Host "Enter the Document Library Name :"

# Get the Locked File Name from the user

$fileName = Read-Host "Enter the Locked File Name :"

# Get SPWeb Object

$spWeb = Get-SPWeb $webUrl

# Get the Document Library

$list = $web.Lists.TryGetLISt($listTitle)

# Construct a File URL

$fileurl = $web.Url+"/"+$list.Title+"/" + $fileName

# Get the File Handle

$spFile = $web.GetFile($fileurl)

# Get the user by who had locked the file.

$userId = $spFile.LockedByUser.ID

$user = $web.AllUsers.GetByID($userId)

# We need to Impersonate as the user who had locked the file. Get Web, List and File again as impersonated user

$impSite= New-ObjectMicrosoft.SharePoint.SPSite($web.Url, $user.UserToken);

$impWeb = $impSite.OpenWeb();

$impList = $impWeb.Lists.TryGetList($list.Title)

$impItem = $impList.GetItemById($spFile.Item.ID)

$impFile = $impItem.File

# Release the locked File

$impFile.ReleaseLock($impFile.LockId)

Using SharePoint Chrome Control in APP model

2014-11-10T11:12:00.001-08:00

I have been working on building an SharePoint Hosted app for some time now. App as we all know is running in a separate web called app web. The app web does not inherit from the host web for its Styling or user experience. often times we hear that user wants the same user experience as SharePoint. It is actually good for the developers if we could get the SharePoint user experience because it is one less thing that we have to worry about. Users are already familiar with SharePoint user experience and we do not have to train them to use our app.

Getting the Apps to inherit the SharePoint user experience is easier said than done. There is something called Chrome Control that Microsoft exposes in SharePoint. This is the top blue bar that we are now familiar with. The blue bar provides a simple but useful navigation back to the host site from the app site. How many time we have to create either custom navigation or JavaScript code to get this done.

In this pursuit I set out to create a reusable control that help me implement the chrome control that I can just include in my Apps and not worry about writing code.In the recent times I am more than in love with AngularJs. The reason being that Angular lets me write less code which is always better for the developer and the product. So in this blog let's see how we can create the angular based chrome control that we can use in our Apps. Without further ado lets see the code and how we construct it

I am using Office 365 Developer Site to do my development. The approach works and code works pretty much same for on-premise environment as well. The app I have here is SharePoint Hosted app. This works the same way for provider hosted app and auto hosted app as well.

Now create a DIV tag in the HTML file or the default aspx page

<div data-ng-app="chromecontrol" data-ng-controller="chromecontrolController">
     <div id="chrome_ctrl_container"></div>
</div>

The highlighted div is the container for the chrome control and since I am using angularjs I am surrounding it with the data-ng-app and data-ng-controller attributes to bootstrap my chrome control

Next we will see how we wire the code up

Create a new JS file to define the angular app. I named the file as chromecontrolapp.js

var chromecontrol = angular.module('chromecontrol', []);

I am not passing any other argument to the app and I am just defining what my app will be called which I have specified in the HTML above with data-ng-app attribute.

Next we need to define our controller. For which add another file called

chromecontrolcontroller.js

Code in the controller block

var hostWebUrl, hostWebTitle, hostWebLogoUrl, options;

chromecontrol.controller('chromecontrolController', function ($scope) {

    // get the HostWeb URL, title & logo image
    hostWebUrl = decodeURIComponent($.getQueryStringValue("SPHostUrl"));
    hostWebTitle = decodeURIComponent($.getQueryStringValue("SPHostTitle"));
    hostWebLogoUrl = decodeURIComponent($.getQueryStringValue("SPHostLogoUrl"));

    // create chrome control settings
    options = {
        siteUrl: hostWebUrl,
        siteTitle: hostWebTitle,
        appIconUrl: hostWebLogoUrl,
        appTitle: "Stock Ticker",
        settingsLinks: [
          {
              linkUrl: "../Lists/Stock Symbol",
              displayName: "LIST: Stock Symbol"
          }
        ]
    };

    // create the chrome control
    var nav = new SP.UI.Controls.Navigation("chrome_ctrl_container", options);

    // show chrome control
    nav.setVisible(true);

    // hide top app chrome (image & app name)
    nav.setBottomHeaderVisible(false);

});

In the controller block I am defining a global variable for hostwebURL, hostWebTitle, hostWebLogoUrl, options.

variable options is used to define the items that will be shown when the gear icon is clicked.

I do not want to show my site icon and app title hence I am setting the bottomheader to be invisible using the command

nav.setBottomHeaderVisible(false);
One more thing to remember to set in the app is

SPHostTitle={HostTitle}

This needs to be set in the App Manifest so that we can get the Host web title. The standard token do not contain Host title and it only bring APP URL and Host Web URL

The entire source can be downloaded from the GITHub project. For further reference please refer to MSDN

Count Related Field

2014-05-19T12:38:00.001-07:00

How many times we have cursed SharePoint for not able to get the item count natively without writing code or using workflow. There is an easier way which I stumbled up recently but may be some of you have already figured this out earlier. I wanted to document this so this can be useful for someone like me who is always interested in code.

Recently when I was working on a project where there is absolutely no server side code, pretty much everything was done at the client side. There was a need to get item count per category. This is simple on the list because we could just do a group by and we would know how many items in a particular category, but we wanted to use those number to draw chart. The group by numbers will not be useful and we cannot use char web part (yes I know chart part is gone in 2013 but this project is still in 2010).

How do we do this? We had a lists of categories in a list which is used as lookup for the categories column. We initially thought of writing a client side script that would count items and add it to a field. But this needs to be triggered every time a new item is added to the list. I was trying to create a new field and accidentally I chose lookup field and I noticed that there is a field called count related in the options when i chose the looked up list a source. When I created a field I could immediately see item count for all the items in the lookedup list. Form now on this becomes easy to use this chart part or anything you want even in code that would need to do count.

Figure shows how to create Count Related field

Create new List column Lookup

Item count corresponding to categories

Please leave your feedback in comments.

Get Site URL in Javascript

2014-04-16T13:59:00.001-07:00

This post is more like a note of remembrance.I have been playing with Angular lately (I am not a expert just starting to explore). Thanks to my colleague Javed for his help. I was trying to create a web part to read information from the SharePoint site. I was faced with problem when trying to combine the CSOM with AngularJS. This could just be my poor Angular skills causing. But all i was trying to do was get the URL so I can do a GET using $http. I think the problem was in ExecuteQueryAsync.While trying to investigate I stumbled upon Nik Patel's article talking about getting site collection URL form.

Since we are using more and more javascript and client side development i think this would be a useful information to share.

_spPageContextInfo object is available by default in all SharePoint webpart pages and hence it becomes simple to get the URL as opposed to writing a lot of code to get a site collection URL. Though the returned URL is server relative we could easily form the full URL which can then be used in $http.get() in my case

here is how i used it

var url = window.location.protocol + "//" + window.location.host + _spPageContextInfo.siteServerRelativeUrl;

// Form the full URL for $hhtp get
url = url + "_api/web/lists/GetByTitle('News')/items"

//Call Http Get
$http.get(url);

Related Items Column SharePoint 2013

2014-03-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

SharePoint 2013 is out for sometime and there are many new features including Client Side Object Model (CSOM) and new services like Translation Service and APP management etc. I am going to share an interesting thing that I stumbled upon today while setting up some POC using SharePoint for Project Management. This is interesting and useful because it becomes handy for setting up business processes in SharePoint.

Today while setting up the site I happened to create a Task List and was going through all the fields. I noted a field type called "Related Items". We all would have seen "predecessor" field in SP2010 tasks list and "Related Issues" in SharePoint 2010 issues List. I now got curious to find out about this field because it looks new.

First, I clicked on the field in the List settings page to see information about the field. I did not field any information at all in the description. Next step is to check at the site columns. The field is not visible in site columns. This only means as we all know it is hidden. Now curiosity just shot up and really want to know why this field is hidden and what does this field has to offer and how is this field different from"Related Issues" or "Predecessor". One this is surely certain that this field is custom field type unlike other two fields which are lookup fields.

Now setting out to find out what this field has to offer what better way to find than by creating a task. So I created a new task but strangely enough I could not see the field in new form. This now becomes intriguing because if I am not seeing in New Form I am sure if I will see in Edit Form while editing the item or View Form. But I was in the mission of finding this out. So I decided to edit the item because as we all know we can have the property on the field "Show in New Form" to false but still show in edit form.

I was in the edit form and could not see the field. I was getting anxious because how I can fill the field if it not showing up in New and Edit Form.What is the use of the field that is hidden through out and what is SharePoint trying to achieve with this field? These were some of the question I had and decided to check the View Form.We all know that View form is readonly view of Edit Form, so I wasn't excepting anything but thought that it could be information only field that SharePoint auto populates.

With this thought I opened the View form and contrary to my impression i saw a link right across "related items" field. This is the first place I was able to see Related Items tied to an task item in the list. I went ahead and clicked the Link which brought up a Pop up which by default points to the site collection. Eureka. The "related Items" is allowing me to add items that are related to this tasks. I selected a document from document Library and clicked "OK" boom! the document is linked to the tasks. I was able to add multiple items at a time and even was able to upload a document to a library right there in the pop up. So if the document or the item is not available in SharePoint you will be able to add it and then link it all in one shot without having to close the pop up.This is huge.

Now why do I think this field is useful?

The field is a big step forward where in enterprise when some one is assigned to work on a tasks the person creating the tasks can add all these related items as reference for the other person to work on. For example the project manager can add all reference to all project items corresponding to a tasks as related item.The reference items can be independently managed and updated. Example Project Plan, Resource Availability.We can add reference to any thing that is in SharePoint. It could be an Issue, list item etc.

This to me is better than having as attachment because the references are independent of the tasks item. This is makes a true relational setup and easy to maintain single version of truth that is referenced.

Right now we will only be able to add items in the present site collection but if future if Microsoft allows us to add items stored externally or in different site collection which would makes this feature a jaw dropping feature in SharePoint until we unearth another hidden feature.

Hope you find this one useful and let me know your thoughts and suggestion in comments. I will be exploring SharePoint 2013 and until then happy SharePointing.

Working with SharePoint List Attachments

2014-02-21T08:30:00.000-08:00

SharePoint Lists are a versatile artifact in SharePoint. It can be mend in any way possible to achieve the desired outcome. This is the reason to use List for all the help desk applications. Recently I had to build a helpdesk application but the client wanted to use plain vanilla SharePoint and wanted to avoid custom code and wanted to keep it to bare minimum. Building a simple helpdesk with List and no code is relatively straight forward but the catch here is they already had created a basic structure where they are using a list to collect the information from external users and the information is getting copied to a new list for internal users. This is done to implement separation of permission as mentioned earlier there is no code approach. This is in their POC environment.

Now they wanted to move to production.Implementation is done as follows

1. They are using attachments in the list to get relevant reference documents form external users.
2. Workflow is been used for copying item from one list to other.

The problem that they are facing is attachments are not getting copied. This is interesting because attachments in SharePoint lists are a linked item and is not part of the SharePoint fields. This is what is causing the workflow not to copy the attachment. Also there is no workflow activity that can copy attachment.

The way to solve this problem would be to

1. Create a custom Copy List Item activity with extended functionality to look for attachment and copy it.

2. Customize the List form with Infopath forms and make the attachment to be part of the list item (This I saw working but still could not comprehend why it works.)

3. Write a small event handler (Item Added and Updated(if you are allowing delayed submission) and copy the attachment.

We went with third option and reason for that being though we had to write code we could do it on a Sandboxed solution rather than a Farm solution which would be the case for option 1. Option 2 is ruled out because the client did not like infopath forms. Its good because we now know Infopath form is dead you can read this here)

There is another thing the remember with List Item attachments. Since List Item Attachments are stored as collection when you access them in code and these are collection of strings rather than a file. so we have to user getfile method to get the file and add it. Similarly adding an attachment do not need item update as it linked item.

Client is on SP 2010 and I had not an opportunity to try this out in Client Side Object Model (CSOM or JSOM) which I am planning so that it becomes easy for SP2013 but will update this post after trying with SCOM/JSOM code.

Code :

foreach (string fileName in requestItem.Attachments)
{
SPFile file =requests.ParentWeb.GetFile(requestItem.Attachments.UrlPrefix + fileName);
properties.ListItem.Attachments.AddNow(file.Name, file.OpenBinary());
}

Set Field Created through UI to readonly

2014-02-10T08:25:00.001-08:00

SharePoint fields are excellent form of reusable asset. There are different types of fields that can be created in the SharePoint environment. As a developer we tend to create some fields as readonly which we could achieve easily while creating the solution using FieldXML in the element.xml file. But there are time when we had to create fields from the SharePoint UI which do not provide the flexibility of setting the field readonly. We would come across these scenarios when we want to have a field that will be used in Workflow or even some times we do not what to show the fields in Edit and Newform of the list or library. It would be an overkill if we create a solution for deploying a readonly field.

There is always poweshell who is our best friend who will never let us down in need. A small script would help achieve this. Below is the script that I wrote to set a list field to readonly.

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

#Get the Web

$web = Get-SPWeb "http://sp2010"

#Get the List

$List = $Web.Lists["Daily Email"]

#Get the Field 

$Field = $List.Fields["Email User"]

#Set the field to Read only

$Field.ReadOnlyField = $true

$Field.Update()

Note that I am using Display name of the field instead of internal name. Please feel free to extend this script if you like. Also make sure you are running this script as Admin user.

I will share the next thing I experiment and until then Happy SharePointing.As always if you have any suggestion or question feel free to ask in the comment section so we all can learn together.

Death of Infopath Forms

2014-02-03T07:30:00.000-08:00

Infopath forms has been both blessing and pain at the same time since SharePoint 2007. With the growth of new web technologies, we always wonder is there a place for infopath forms in SharePoint universe. The inherent limitations and clumsiness of infopath forms has finally come to an end. Yesterday the office team has clearly elaborated on the course of infopath form going forward.

InfoPath, though a useful tool for customization on SharePoint it always lacked functionality which prevented it becoming mainstream. So the verdict is finally out and it is death of infopath forms and there will not be any future releases of infopath forms beyond 2013.

Let us hope that Microsoft comes up with really cool forms interface and development environment soon.

Happy coding and RIP Infopath we will definitely miss you if not a lot may be little.

PS. is there any acquisition by Microsoft (K2 or Nintex).

Get SharePoint WSP from Central Admin

2014-01-27T09:11:00.000-08:00

SharePoint solution are most common way of deploying farm solutions in enterprise. There are times when we need to download the solution from central admin for variety of reason. Recently one of the client had a issue where they had multiple version of a DLL and they wanted to know which version of DLL is deployed with the SharePoint Solution. If you do not have a document or Change control process it is difficult to track back. What is a option now because we do not have any documentation on which version was deployed?

Only way out is to get eh WSP that was deployed and extract the WSP to get the DLL and reflect the DLL to find the solution.So far so good but how to get the WSP that was deployed to SharePoint. We cannot download the WSP from central admin through UI. How else we could do this? This is where the powershell panacea of all things SharePoint comes into play.

Powershell command exists to achieve this and we can use this to download the solution from Central Admin.

$farm = Get-SPFarm  // Get Farm
$file = $farm.Solutions.Item("test.wsp").SolutionFile  // Get SOlution File
$file.SaveAs("c:\test\test.wsp") //Save solution file to Local directory

This is how easy to achieve the result using powershell. Make sure you are running this

command with admin privileges.

There is no STSADM equivalent for this solution and I should thank my colleague for

introducing me to this powershell command.

Send Email to Multiple Person or Group in SPD Workflow

2013-11-14T08:29:00.001-08:00

SharePoint 2013 is forging ahead with great force and especially office 365 and SharePoint online is quickly becoming a new mantra for SharePoint implementation. SharePoint workflow is improved significantly in 2013 and there are so many activities that are deprecated especially the activities that we got used to in 2010 for Document Sets and impersonation etc.

Recently I had to create a SharePoint designer workflow in SharePoint online. The workflow is to send notification to users on their tasks. The objective looks simple correct? Yes, the workflow is also simple and it is one step workflow, but the devil is in the detail. The workflow needs to send email based on Assigned To Field in the tasks lists. As all of us know AssignedTo field take both Groups and users. So in a sense the workflow needs to email a group of people or send email individually to all users specified in the Assigned To field.

So far so good but here is where i stumbled upon. I used the send email activity and I chose the return type as "Email; Semi colon Delimited" as shown below.

Then I specified 2 users in the assigned to field and ran the workflow.

I had a Log to History activity in the workflow and what I found email delimited with semi colon in the History but Workflow failed to send email. Below is the error message I got.

After breaking my head as I cannot use Correlation ID in the error message because I am in SharePoint online and only way available is to send email to Microsoft with correlationid and wait for an answer. I was not ready to to that so I decided to try different option and finally found what worked like a charm. To send email to Group or multiple user instead of using "Email Address;Semicolon delimited" use "Login Ids; Semicolon Delimited" When I used as shown in figure the workflow sent out email fine both for Groups and individual users.

The example i have here is with users but the same works for Groups and i checked. I will update the images later.

Note: This approach is not going to help to send personalized email by adding user name for which we have to use other approach like using web services to get current user.

Hope this helps someone. Leave your thoughts in comments.

Windows Phone App ; Chennai Auto Fares

2013-10-15T09:02:00.000-07:00

Traveling in Auto is a nightmare in chennai with no standard fare structure and no driver is ready to even use meter and even if used will be maligned meter which shows widely unexpected price for a short distance. Those days are not gone and The Govt of Tamil Nadu with the Hon Supreme Court of India's direction released a standard fare structure and made it mandatory for all auto to have electronic meter calibrated with new fare structure. No Auto in the City of Chennai can ply on the city roads without properly functioning meter and each auto is mandated have fare card in the Auto. Auto's will not be issued permit by the RTO if they do not meet the criteria.

This is welcome move by the Govt of Tamil Nadu and thanks to the Hon Chief Minister. Now it is our turn to adhere to this rule and demand Auto Drivers to show fare card. Lot of us travel in hurry and sometime we feel it would be good to have the fare information handy even before getting an Auto. Thanks again to the Govt of TN which released the information publicly.

Smartphone are most prevalent in these days and with most of Indians fascinated with Nokia phones it wouldn't be much better to have an APP that provides the fare structure right in your hand at the time you want. That is the reason for this app in windows phone store.Travelers don't have to complain about Auto travel in chennai. The app is an attempt to improve chennai's diginity and score relatively high on travelers mind especially foreigners.

You can download this app from windows phone store or following the Link.

APP Screen Shots

SharePoint 2013- Installation Part 6

2013-07-23T12:43:00.003-07:00

Part 6: SQL Server Install.

Part 1: Preparing the environment
Part 2: Installing Windows Server 2012
Part 3: Adding Active Directory Domain Services
Part 4 : Configure DNS

Part 5 : Service Accounts

In the Part 1 of this series we saw how to create a VM with Windows Server 2012. In part 2 we continued with server 2012 install and renaming the our VM. In Part 3 we enables Active Directory Domain Services in the server and in Part 4 we looked at configuring DNS in the server. The first 4 parts completes the system preparation for installing SharePoint. At this time before we start out SharePoint installation process please run windows update and check for new updates so that we have latest updates for all the roles that was enabled. In Part 5 of this series we saw what user accounts for service application and SQL server accounts are needed and their permissions.

Once we are through with all our updates we are ready to get going. In part 6 we'll be seeing how to get SQL server installed. Since the VM we are building is a development machine we will be installing SQL server in the same machine.

SharePoint 2013 can be installed on SQL Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) but in our series we are using 2012 products and in the same line we will use SQL Server 2012. SharePoint 2013 runs on 64 bit architecture and hence everything goes without saying as 64-bit.

Download SQL server 2012 from Microsoft or if you have msdn you can download it from there too. We will use enterprise edition in our tutorial. If you have SQL product key use that key or you can buy a new key. If you just going to create a VM for practising you can use trial version too.

Start the SQL Server setup. you will be asked to enter License Key. Enter your license key if you have one or use evaluation version and click Next

Accept License terms and click next

Check the checkbox to include SQl Server updates and click next

Click install and wait for setup to complete

Once the setup is completed you will now be able to set up roles and add features

We can ignore warnings about Firewall and Computer being Domain controller. Since this being a simple install we can skip this but in production it is encouraged to have SQL server in a separate machine from Domain controller.

Click Next and choose SQL server feature installation

Click Next and choose all the features that you want. I am just going to install Database Engine Services.Once done selecting all the features that you want to be added click next

Setup will run a quick installation rules to make sure installation will go through fine. once done click next

Select default instance and click next

Setup will calculate disk space requirement and click next

Now in this step we will be prompted to enter service accounts. We will use the SQL service account to run SQL Server service

Accept default server configuration and add current user and SharePoint setup account user as administrator and click next

Keep clicking next until you hit ready to install step and click install in this step and let it run

it should take few minutes to complete the install and once completed everything should be installed and you can close the setup

Now we have SQL server 2012 installed and we are a step closer in achieving our target of SharePoint 2013.

Post your feedback in comments.

SharePoint 2013 Installation Part 5

2013-06-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

Part 5 : SharePoint Service Accounts

Part 1: Preparing the environment
Part 2: Installing Windows Server 2012
Part 3: Adding Active Directory Domain Services
Part 4 : Configure DNS

In the Part 1 of this series we saw how to create a VM with Windows Server 2012. In part 2 we continued with server 2012 install and renaming the our VM. In Part 3 we enables Active Directory Domain Services in the server and Part 4 we saw how we can configure DNS in our server. That completes all necessary steps in preparing Windows Server environment to Host SharePoint.

Starting in Part 5 we will see get deep into SharePoint prerequisites. SharePoint as you know since SP 2010 has embraced Service Application architecture. This is a clean and tidy process of separating different application and its resources. SharePoint 2013 continues on the same road and infact have leveled some of the bumbs that was present in SP 2010.

Though we are creating a development machine where we can run all services in single account but we should make it a habit of creating multiple accounts based similar to our production deployment so we adhere to best practices. I do this because this a practice for production and I also remember to create multiple accounts for service accounts

In this blog I will share some of the Service accounts that I always create even in development environment and their permissions.

I tend to base my service accounts requirements and permissions on these blogs because this explains much more lucidly than Microsoft technet. Todd Klindt, Vlad Catrinescu. and Eric Harlan has explained the need much more elaborately. I took Todd Klindt table model as a example because it helps at a glance. Names can be anything and in development environment is at our discretion but in production please name in a way that anybody can understand. If there is any naming convention in the organization for production its better to stick to the convention.

Accounts for Base Install of SharePoint 2013

Account name	Role	Domain rights	Local SharePoint Server rights needed	SQL rights needed
sp_install	Used to install SharePoint binaries.	Domain User	Local administrator on all SharePoint boxes	public, dbcreator, and securityadmin SQL roles. Need to be SysAdmin on SQL when installing the Workflow Manager
sp_farm	Farm account. Used for Windows Timer Service, Central Admin and User Profile service	Domain User	Local Admin during UPS provisioning, log on locally right	public, dbcreator, and securityadmin SQL roles. Need to be SysAdmin on SQL when installing the Workflow Manager
sp_webapp	App pool id for content web apps	Domain User	None	None
sp_serviceapps	Service app pool id	Domain User	None	None
sp_content	Default account used by Search Service Application to crawl content	Domain User	None	None
sp_userprofile	Account used by the User Profile services to access Active Directory	Must have Replicating Change permissions to AD. Must be given in BOTH ADUC and ADSIEDIT. If domain is Windows 2003 or early, must also be a member of the "Pre-Windows 2000" built-in group.	None	None
sp_superuser	Cache account	Domain User	Web application Policy Full Control Web application super account setting	None
sp_superreader	Cache account	Domain User	Web application Policy Full read Web application super reader account setting	None

Accounts Required for SQL Server

Name	Role	Domain rights	Local SharePoint Server rights needed	SQL rights needed
SQL_Admin	SQL Admin on the SQL Server. Used to Install the SQL Server.	Domain User	None	Local Administrator on the SQL Server
SQL_Services	It is the service account for the following SQL Server services: MSSQLSERVER SQLSERVERAGENT.	Domain User	None	Will be given necessary permissions when SQL Server is installed by a local administrator on the SQL box

I usually use one account for SQL but Vlad Catrinescu. has explained the security and even has more advanced scenarios.

Accounts Required for Search

Name	Role	Domain rights	Local SharePoint Server rights needed	SQL rights needed
SP_Crawl	The Default Content Access Account for the Search Service Application	Domain User	None	None
SP_Search	Service Account to run the SharePoint Search “Windows Service”	Domain User	None	None

Accounts Required for Optional Components

Account name	Role	Domain rights	Local SharePoint Server rights needed	SQL rights needed
sql_ssas	Account that we run the SQL Server Analysis Service services as	Domain User	None	db_datareader on databases
sp_excel	Excel services unattended account.	Domain User	None	None
sp_pps	PerformancePoint Unattended account	Domain User	None	None
sp_accsvc	Access Services. Used to create all Access databases in SQL and the service account running the service app pool for the Access Service Application	Domain User	None	db_owner, public, and securityadmin
sp_workflow	The RunAs account for the Workflow Manager service	Domain User	None	None

Its time to create all these accounts in our domain for our journey.

Let me know your thoughts in the form of comments.

SharePoint 2013 Installation part 4

2013-04-16T07:17:00.000-07:00

Part 4 : Configure DNS

Part 1: Preparing the environment
Part 2: Installing Windows Server 2012
Part 3: Adding Active Directory Domain Services

In the Part 1 of this series we saw how to create a VM with Windows Server 2012. In part 2 we continued with server 2012 install and renaming the our VM. In Part 3 we enables Active Directory Domain Services in the server and now we can proceed with our process and configure DNS in our server.

Until now we always are used to using DCPromo command to promote the server as Domain Controller but that is being deprecated now. The new way is much more intuitive and simpler and makes us feel inclusive and not alienate the developer from administrators.

Once the Active Directory Role is installed in the server manager dashboard we can see a warning icon with a message to promote the server to domain controller.

Select "Add new Forest" radio button to add new forest and type a new for new forest in the text box for "Root Domain Name". I am using a name "sp2013.local"

Click Next and the Wizard will walk to next step to specify Forest Functional Level and Domain Functional Level. We can also select the server to be DNS server. Specify a password for Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM).

Click Next. Here we will get a warning for DNS delegation. You can ignore the warning and click next.

In the next screen you can specify Netbios name and click next.

In the next screen you can accept all the default values and click next.

Now we can review all our selections and at this time we can click on the view script to see power shell script. Click next

The system will now run the prerequisites and once all the prerequisite test is done click install and head out for a good coffee. The system automatically install DNS and once it is done will reboot.

After the reboot we should be able to see Active directory roles installed by opening Tools in Server Manager console.

This finishes up our preparation for taking next step in the process of installing SharePoint.

Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3:Microsoft Exam 70-480

2013-04-01T08:00:00.002-07:00

This past week I took my Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3 exam. I spent the week before preparing for this exam as I was not too well versed in HTML5 and latest javaScript. This exam came to me through my friend who pointed me to Microsoft Virtual Academy and the free coupon that can be used to take this exam. Honestly I took this exam for the free coupon but while preparing for the exam I felt lot more interested in modern web technologies.

The exam is fairly complex and generic in terms of questions so even if you are not from Microsoft Stack you would be able to take this exam There are already many study guides out there in the web and I am not going to provide one but I will elaborate on how I approached this exam as it might come handy for others who are similar to me at HTML5 and javaScript knowledge.

Firstly I used the Microsoft Virtual Academy where you have a free video which covers basic HTML5 and other things tested in this exam. I strongly recommend to go through all the videos though they talk about windows 8 development.

Secondly, I used couple of books
1. Developing Windows 8 Apps using HTML5 and javaScript (SAMS publication). After all this is Microsoft's Exam and more over I was developing my app to put it in Windows Store.

2. Another good book that I would suggest which I used for HTML5 is The Missing Manual- HTML 5 (O'Reilly publications)

3. Finally I used JavaScript a Missing Manual again from O'Reilly publications. I somehow like books from O'Reilly because of its examples and lucid and simple writing and explanation of concepts.

Last but not least if you have time and interest please try to create a few examples yourself to you get to use all the things that you learn. I strongly believe that share is no substitute for practical learning.

Good Luck to every one who is planning to take this exam. If I can be on any help please feel free to reach out and I will do my best to help.

SharePoint 2013 Installation part 3

2013-03-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

Part 3 : Adding Active Directory Domain Services

Part 1: Preparing the environment
Part 2: Installing Windows Server 2012
Part 3: Adding Active Directory Domain Services
Part 4: Promoting to Domain Name Server

In the Part 1 of this series we saw how to create a VM with Windows Server 2012. In part 2 we continued with server 2012 install and renaming the our VM. So far we have a good smooth sailing.I also mentioned about Sysprep the VM so we can easily create multiple copies quickly. I am still working on this and have no update on this as this is totally new to me too.Let’s get into the topic for today.

In this part we are going to see how we can enable Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS) and DNS services in Windows Server 2012. ADDS is necessary for installing SharePoint.

In Server 2012 DC promo is deprecated and we can now enable ADDS from the roles similar to IIS or other services that we enable in earlier versions of windows. We will use server manager to install ADDS. Click on Add new Roles and Features in server Manager

You will now see a basic introduction wizard screen. Click Next on this screen

Next step in the wizard will ask you about installation type.Choose Role based ot feature based installation radio button and click next

This step will ask you to select a server where you want to enable role or feature. Since in our case we only have one server select “Server from server pool” radio button and our server and click next

Now we are in a spot to choose which roles that we need ot install. There will be a list of all available roles with the checkbox next to it. Select Active Directory Domain Services roles. A pop up window will appear as shown with other dependent and related services that needs to be activated for ADDS.

Check the checkbox to include management tools and click add features in the pop up window.You will see the ADDS role is checked.

Scroll down to see Group Policy Management is checked automatically which is what we selected in the pop up windows. Click next

This step gives us an overview of Active Directory Domain Services and what it does. It also talks about best practice and other information. You can read this information and click next

This the final step in the process of enabling Domain Services in our VM. The wizard will ask to confirm all the features before installing. You can enable “Restart Destination Server Automatically” checkbox so that as soon as ADDS is installed the server will be automatically restarted. You can see 2 links at the bottom, one of that allows you to export configuration settings. Click Install and wait for the process to be completed.

You can even close the wizard at this point and installation will continue.

Once the Role is installed the server will be automatically restarted. This completes the steps needed for adding ADDS role in Server 2012. Once the system comes back after restart we can see the steps needed to promote our server to Domain Controller.

SharePoint 2013 Installation - Part 2

2013-03-08T14:48:00.001-08:00

Part 1: Preparing the environment.

Part 2 : Installing Windows Server 2012
Part 3: Adding Active Directory Domain Services
Part 4: Promoting to Domain Name Server

Part 2: Installing Windows Server 2012

In part 1 of the document we saw initial requirement for installing SharePoint 2013 and how to get setup with Virtual Machine. In this part we will see how we can install Windows Server 2012 and get a working machine.Once we have a working machine then we can enable Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS) if this is the first machine or join the existing Domain if you have one set up already.

Once the VM is ready to boot the VM will boot and ask for Server 2012 License. Once you enter your License Key depending on key you will be able to install the version. Once you enter the key System will let you choose how you want to install the OS.

You can choose Core installation which is lightweight and contain only essential components. Most of your operation in core installation will be done through Powershell scripts. If you are comfortable with command line interface this is the best option and this also boots up fast because it does not have any additional components to load.

I chose the option to install with GUI so that i can document it for everyone, but I am planning to do another installation pretty soon with just code and while i do that i will make sure to document it share it here.

Accept the License terms and click next

Now you will prompted to choose installation type. If you are upgrading from existing install (Preview etc.) choose this otherwise choose custom install

Once you hit next you will prompted to select the disk where you want to install the OS. Select the disk and click next

now windows will start installing which should take about 5 to 10 minutes. So sit back and relax and if you prefer can have a coffee or beer too. But don’t have too much because we aren’t done yet.

Once windows comes back up you will be prompted to enter Administrator Password. Enter a strong password that you can remember. Click next now windows is installed and you login screen will appear.

Enter the administrator password that was created in the previous step and once you are in you should see server management come up and show you the status of the system.

Now we are almost done i say this because we want to rename the computer so that when we add ADDS it looks better.

Open Control plan by searching from the Charms which appear when you move your mouse to the end. (This is the new way of accessing applications in Windows). click search and type Control panel

Once you are in the control panel click on system and rename computer as shown below.

Rename your computer and restart the machine for the changes to take effect.

Boom.. Now we have a working Windows 2012 server environment. This is a best time to take a snapshot of your VM as well as take a Copy of this VM and store it separately. This would come handy in many scenarios like when you want to quickly create a VM with windows server 2012. You can also sysprep this VM and use it as clone similar to the way that Amazon is doing for is AWS.

I am working on the side to understand sysprep process and once i get hold of things i will surely share that information here so we all can benefit and not have to spend time spinning up VM.

SharePoint 2013 Installation - Part 1

2013-03-04T07:28:00.000-08:00

Part 1: Preparing the environment.
Part 2 : Installing Windows Server 201
Part 3: Adding Active Directory Domain Services
Part 4: Promoting to Domain Name Server

SharePoint 2013 with all new cool features and social capabilities and enhancements is here and available for download. It is not the preview or release candidate but the final version. We are going to see in this series how to install and configure SharePoint 2013 Virtual Machine (VM). I am going to document all the steps that in creating this as a guide along with the setbacks and obstacles that i face in the process. I am going to create a single VM (simple configuration) which I will be primarily using for development and once I am done with this I will try to create a farm and document the steps as well.

Step 1: Creating Windows Server 2012 environment

This is the first step in the process and we will see how we can create a VM with Windows Server 2012.

I am using VMWare but there are other Virtual Machines available like Oracle’s VirtualBox, Windows Hyper V and there are few open source options as well.

Preparing VMWare:

Open VMWare Player and form this place you will be able to create new Virtual Machines

Click Create New Virtual Machine

In the Welcome Screen choose “I will install the operating system Later” option. and click next

In the select Guest Operating System screen choose “Microsoft Windows” and in the version drop down Choose “Windows 2008 R2 64 bit”

Click Next and now you will be prompted to enter Virtual Machine name and Location. You can change the location where you want to create the VM like a secondary HD. Give a name that is easily identifiable and hit next

Here you would need to specify Hard Disk capacity. Choose at least 80 GB and you can check the minimum requirement here. You can split the HD for storing or leave it as single file.

Once you click next you will be in a summary page which shows the default configuration. Before clicking finish click on customize hardware

You will see hardware screen where you can configure your RAM and other hardware here. If you have 8 GB of RAM in your laptop or desktop where you are creating this machine it is better to give at least 5GB for this machine. This is only for Development scenario but for production stick with minimum requirement given here.

Choose 2 processor and in the “New CD/DVD” use ISO image and link it to the ISO image of windows server 2012. if you have not downloaded already you can get trial version from here. SharePoint 2013 can be installed on Server 2008 R2 as well but this article is all about installing it on server 2012.

If you have SQL Server and Sharepoint Downloaded you can add those ISO files now but it is better to add it after server 2012 is installed. SQL Server can be downloaded from here and SharePoint 2013 from here.

Once you click finish our VM with Server 2012 is ready.

In Part2 we will how we can install VM and setup Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS)

Please share your comments for improvising this guide so this becomes useful for many. If you have any question post it and if I know that answer I will address it and we can learn together.

SharePoint saturday Philly

2013-02-21T07:18:00.001-08:00

I have been regularly attending SharePoint Saturday for a long time but never had a chance to do a full length presentation but this time I am speaking in SharePoint Saturday at Philly(at Microsoft Malvern). Thanks to my boss Paul Galvin who strongly encouraged to speak. By the way he is also speaking in SPS Philly.

I will be speaking on Enterprise Social Networking and its benefits and and will run through social features that are OOTB in SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013. My colleague Robert Hiskey is helping me out in this in addition to preparing for his presentation on SharePoint User Experience in 2010 and 2013. Thanks to him too. Much of out content is based on our recent project where we worked together. The project was huge opportunity to learn new things that can be achieved OOTB or with minimal custom code which most often turns out to be UI and branding.

My presentation is at 3.45 in the Merion Room. Use this Hastag (#SPSPhilly95) to tweet me and you can follow me at (@Athoksh). Looking forward to seeing you all and please provide your valuable feedback using the hashtags.

I will be posting the Slides in my GDrive after the presentation.

Few of my other colleagues are also presenting this time, Anil Ferris, Hunter Pankey, and Paul Galvin - will also be presenting on various topics

SPS Philly agenda is posted here.

<Update>

My Presentation

</Update>

Powershell Script for back and Resote Site Collections

2013-02-08T15:21:00.000-08:00

Recently I had to backup a whole bunch of Sites in SharePoint and move it to a new site collection. There is powershell command to backup and restore the site or site collection which is what i used but there were 100 sites that needs to be moved. I decided to quickly put together a script that can loop and copy all the available site in SharePoint.

Similarly I created the Restore script that copies the site backup to the new site collection. I am sharing this here hoping someone will benefit and not have to invent the wheel over and over again.

Back up Script

$mysitesurl = "http://vsspsandbox/my/*"
$backuppath = "c:\backup\mysitebackup."
$webapp = "http://vsspsandbox/"
Get-SPSite -WebApplication $webapp -Limit ALL | where { $_.Url -like $mysitesurl } | ForEach-Object{ $path = $backuppath + $_.Url.Substring($_.Url.LastIndexOf("/")+1); Backup-SPSite -Identity $_.Url -Path $path -Verbose }

Customize Search Box in SharePoint

2013-01-17T15:15:00.000-08:00

Search in SharePoint is important to drive adoption and in SharePoint 2010 Enterprise search has improved and come a long way. People look to search for information rather than clicking through or navigating to find the information. SharePoint is an excellent Enterprise Content Management (ECM) tool because it is more a platform than simple tool Developers are given independence to take SharePoint to any level they want. In this blog we will see how we can customize search by creating custom controls and adding code. We will not be touching on adding best bets, and keywords to drive better results.

People always had requirement to customize the search box that is present in SharePoint out Of the Box (OOTB). This is definitely doable and to everyone's surprise it is lot easier to achieve this than many thing. We will see step by step in process of achieving this in this blog.

SharePoint has a nice delegate architecture where there is no need to modify the page for changing or modifying a certain functionality in the page. For example we can use delegate control to replace the OOTB search box with custom search box and perform the operation that we want to do in the search box. It is an unintrusive way of high jacking the functionality.
In order to replace the search box with custom control we fist have to create a project in Visual Studio.

Open Visual Studio and Create a Empty SharePoint Project

Once we have the project next step is to add Mapped folder "Control Templates". This is where the user controls go in SharePoint. We will be creating a user control similar to a search box and replace it.

Now we will add a user control called "CustomSearch.ascx" this is the control that we will use with delegate control to replace the existing search box.

Now I am adding a textbox and image with link similar to the OOTB search box. In order to show the difference I am adding the text as "Custom Search the site"

<img id="cbl_search_go" src="/_layouts/images/gosearch15.png" alt="Search" class="srch-gosearchimg" style="border:1px solid #e3e3e3;" onmouseover="this.src='/_layouts/images/gosearchhover15.png'"

onmouseout="this.src='/_layouts/images/gosearch15.png'" /> </a>

I am setting all the attributes similar to the OOTB search box. obvisouly I am adding an postback on click using javascript and on enter click to mimic the OOTB as close as possible.
Now our user control is ready and we can now see how we can include this as a delegate control. In order to use this as delegate control we need to include it in an element file which we can deploy with a feature. So lets us create a element file. You can an element file by right click on the project and add a new item and select empty element file.

We now have the element file and we are almost done. All we have left to do is add this control and so we can deploy it (include it in the master page only if you have a custom Master Page).

<!—Custom Search Box -->

<Control Id="SmallSearchInputBox" Sequence="10"

ControlSrc ="~/_controltemplates/CustomSearch.ascx">

</Control>

This is the line that needs to be added in the element file to get it deployed. Note the important thing here is the sequence number and ID. I have given the sequence number of "10" which less than the OOTB sequence number and I am using the same ID as "SmallSeachInputBox". The reason behind that is when this control gets deployed SharePoint loads all the controls as delegate control and since our sequence number is smaller this control will be loaded instead of OOTB control. Once we have the element file we can include this element file with any feature and deploy it and activate the feature.This is what you will see once you deploy this.

Hope this blog is useful to you all and any feedback and comments are welcome.

Enjoy Coding and Customizing. SharePoint.

Set Masterpage Poweshell SharePoint

2012-11-30T13:26:00.000-08:00

PowerShell commands come handy when you have to perform administrative tasks in your SharePoint environment. In past where you have to write code or a small utility program like a console application or Windows Form application can now be achieved using PowerShell script. . I use this a lot with my clients and since PowerShell script is run by the administrators the IT people love it and don’t have to worry about anything.

In the recent times I have been asked by my clients to provide them with a script to set master pages across multiple site collection in a web application in order to push their branding. I thought that the same script will be useful for a lot of people like me and decided to share the script here by making the script more generic than the one I wrote for my clients.

#Enter the site URL

$siteUrl = Read-Host "Enter Site URL"

$rootSite = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($siteUrl)

$spWebApp = $rootSite.WebApplication

foreach($site in $spWebApp.Sites)

{

$web = Get-SPWeb $site.Url

$featureFolderNameSite = "PublishingSite"

$featureFolderNameWeb = "PublishingWeb"

$FeatureIDSite = Get-SPFeature -Site $web.Url | Where {$_.DisplayName -eq $featureFolderNameSite}

$FeatureIDWeb = Get-SPFeature -Web $web.Url | Where {$_.DisplayName -eq $featureFolderNameWeb}

# Check Publishing feature is active at site level and site collection level

#if not active activate.

if($FeatureIDSite -ne $null)

{

Write-Host $featureFolderNameSite "is already activated at :" $web.Url

}

else

{

Enable-SPFeature -Identity $featureFolderNameSite -Confirm:$false -Url $web.Url

Write-Host $featureFolderNameSite "has been activated at :" $web.Url

}

if($FeatureIDWeb -ne $null)

{

Write-Host $featureFolderNameWeb "is already activated at :" $web.Url

}

else

{

Enable-SPFeature -Identity $featureFolderNameWeb -Confirm:$false -Url $web.Url

Write-Host $featureFolderNameSite "has been activated at :" $web.Url

}

$web.CustomMasterUrl = "/_catalogs/masterpage/nightandday.master"

$web.MasterUrl = "/_catalogs/masterpage/nightandday.master"

$web.Update()

$site.Dispose()

}

$rootSite.Dispose()

The script takes the Site URL from the user and loops through all the available site collection present in the web application in which the current site collection is part and sets the master page on all the site collections. The script also activates publishing feature at the site collection level and at site level before setting the master page if it is not activates already.

Add Event Handler to Specific List or Library

2012-08-14T13:31:00.002-07:00

Event Handlers in SharePoint is the de-facto choice if someone wants to perform some operation synchronously. Some would also point out about Workflows, though workflows can perform the same operation but workflow is acting asynchronously. Suppose you want to set the document or item metadata while adding you would have to use event handler or suppose you want to prevent somebody from deleting an item from a list or library you will be using event handlers. In SharePoint 2010 there are more event handler definition added compared to MOSS 2007. You can find these information here.

In this article let us take a look at how you can register event handlers for a specific list or library. We are focusing on registering it to specific list or library because by default event handlers get registered to all the list or library of particular type. For example if you specify "ListTemplateId=100" event receiver gets registered to all lists that are of type "Custom Lists" Often times you would want the event receiver to be registered to a particular list rather than all the lists in the site. Registering event receivers to a particular List or library give you the flexibility to define an operation specific to the list or library.

There are few different ways you can register event handlers for a list or library.

If you do not worry about event handler getting attached to all the list of a type but just want to control the operation for a specific list you register the event handler on a feature and by checking the List Title you can perform the operation for the specific List.You can use the List Title from properties to prevent event firing for other libraries or lists depending on your type of event receiver.

if(properties.List.Title == "your listname")

{

}

If you are particular about the event handler getting attached to multiple list and you like to take control of everything under you then you can use List eventreceiver property to set event receiver for your specific list or library. You can create a feature and in Feature activation you can register the event only for your list. The code below is an example that I use for setting the event handler for Shared Documents library in SharePoint
//This is a web feature

  public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)

{

            using (SPSite site = new SPSite(((SPWeb)properties.Feature.Parent).Url))

{

                using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())

{

                    SPList sharedDocuments = web.Lists["Shared Documents"];

                    if (sharedDocuments != null)

{

                        SPEventReceiverDefinition listeventreceiver =  sharedDocuments.EventReceivers.Add();

                        listeventreceiver.Class = "TestEventReceivers.TestListEventReceiver";

                        listeventreceiver.Assembly = 
System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().FullName; // you can 
give the assembly
 name in string format.

                        listeventreceiver.SequenceNumber = 4000;

                        listeventreceiver.Type = SPEventReceiverType.ItemAdded;

                        listeventreceiver.Update();

}

}

}

}

In FeatureActivated Method you need to check for existance of event 
receiver and if not you can add your event receiver. You need to have a 
class defined for your event receiver.

Event Receiver Example

 public class TestListEventReceiver : SPItemEventReceiver

{

        public override void ItemAdded(SPItemEventProperties properties)

{

            base.ItemAdded(properties);

}

}

The above operation is similar for assigning event receiver to content type, then use the event in any library or list it is used.

Another way you could assign Event Receiver is by using the list URL. This is a nice and handy way if you are deploying a solution as part of your product or offering and you are creating a List Instance using <ListInstance> in your feature and have defined URL or you already have created the list manually in a site and you have the List URL.

When you create Event Receivers in your solution in Visual studio you will have the following line added

<Receivers ListTemplateId="101">

Replace the List template in the above line as follows. Now you have List instance specific event receiver added.

<Receivers ListUrl="Lists/MyDocuments">

I am assigning to a Library in the above example.

SharePoint Designer Workflow

2012-07-12T08:10:00.000-07:00

Some improvements and new activity that I would like to see in the upcoming SharePoint

SharePoint as a platform is hugely successful and comparing MOSS 2007 and SharePoint 2010; SharePoint 2010 is more refined and feels more solid as Enterprise Content Management System. Workflow in SharePoint saw a dramatic improvement compared to MOSS 2007. Today, Designer workflows are definitely considered while making decision about choosing SharePoint as a CMS in the enterprise. But there is an opportunity and huge room available for the workflow to be improved in SharePoint 2012 or SharePoint 15.

In 2010 we got more activities standard in designer workflow and another area that got a facelift is using VISIO as a designer tool for developing workflow. As an enthusiastic SharePoint’er I wish some of these areas can be improved

1. Improvement in VISIO designer:

· Allow configurations to be done in VISIO Designer

· Enable to preview the working of activities in VISIO

· Integrate Visio Designer into SharePoint (Having the VISIO outside and have to goto Designer to publish is a sticky point in regulated industry)

· Provide an easier way to include custom activity with custom icon in VISIO

2. Improvement in Activities

· Need more standard OOTB activities VIZ:

· Activity to Create a Site/Site Collection

· Activity to Create a Library/List

· Action to query a list to get list items.

· Allow calculation of business days in date time activity

· Get User Information for User Information List

· Create List Items in different Site (This will be good if we can create list items in different location in the site collection)

· Convert Document /Infopath to PDF (We can use Document Conversion service but if this is available OOTB then it is huge selling point)

· New Utility Action to Trim white spaces (This is needed while using Multi Lookup)

· New utility activity for regular expression operation

· An Activity to Loop through a collection of Items (List of Values in a multi-lookup field)