Eric Kraus' Microsoft Blog

New Blog!!

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:25:10 GMT

http://www.erickraus.com

Hotmail Plus Addresses

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 05:28:40 GMT

No…I’m not talking about the paid service for Hotmail Plus. I’m talking about +addresses. I just found this listed (amongst others) on the Hotmail Tips site.

Hotmail Plus Addresses allows you to send an email to your alias+anyword@hotmail.com and the email will still be delivered to your alias@hotmail.com email address. Then in your email settings, you can create a rule for a message sent To/cc alias+anyword@hotmail.com and route that email to a certain folder.

Pretty cool, huh?

I just set up all my bills to be sent to +bills my receipts to +receipts and my wife will love that she gets a rule for +important

Check it out here:

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-hotmail-plus-addresses-using

+enjoy

Microsoft Innovation Newspaper

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:25:04 GMT

I finally got around to compiling all of my social media sources on Microsoft and innovation and published them in a digital newspaper supported by paper.li.

Here’s a snapshot of the newspaper. It publishes daily, so subscribe or check back often.

Check it out now! microsoft innovation

IE9 Add-On Warning

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 01:21:15 GMT

Sick of that IE 9 warning bar at the bottom about your add-on’s being too slow?

Frustrated that you you have specified “Ask me later” a million times, and it still prompts you each time you load IE?

Next time you get this, click the button “Choose add-ons” instead.

At the bottom of the dialog window, change the timeout period to a larger time span, like 10 seconds.

Click “Done”

Now IE will wait 10 seconds before notifying you that an add-on is loading.

Ways to Stay Creative

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:35:02 GMT

A great article came across my RSS feed today and I thought I would share an image out of it. Much of my new role involves creativity and innovation. Keeping things fresh and maintaining energy are critical success factors in my creativity. I found these suggestions helpful. Most are simple things but all can be things to attempt on a daily basis.

Source: http://paulzii.tumblr.com/post/3360025995

SharePoint Saturday Twin Cities

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 05:48:36 GMT

Whooo, it’s been a long time since I posted. Well, here’s to making up for lost time. I will be presenting at SharePoint Saturday Twin Cities (again) a half-day session on Upgrading to SharePoint 2010 with Brian Caauwe. We will cover topics ranging from prep-ing your existing environment to ideas around involving the business in change management. We presented this session last year in the fall SPSTC and it was a huge success.

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

You can find more information on the event here: http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/twincities/default.aspx

Oh, and don’t forget to tweet about the event. Use hash tag: #spstc

Session content (presentation and scripts) can be downloaded: here!

Find training videos using Microsoft Desktop Player

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:46:54 GMT

Microsoft just released a public beta of the Microsoft Desktop Player. It’s a Silverlight application (which can be download as a WPF app to go offline) that provides access to hundreds of resources including webcasts, podcasts, whitepapers and more across Microsoft technologies.

You can access the beta here:

http://www.microsoft.com/click/desktopplayer/

Or try it out Right Here!

(I apologize for the clipping with the new theme, but at least you get the idea)

This site has been built with Microsoft Silverlight. Microsoft Silverlight delivers a new generation of high-quality audio and video, engaging media experiences, and interactive applications for the Web.

Click to install now!

By clicking "Click to install now!" you accept the Silverlight License Agreement.

PowerShell Cmdlets on Bing Visual Search

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:51:40 GMT

Bing now has a Visual Search for PowerShell cmdelts!

On the left there are Refiners used to narrow down your selection by Category, Verb, Noun, and other groupings.

After clicking on a cmdlet, you get a details “help” pane on the right with example usage and the top web results (typically TechNet or MSDN reference links).

Check it out:
http://www.bing.com/visualsearch?g=powershell_cmdlets

List all CustomActions in the Farm

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Mon, 03 May 2010 15:48:52 GMT

Here’s a great little script that I used to list out all of the Custom Actions available in a farm. What’s great about the script is that it returns the CustomActions in XML so you can vary the output. My favorite is using the Out-GridView cmdlet in Windows PowerShell 2.0. From there can you can do searches, sorts, filters, etc.

Calling the Script

PS C:\> [xml]$ca = Get-SPCustomAction

PS C:\> $ca.CustomActions.CustomAction | Out-GridView

The Function

function Get-SPCustomAction
{
    trap [Exception] { continue; }
    cls
    $null = [system.reflection.assembly]::loadwithpartialname("Microsoft.Sharepoint")
    $null = [system.reflection.assembly]::loadwithpartialname("Microsoft.Sharepoint.Administration")
    $null = [system.reflection.assembly]::loadwithpartialname("System.Web")
    [string]$xmlString = "<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-8"" ?><CustomActions>"
    $farm = [microsoft.sharepoint.administration.spfarm]::local
    foreach ($featureDef in $farm.FeatureDefinitions)
    {
        trap [Exception] { continue; }
        foreach ($elementDef in $featureDef.GetElementDefinitions([System.Globalization.CultureInfo]::CurrentCulture))
        {
            trap [Exception] { continue; }
            $node = $elementDef.XmlDefinition;
            if ($node.Name -eq "CustomAction")
            {
                trap [Exception] { write-error $($_.Exception.Message); continue; }
                $xmlString += "<CustomAction Id=""" + $node.Id + """ GroupId=""" + $node.GroupId + """ Location=""" + $node.Location + """ Sequence=""" + $node.Sequence + """ Title=""" + $node.Title + """ "
                if($node.UrlAction -ne $null -and $node.UrlAction.OuterXml -ne "" -and $node.UrlAction.Url -ne $null -and $node.UrlAction.Url -ne "")
                {
                    $xmlString += "Url=""" + [System.Web.HttpUtility]::UrlEncode($node.UrlAction.Url.ToString()) + """ "
                }
                $xmlString += "
xmlns=""http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/""/>"
            }
        }
    }

    $xmlString += "</CustomActions>"

    #$xmlString = $xmlString.Replace("&", " ")
    Write-Output $xmlString
}

Then you can filter down to a “Location” and do a partial name “Id” search for what you might be looking for.

Join the Launch: Visual Studio, Office and SharePoint 2010

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:48:49 GMT

Join us for a free, in-person event you won’t want to miss
Join a select group of IT professionals for a launch event near you, and find out about all the great new and enhanced features coming your way with Microsoft^® Office 2010 and SharePoint^® 2010.
Discover how Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 can increase your personal and organizational productivity across PC, phone, and browser*. There’s a lot that’s new — here’s what you can expect:

Presentations, demos and training from Microsoft engineers, evangelists, and partners.
An introduction to the next wave of productivity via an integrated platform demonstration.
Pointers to tools and resources that will help you plan by evaluating your current infrastructure.
A walk-through of tools that can help you optimize desktop deployment.
A peek at Visio^® 2010, Project 2010, SQL Server^® 2008 R2, and Exchange Server 2010.

CITY	DATE
Chicago, IL	Thursday, April 29
Dallas, TX	Tuesday, May 18
Houston, TX	Thursday, May 20
Detroit, MI	Tuesday, May 25
Minneapolis, MN	Thursday, May 27

IT Professional

Developer

Get session details >>

Can’t make these dates? Check out our half-day, in-person events featuring
Launch 2010 highlights in a city near you.

Seats are limited – Reserve yours today!

CITY	DATE
Nashville, TN	Tuesday, May 4
Tulsa, OK	Tuesday, May 4
St. Louis, MO	Wednesday, May 5
Cincinnati, OH	Thursday, May 6
Waukesha, WI	Wednesday, May 12
Indianapolis, IN	Thursday, May 13
Omaha, NE	Thursday, May 13
Cleveland, OH	Thursday, June 3
Kansas City, KS	Thursday, June 3
Austin, TX	Thursday, June 3
Columbus, OH	Wednesday, June 16

*An appropriate device, Internet connection, and supported browser are required. Some mobile functionality requires Office Mobile 2010 which is not included in Office 2010 applications, suites, or Web Apps. There are some differences between the features of the Office Web Apps, Office Mobile 2010 and the Office 2010 applications.

NOTICE TO ALL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES — We trust you understand Microsoft’s desire to ensure that we — and you — comply with applicable government gift and ethics rules set forth in Federal and State regulations, which restrict/prohibit public sector (government or education) employees from accepting gifts from entities doing or seeking official business with the public sector. A “gift” includes meals, giveaways, free software or other items of value given away at an event. If you wish to receive any of these items, you must pay market value for them or have written approval from your gifting/ethics officer or responsible attorney. Additional information and gift letter are available on registration site.

SharePoint 2010 Claims-Based Auth with ADFS v2

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:41:04 GMT

I have a really cool 2010 lab environment at home and one of the things I wanted to do was to make sure I was able to demo SharePoint 2010 ‘s claims-based authentication capabilities, especially using ADFS v2.

I was amazed at how straight forward the process was. Just a few lines of PowerShell and I was authenticating with our Microsoft IT’s ADFS v2 end point. Very cool stuff. So here’s what I did:

Pre-requisites

-First, have your security admin configure your relying point URL in ADFS v2. This tells ADFS that you are a trusted end point and you are allowed to authenticate. This is what allows/prevents anyone in the world from authenticating with your service (assuming they knew a correct username/password).

-Next, you will need to get the certificate used by your security team for ADFS. Save it locally.

-Lastly, you’ll need a web application that was created using “Claims-based Authentication” (not “Classic” )

Steps to configure

1. After that is complete, Open PowerShell Management Console for SharePoint 2010 as an Administrator.

2. After PowerShell opens, run the two commands below to get a reference to the certificated provided to you.

$certPath = "<path to cert>\<cert>.cer"

$cert = New-Object System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate2("$certPath")

3. Next, create a new trusted root authority provider within SharePoint. Run the following command:

New-SPTrustedRootAuthority "MSIT ADFS Token Signing Trusted Root Authority" -Certificate $cert

Note: you’ll want to repeat this for each of the cert(s) in the chain, but you’ll want to end with a reference to the last cert (not the parent/root) for the rest of the process below

4. Now, create a new claim type mapping to the claim that you will use as your identifier (e.g. “username”). In this case, I’ll be using the “EmailAddress” claim.

$map1 = New-SPClaimTypeMapping -IncomingClaimType "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/emailaddress" -IncomingClaimTypeDisplayName "EmailAddress" –SameAsIncoming

5. Next, specify the realm (a unique URI for your site) and the sign-in URL for your site. The realm must match what is configured for your site in ADFS. This how ADFS knows which site to pass the claim back to.

$realm = "https://www.yoursite.com"
$signinurl = "https://corp.sts.yourcompany.com/adfs/ls"

6. The last step in PowerShell creates the actually trusted identity token issuer (provider). Run the following command using the variables you set in earlier steps:

$ap = New-SPTrustedIdentityTokenIssuer -Name "ADFSv2" -Description "ADFSv2 Federated Identity" -Realm $realm -ImportTrustCertificate $cert -ClaimsMappings $map1 -SignInUrl $signinurl –IdentifierClaim $map1.InputClaimType

7. Now, browse to Manage Web Applications in Central Administration (you may need to run Central Admin as an Administrator). Click on a web application and choose Authentication Providers button in the ribbon. And choose the appropriate zone you want to configure.

8. Scroll down to the Claims-based Authentication Providers section and put a checkbox next to “Trusted Identity Provider” and again next to the name of the provider you created in step #5.

Note: a great new feature in SharePoint 2010 is the ability to specify multiple authentication providers on a given zone within a web application. e.g. you can leave Windows Authentication (NTLM) checked and also check Trusted Identity Provider. Doing so will give you an option when you load the web application to choose which authentication method you want.

9. The last step is to ensure all of the certificate(s) [all certs in the chain] are added to the following stores:

Also, confirm that your cert(s) were added to the trusted root authority (in Step 3 by viewing the certs under “Trusts” in Central Administration:

NOTE: if your certs are issued in a chain like mine were, you will also need to set the trust on your web application to Medium (via web.config) or you will receive errors like the following or create a custom trust level to include the certs.

The issuer of the token is not a trusted issuer

The root of the certificate chain is not a trusted root authority.

Backup Documents in SharePoint Using PowerShell

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:56:00 GMT

I use SharePoint in my lab at home and recently started organizing all of my personal documents in there as well. The one thing that always concerns me is the safety of those files living in a lab environment on a Beta/RC product.

So, to ease my nerves, I wrote this simple little script which runs through my web applications and copies the documents down to the filesystem in a similar hierarchical structure. It’s still a work in progress, but I thought I’d share.

DISCLAIMER: This script is not meant for a production environment nor should it be considered an accurate means to backup your data. Please follow best practices for backup and recovery of your data. Additionally, this script, nor the use of it, is supported in any way. Use at your own risk.

SharePoint Backup and Recovery Topics
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262412.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262129.aspx

And here it is…. The script can be run via Scheduled Task, but it has some nifty progress bars if you run it manually in a PS “shell” instance.

param([string]$webApplicationList=(Read-Host "Provide a comma delimited list of web application urls to crawl and backup"), [string]$path=(Read-Host "Specify the root location where to save files"))

cls

Write-Progress -Status "Clearing documents at location: $path" -Activity "Deleting Files"
Get-ChildItem -path $path -recurse | Remove-Item -Recurse -Confirm:$false

Write-Progress -Status "Loading Microsoft.SharePoint" -Activity "Loading Assemblies"
$null = [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint")

Write-Progress -Status "Loading Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration" -Activity "Loading Assemblies"
$null = [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration")

Write-Progress -Status "Loading System.IO" -Activity "Loading Assemblies"
$null = [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.IO")

Write-Progress -Status "Getting reference to local SPFarm object" -Activity "Getting SPFarm"
$farm = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm]::Local

#split web application urls into array
$webApplicationUrls = $webApplicationList.Split(',')

$webAppIndex = 1;
foreach($webApplicationUrl in $webApplicationUrls)
{
    $webAppPct = ($webAppIndex / $webApplicationUrls.Length)*100
    Write-Progress -id 1 -Activity "SPWebApplication" -Status "Web Application:" -PercentComplete $webAppPct
    $uri = new-object System.Uri($webApplicationUrl)
    $webApp = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication]::Lookup($uri);
    if($webApp -ne $null)
    {
        $webAppName = $webApp.DisplayName
        $path1 = "$path\$webAppName"
        $null = New-Item -Path "$path1" -ItemType "Directory"
        for($s = 1; $s -le $webApp.Sites.Count; $s++)
        {
            $site = $webApp.Sites[$s-1]
            $siteName = $site.RootWeb.Title
            $spct = ($s / $webApp.Sites.Count)*100
            Write-Progress -id 2 -ParentId 1 -Activity "SPSite" -Status "Site Collection: $siteName" -PercentComplete $spct
            for($w = 1; $w -le $site.AllWebs.Count; $w++)
            {
                $web = $site.AllWebs[$w-1]
                $webName = $web.Title
                $wpct = ($w / $site.AllWebs.Count)*100
                Write-Progress -id 3 -ParentId 2 -Activity "SPWeb" -Status "Web: $webName" -PercentComplete $wpct
                $path2 = "$path1\$webName"
                if([System.IO.Directory]::Exists("$path2") -eq $false)
                {
                    $null = New-Item -Path "$path2" -ItemType "Directory"
                }
                for($l = 1; $l -le $web.Lists.Count; $l++)
                {
                    $list = $web.Lists[$l-1]
                    if($list.BaseType -eq [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPBaseType]::DocumentLibrary -and $list.RootFolder.ToString().IndexOf("_catalogs") -eq -1 -and $list.Title -ne "Forms")
                    {
                        $listName = $list.Title
                        $lpct = ($l / $web.Lists.Count)*100
                        Write-Progress -id 4 -ParentId 3 -Activity "SPList" -Status "List: $listName" -PercentComplete $lpct
                        $path3 = "$path2\$listName"
                        if([System.IO.Directory]::Exists("$path3") -eq $false)
                        {
                            $null = New-Item -Path "$path3" -ItemType "Directory"
                        }
                        for($f = 1; $f -le $list.ItemCount; $f++)
                        {
                            $item = $list.Items[$f-1]
                            if($item -ne $null)
                            {
                                $itemName = $item.File.Name;
                                if($itemName -ne "")
                                {
                                    $fpct = ($f / $list.ItemCount)*100
                                    Write-Progress -id 5 -ParentId 4 -Status "SPFile" -Activity "File: $itemName" -PercentComplete ($fpct)
                                    $path4 = "$path3\$itemName"
                                    $fs = [System.IO.File]::Create("$path4");
                                    $bytes = $item.File.OpenBinary();
                                    $fs.Write($bytes, 0, $bytes.Length);
                                    $fs.Close();
                                }
                            }
                            Write-Progress -Status "Writing files..." -Activity "Web: $webName List: $listName" -PercentComplete ($i / $list.ItemCount) -CurrentOperation $itemName
                        }
                    }
                }
                $web.Dispose();
            }
            $site.Dispose();
        }
    }
    $webAppIndex++
}

WCF hotfix for .NET 3.5 and SharePoint 2010

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:06:45 GMT

There is a optional hotfix for WCF 3.5 SP1 which is a prerequisite for SharePoint 2010. Depending on the operating system, the relevant hotfix can be found below.

Windows Server 2008 (RTM) with Service Pack 2: KB971831

Windows Server 2008 R2/Windows 7: KB976462

Instructions: Install this hotfix after the SharePoint 2010 pre-requisites, but before actually installing SharePoint 2010.

Additional pre-requisites can be install from the DVD, or downloaded manually.

Automated SharePoint 2010 Install with PowerShell

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:26:00 GMT

In one of my previous posts, I walked through how to provision a SharePoint farm using PowerShell. You can also install SharePoint from a CD using PowerShell as well. I use this in my lab at home so I don’t have to attend the installs when I am rebuilding my virtual machines.

<Update: Product Keys>

SharePoint Server 2010 Beta (Enterprise Client Access License features) product keys:
PKXTJ-DCM9D-6MM3V-G86P8-MJ8CY
BV7VC-RMR6B-26P6Y-BTQDG-DX2KQ

Here’s the breakdown:

1. Create an XML file that looks like this. This will do a Full Farm Install (quietly). For other config files, check out e:\Files\SetupFarmSilent\config.xml (e: is the drive with SharePoint on it)

sharepointInstall_config.xml
----------------------------------------------
<Configuration>
    <Package Id="sts">
        <Setting Id="LAUNCHEDFROMSETUPSTS" Value="Yes"/>
    </Package>

    <Logging Type="verbose" Path="%temp%" Template="SharePoint Server Setup(*).log"/>
    <PIDKEY Value="PKXTJ-DCM9D-6MM3V-G86P8-MJ8CY" />
    <Setting Id="SERVERROLE" Value="APPLICATION"/>
    <Setting Id="USINGUIINSTALLMODE" Value="1"/>
    <Setting Id="SETUP_REBOOT" Value="Never" />
    <Setting Id="SETUPTYPE" Value="CLEAN_INSTALL"/>
        <INSTALLLOCATION Value="c:\Program Files\Microsoft SharePoint" />
        <Display Level="Basic" CompletionNotice="Yes" AcceptEULA="Yes" />
</Configuration>

2. Next create a PowerShell script, that looks like this (save it to the same folder as the XML file above):

Install-SharePoint.ps1
----------------------------------------------------
$config = "sharepointInstall_config.xml"
$bits = "e:\"
cls
Write-Progress -Activity "Installing SharePoint Quietly" -Status "Copying config file locally"
Copy-Item $config -Destination $bits
Write-Progress -Activity "Installing SharePoint Quietly" -Status "Installing SharePoint"
cmd.exe /C "$bits\setup.exe /config $config"

3. Now run your script from PowerShell, with the the working directory set to the location of your script files:

PS C:> cd sharepointScript
PS C:\sharepointScript> .\Install-SharePoint.ps1

4. Wait a few minutes and the install will complete quietly.

5. Proceed to provisioning the farm with PowerShell, here

Note: Don’t forget to set your execution policy in PowerShell to allow the script to run. Easiest (but least secure): Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

SharePoint 2010 Beta 2 is finally here!

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:38:24 GMT

Microsoft just released SharePoint 2010 Beta 2! Beta 2 will consist of build 14.0.4536.1000.

For Beta 1 users only or partners running an earlier version e.g. 14.0.4514.1009 (Beta 2 Escrow), you can upgrade to Beta 2 by installing this update: KB_COMING_SOON

Download your copy of SharePoint 2010 Beta 2 from MSDN Subscriptions
(Subscribers only at this point)

Notes:
PLEASE REVIEW the hardware and software requirements for SharePoint 2010. These include cumulative updates and hotfixes for SharePoint 2010 to install properly

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262485(office.14).aspx

At last news, Beta 1 and Beta 2 will time-bomb (expire) on October 31, 2010.

Setting up a development workstation running SharePoint 2010

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554869(office.14).aspx

Summary of other great resources on SharePoint 2010

Official Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Website
http://sharepoint2010.microsoft.com

SharePoint 2010 on MSDN
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd776256.aspx

SharePoint 2010 on TechNet
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ee263917.aspx

SharePoint 2010 Technical Articles on TechNet
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee428287(office.14).aspx

SharePoint Developer Center
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/default.aspx

SharePoint 2010 Development Hands On Labs
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=c010fc68-b47f-4db6-b8a8-ad4ba33a35c5#filelist

SP2010: SPFarm.Local is null or Web Application could not be found

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:25:44 GMT

Note: This post applies to SharePoint Server 2010 Beta 2 and Visual Studio Ultimate Beta 2.

I ran into two issues today that had me tied up for a few hours so I thought I would share. The first was simple:

SPFarm _farm = SPFarm.Local; However, the _farm object was being returned as null.

The second was again simple:

SPSite _site = new SPSite(“http://teams”); This line errored with:

The Web Application at http://teams could not be found. Verify that you have typed the URL correctly. If the URL should be serving existing content, the system administrator may need to add a new request URL mapping to the intended application.

First, notice that by default, Visual Studio compiles in x86. Since SharePoint is running in x64, this would definitely be a good place to start.

However, there is no x64 platform to compile to by default

What we need to do is create an x64 platform and copy existing settings from x86. We’ll do this by entering the Configuration Manager. Once in the Configuration Manager, select the platform drop down and choose New.

Choose the new platform to be “x64” and choose to copy settings from x86.

After you click OK, ensure the settings on your projects are change to use the new platform “x64”

Close out of Configuration Manager and ensure you are now building in x64.

Lastly, try your project again. That should have solved it.

Note: you may also receive this error if you do not have permissions to the configuration database while developing a Windows Forms or WPF application. Ensure that the account you are developing on has appropriate permissions to the config database. If you are running a web client (web part, etc.), ensure that its app pool account has the same permissions to the read from the database.

Special thanks to Tajeshwar for his help in resolve this.

SharePoint 2010 Development Hands On Labs

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:52:15 GMT

These HOLs are about a month old now, but I wanted to share them for anyone who missed the announcement at SPC. There are 10 Hands On Labs in both C# and Visual Basic for SharePoint 2010 Beta 2.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=c010fc68-b47f-4db6-b8a8-ad4ba33a35c5

Also, I have set up several tags in Diigo for SharePoint , you can find my “SharePoint2010” bookmarks here:

http://www.diigo.com/user/erickraus/sharepoint2010

I update links to this site daily.

SharePoint 2010 Provisioning A New Farm with PowerShell

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:35:00 GMT

<Update 2010.02.23 Re-ordered provisioning steps to fit with supported test cases>

NEW! Looking for a simplified process for working with SharePoint and PowerShell?
Check out: SPModule.

<Update 2009.11.20 Initialize-SPResourceSecurity and Install-SPApplicationContent>

This post will take you down the process of configuring your SharePoint farm while introducing the new administrative functionality shipping in the PowerShell provider.

During the SharePoint Installation, make sure you choose “Server Farm” and then “Complete” install. This will allow you to create a SharePoint farm rather than a standalone server.

After the install completes, the setup program will ask you if you want to run the SharePoint Technologies Configuration Wizard (default is checked). Uncheck the box to NOT run the wizard.

Under the Start Menu, browse to Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products. Right-click on SharePoint 2010 Management Shell and choose Run as administrator

Notice: Since we have not created a farm yet, the shell will load with an error that the local farm is not accessible. This is expected.

First…, run the following command to create a new configuration database and central admin content database.

Note: One of the main reason we are using this method, versus the UI is because we can specify the central admin content database name. In the UI, you cannot specify the name and it is created with a GUID. <— DBA’s hate this

New-SPConfigurationDatabase –DatabaseName “SharePoint2010_Config” –DatabaseServer “<db server>” –AdministrationContentDatabaseName “SharePoint2010_Admin_Content” –Passphrase (ConvertTo-SecureString “pass@word1” –AsPlaintext –Force) –FarmCredentials (Get-Credential)

Notice: rather than hard coding the credential for the farm account, I am having PowerShell prompt me for it. You can also do this with the passphrase by accessing the “Password” property of the of the credential object: (Get-Credential).Password

After the process runs, you can test that the server has been added to a farm, by reloading the PowerShell window. Close and repeat the “Run as administrator” step above. It should load with no warning message.

Next, we need to install the help files

Install-SPHelpCollection -All

After that command completes, we need to secure the files and registry entries on the server otherwise we we will receive a whole bunch of weird security errors.

Initialize-SPResourceSecurity

Next, we need to install and and then provision the services onto the farm.

Install-SPService #(for server farm installations)

Install-SPService -Provision #(for standalone servers only)

Next, we need to install the features on the server.

Install-SPFeature –AllExistingFeatures

Next, we need to provision the central admin web application on our desired port. This will also link up the web application with the admin content database we created in the previous step.

New-SPCentralAdministration -Port 1234 -WindowsAuthProvider "NTLM"

Next, we need to install all of the application content

Install-SPApplicationContent

Lastly, one of the last steps that I perform here is to Disable the Loopback Check on stand alone demo servers. This setting usually kicks out a 401 error when you try to navigate to sites that resolve to a loopback address e.g. 127.0.0.1

To disable the loopback check, run this command from PowerShell:

New-ItemProperty HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa -Name "DisableLoopbackCheck" -value "1" -PropertyType dword

DONE! Now, you can open up Internet Explorer to the central admin site/port you specified and you’re on your way!

Or, since you’re now a PowerShell pro, run this command :

“start iexplore http://server:1234”

PowerShell 2.0 Released!

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:35:58 GMT

Windows Management Framework, which includes Windows PowerShell 2.0, WinRM 2.0, and BITS 4.0, has been officially released today. This down-level release is now supported for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems.

You can find the release here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=151321

Free PowerShell eBook

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:43:52 GMT

For those wishing to get started on PowerShell, here is an excellent free eBook by Dr. Tobias Weltner, PowerShell MVP.

http://powershell.com/Mastering-PowerShell.pdf

Extending .NET Objects in PowerShell

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:53:40 GMT

One of the great features in PowerShell 2.0 is the ability to extend .NET object types to add additional custom properties and methods. For instance, the type System.String does not have a property called IsANumber that returns whether or not the string is a number. Typically, you would have to do a TryParse. By extending the System.String object, we can add such property.

Here’s how it works:

We will create a custom XML file that will define the .NET object that we would like to extend and how we want to extend it. Then, we will load that XML into our PowerShell session and the new methods/properties will be available to us.

Types.ps1xml file, located at $pshome ships with PowerShell 2.0 It is a good place to look at example extensions. Because this file is digitally signed, we cannot modify it directly, this is why we will create a custom XML file.

Let’s get started.

Open PowerShell by right clicking and choosing “Run as Administrator”

This next step (which is actually three commands) will create a new XML file “MyCustomTypes.ps1xml” at the $pshome location, (typically: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0) and open it in Notepad.

$mycustfile = “$pshome\MyCustomTypes.ps1xml”; New-Item –ItemType File –Path $mycustfile; notepad $mycustfile

Note: we are using PowerShell 2.0 but the install location for that is called “1.0”

Next, add the following XML to the notepad window that opened:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Types>
<Type>
    <Name>System.String</Name>
      <Members>
        <ScriptProperty>
          <Name>IsANumber</Name>
          <GetScriptBlock>
                $out = $null; [System.Double]::TryParse($this, [ref] $out)
          </GetScriptBlock>
      </ScriptProperty>
    </Members>
</Type>
</Types>

The $this property is the current object of the type you are extending. In our example it will always be a string, since we are extending the System.String object.

Save and close Notepad

Back in PowerShell type the following command to load the custom types xml file and give it higher precedence than any other loaded file:

Update-TypeData -PrependPath $mycustfile

Now, to test that the new property has been added, we can create a new string variable and check the IsANumber property.

Below are a few of the different types of extensibility that you can perform:

<AliasProperty> – defines a new name for an existing property
<CodeMethod> – references a static method of a .NET class as a method for the object
<CodeProperty> – references a static method of a .NET class as a property for the object
<NoteProperty> – defines a property with a static value
<ScriptMethod> – defines a method whose output is the value of a script
<ScriptProperty> – defines a property whose output is the value of a script

For more information:
get-help about_types.ps1xml and get-help update-typedata

SharePoint 2010: A Developer’s Top 15 List

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:26:58 GMT

Developers of SharePoint should be giddy with excitement in all of the tools and features coming out of Visual Studio 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2010. Here are the biggest take-a-ways from Paul Andrew’s talk on the 2010 developer platform:

1. “Save site as template” now exports as a WSP which can be imported into Visual Studio 2010 as a new project

2. BDC is now Business Connectivity Services which supports full Create, Read, Update, Delete calls to sources, plus Office 2010 integration using new SharePoint Designer 2010 tools

3. LINQ to SharePoint to replace complex CAML queries in code. Strongly typed, intelli-sense, joins and projections

4. Developer Dashboard displays call stack, load time, and other valuable data to debug and review code

5. Relationships between lists, supporting cascade deletes (transactions are actually handled on SQL Server)

6. Large List? No problem! Just be certain of data in views. Use throttling and indexes for performance. 10’s to 100’s of thousands of documents = no problem.

7. Column Validation – lets us add validation logic when defining columns

8. Client Object Model – simple API to Add, Retrieve, Update and Manage data. Commands are batched for performance:

ClientContext cnt = new ClientContext (“http://siteurl”);
Web site = context.Web;
context.Load(site);
context.ExecuteQuery();
site.Title = “Something New”;
site.Update();
context.ExecuteQuery();

9. Rest APIs – uses ADO.NET Data Services. Out of the box services in SharePoint. Retrieve data off of site in 3 lines of code.

10. Better Events and Workflow. Event Receivers and Workflows now possible at the site scope level (workflow does not bind to a list). Event receivers can run asynchronously

11. Easily build dialog forms using AJAX.

12. Silverlight web part out of the box. - code doesn’t need to run on server!!!

13. Sandboxed Solutions – can monitor counters on server (CPU, RAM, etc.) to automatically shutdown bad code. Uses a proxy worker process so not direct access to Microsoft.SharePoint.dll

14. WSP is the unified developer platform (for both Site Collections and local machine)

15. Integration with Team Foundation Server (TFS): work item tracking, source control, team build, manage test cases, automated testing, and load testing!

PowerShell Cmdlets in SharePoint 2010

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:49:28 GMT

You may have already heard that SharePoint 2010 will ship with a PowerShell provider that contains over 500 cmdlets for you to administer SharePoint. The killer though, is that these commandlets can be executed remotely with PowerShell 2.0 WinRM. Awesome! Don’t worry about STSADM, it will still be around to support existing administration scripts and utilities.

You can load the PowerShell provider by typing:

add-pssnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell

Much of what Christian (iLoveSharePoint) and I have worked on in SPoshMod for SharePoint 2007 supports the same pattern as the 2010 provider. Verb-Noun, with SP prefix. Get-SPSite, Get-SPWeb, etc.

What you may not know is that developers can add custom providers and deploy them to SharePoint. You can do this by using the Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell namespace. To distinguish a normal PowerShell cmdlet from a SharePoint cmdlet, an new abstract class has been added to the namespace called: SPCmdlet (other cmdlets inherit directly from PSCmdlet).

Live Blogging from SharePoint Conference 2009

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:55:01 GMT

I’ll be at SharePoint Conference 2009 and will be participating with EndUserSharePoint.com in their LiveBlogging sessions.

Live blogging/twittering at SharePoint Conference 2009:

SPC09 Live Blogs
#SPC09 Live Twitter

SharePoint Conference 2009

Eric Kraus [MSFT] — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:50:45 GMT

I will be attending the SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas next week and wanted to share my schedule with those that might be interested in checking back for content. I will be blogging on content throughout the event. There may be multiple sessions listed under a given timeslot as I will be narrowing down content as I attend other sessions.

I will be cross posting some content on my blog with EndUserSharePoint.com more info can be found on my next blog post:

--> Live Blogging from SharePoint Conference 2009

or on Twitter: http://twitter.com/erickraus

Monday, October 19th, 2009
9:00 AM - Keynote: Unveiling Microsoft SharePoint 2010
Speaker: Steve Ballmer
10:30 AM - Keynote: Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Drilldown
Speaker: Jeff Teper
1:15 PM - Overview of the SharePoint 2010 Developer Platform
2:45 PM -
SharePoint 2010 Administration: Part 1
Visual Studio 2010 SharePoint Development Tools Overview
4:30 PM -
SharePoint 2010 Administration: Part 2
Overview of Social Computing in SharePoint 2010
Developing with SharePoint 2010 Sandboxed Solutions

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
9:00 AM -
Building Rich Internet Applications with Silverlight 3 and...
Advanced Web Part Development in Visual Studio 2010
Overview of Office 2010 for the IT Pro
10:30 AM -
Building A Great Extranet: Proven Principles & Best Practices
Scaling SharePoint 2010 topologies for your organization
1:15 PM -
SharePoint isn’t just for Servers anymore
Developing SharePoint 2010 Applications with the Client Object Model
Authentication and Authorization in SharePoint 2010
2:45 PM - Deep Dive into SharePoint 2010 My Sites and Social Networking...

Wednesday, October 21th, 2009
9:00 AM - Developing an Automated Site Management Lifecycle with SharePoint 2010
10:30 AM - Business Connectivity Services Runtime and Object Model Deep Dive
1:15 PM - Developing with REST and LINQ in SharePoint 2010
2:45 PM -
Externalizing BLOB Storage in SharePoint 2010
Developing Social Applications with SharePoint 2010
4:30 PM - Advanced Development for Silverlight 3 in SharePoint 2010

Thursday, October 22th, 2009
9:00 AM - Unveiling New Management Tools for Administering SharePoint 2010
10:30 AM - Application Lifecycle Management for Developers in SharePoint 2010
12:00 PM - Upgrading SharePoint 2007 code to SharePoint 2010