Anything IW

Keep your own MachineKey values in SharePoint 2010 web.config

MutazAG — Wed, 30 May 2012 04:26:21 GMT

In some cases you may need to have specific MachineKey values in the SharePoint web applications web.config. SharePoint will accept this change briefly but will will soon change it to a different value midnight. This timer job: Health Analysis...(read more)

Add User Policy using Powershell

MutazAG — Tue, 29 May 2012 00:03:40 GMT

# This script will add to user policy for a web application in SharePoint 2010 # and will add few more things to get rid of this event in the event logs: # Object Cache: The super reader account utilized by the cache does not have sufficient...(read more)

New-SPSite and New-SPClaimPrincipal

MutazAG — Mon, 28 May 2012 23:46:29 GMT

Self note: new a new site and set my account as an owner: $web = " http://localdev/sites/site1 " $user = New-SPClaimsPrincipal -IdentityType WindowsSamAccountName -Identity $(whoami) New-SPSite -Name "site1" -Url $web -OwnerAlias...(read more)

Import IIS Logs into SQL Server

MutazAG — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 06:06:00 GMT

I often need to analyse SharePoint IIS logs for different purpose, mainly for capacity planning. The first step to do so (after collection the logs from the servers) is to bulk import the logs into SQL. To import the IIS logs into SQL I use the logparser...(read more)

New SharePoint 2010 training content

MutazAG — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 01:52:14 GMT

Microsoft just published two new training content for BI and Composites in SharePoint 2010. also don't forget to review the available content for ECM and Internet Implementers trainings. SharePoint Server 2010 Business Intelligence Training View...(read more)

Installing SP1 and June CU for SharePoint 2010 and Office Web Apps

MutazAG — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 08:58:10 GMT

(cross posting from: http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_resource_kit/archive/2011/07/12/patching-office-web-apps-to-sp1-and-june-cus-including-sharepoint-server-2010.aspx)

Here is the install order and required patches for SharePoint 2010 deployments with Office Web apps:

if your environment includes:

SharePoint Server 2010 + Office Web App Farm

Step 1: SharePoint Server 2010 SP1: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2460045

Step 2: Office Web Apps SP1: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2460073

Step 3: SharePoint Server 2010 June CU: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2536599

Step 4: Office Web Apps June CU: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2553919/

(NOTE: The Office Web Apps updates for Excel Web App are included in the SharePoint Server 2010 June Cumulative update.)

Step 5: Once you have finished applying all the updates, run the SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard or "psconfig –cmd upgrade –inplace b2b -wait” one time on every server in the farm.

Optional patch:

2553935 Description of the Office Web Apps hotfix package (wacproof-sv-se.msp): June 28, 2011 *NOTE: Only needed if you have Swedish language pack installed.

SharePoint Server 2010 + Project Server 2010 + Office Web Apps Farm

Step 1: Project Server 2010 SP1: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2460047

(NOTE: This update, (2460047) Project Server 2010 SP1, includes SharePoint Server 2010 SP1 and Project 2010 SP1.)

Step 2:Office Web Apps SP1: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2460073

Step 3: Project Server 2010 June CU: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2536600

Step 4: Office Web Apps June CU: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2553919/

Step 5: Once you have finished applying all the updates, run the SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard or "psconfig –cmd upgrade –inplace b2b -wait” one time on every server in the farm.

Optional patch:

2553935 Description of the Office Web Apps hotfix package (wacproof-sv-se.msp): June 28, 2011 *NOTE: Only needed if you have Swedish language pack installed.

SharePoint Foundation 2010 + Office Web Apps

Step 1: SharePoint Foundation 2010 SP1: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2460058

Step 2: Office Web Apps SP1: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2460073

Step 3: SharePoint Foundation 2010 cumulative update http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2536601

Step 4: Apply the following 3 patches for Office Web Apps:

2553924 Description of the Excel Web App hotfix package (xlwacwfe-x-none.msp): June 28, 2011 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2553924

2544029 Description of the Excel Web App hotfix package (wacmui-xx-xx.msp, xlwacmui-xx-xx.msp): June 28, 2011 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2544029

2553919 Description of the Office Web Apps hotfix package (wacwfe-x-none.msp): June 28, 2011 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2553919

Step 5: Run the SharePoint 2010 Products configuration wizard.

Optional patch:

2553935 Description of the Office Web Apps hotfix package (wacproof-sv-se.msp): June 28, 2011 *NOTE: Only needed if you have Swedish language pack installed

- mutaz

Office 365 Jump Start Videos

MutazAG — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 22:33:22 GMT

Microsoft published great Office 365 Readiness and Training videos at: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/office-365-jump-start-01-microsoft-office-365-overview-for-it-pros

here is the list of available jump start videos:

- mutaz

Check the build level status of components within your SharePoint 2010 farm

MutazAG — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 01:08:00 GMT

To check the upgrade status of your farm after applying the latest SP and CU:

Get-SPProduct - this CmdLet will check the build version of the binaries on all servers in the farm

PS C:\> $spprod = Get-SPProduct

PS C:\> $spprod.Servers | select ServerName, Products, InstallStatus

ServerName Products                           InstallStatus
---------- --------                           -------------
WFE2       {Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010} NoActionRequired
WFE1       {Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010} NoActionRequired

Here is what you get when a patch is missing on one of the servers

PS C:\> $spprod.Servers | select ServerName, Products, InstallStatus

ServerName Products                           InstallStatus
---------- --------                           -------------
WFE2       {Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010} InstallRequired
WFE1       {Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010} NoActionRequired

you can drill down on the server missing the update can find out which specific patches are missing:

PS C:\> $spprod.Servers | ? { $_.InstallStatus -eq "InstallRequired" } | % { $_.RequiredButMissingPatches }

PatchName          : Hotfix for Office (KB2352342)
PatchGuid          : f58f97af-113a-4ccb-bc8d-f733ddc7cfd2
Version            : 14.0.5123.5000
Link               : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2352342
ServersMissingThis : {WFE2}

....

Get-SPContentDatabase - check the status of dbs that are still upgrading using this cmdlet

PS C:\> Get-SPContentDatabase | select Name, NeedsUpgrade

Name                                          NeedsUpgrade
----                                          ------------
WSS_Content_81                                True
WSS_Content_1894898f3e174d98b67bb59257bbbbf7 True
WSS_Content_e550737e9fa5447194a02e5ea5228add  True
WSS_Content_Portal                            True
wss_content_1                                 True

You can of course still use the central admin to Check Product and Patch Installation Status.

- mutaz

Talking about SharePoint 2010 large scale deployments, identity, ALM and deployment best practices at MS tech.ed 2010

MutazAG — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 01:36:00 GMT

My colleague Kuldip Obhan and my self presented at tech.ed 2010 in Australia on lessons learned SharePoint 2010 deployments in which we focused our presentation on the following topics:

Designing a large scale SharePoint 2010 deployment
Identity and federation in SharePoint 2010
ALM recommended practices
deployment and configuration practices

a copy of the presentation is now available on the tech.ed web site here: http://www.msteched.com/2010/Australia/OFS205.

Sync the user display name from the profile service down to the content dbs

MutazAG — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:06:20 GMT

this script will sync the user display name from the user profile service and update the user display name on the site collection level. all it does is to trigger the timer job: <user profile service app>-ProfSync

get-sptimerjob | ? {$_.Name -like "*Profsync*"} | start-sptimerjob

- mutaz

Reprovision service applications

MutazAG — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:41:00 GMT

when upgrading a 2010 Beta deployment to RC i ran into issues related to using office web apps. i had to reprovision the service applications to fix the issue. to do so, i ran the following ps script:

Get-SPServiceApplication | %{$s = “re-provision: “ + $_.TypeName; Write $s;$_.Provision()}

- mutaz

First Look demos: Microsoft Project 2010

MutazAG — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 07:24:10 GMT

three new First Look demos for Microsoft Project 2010 are published now. the demo videos cover three topics:

Microsoft Project 2010 Overview

Microsoft Project Professional 2010

Microsoft Project Server 2010

check em out now at: http://www.microsoft.com/project/2010/en/us/default.aspx

- mutaz

Add a Publish command to Project Web Access home page

MutazAG — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 04:57:00 GMT

This post shows how to add a publish command to PWA, this command will trigger a dialog box for publishing projects, the user will select the project to publish and submit.

here is how it looks like:

and when you click on the publish command, you get this dialog box:

to implement this solution you need to add a content editor web part to the home page, and then add the following to the HTML source for the web part.

function Publish()
   {
      window.showModalDialog( PJ_GetPWAPageUrl("Statusing/PublishDlg.aspx"), "", "dialogHeight: 300px; dialogWidth: 400px; center: yes; resizable: no; status: no; unadorned: yes;");
   }

</script>

<BUTTON accessKey=P id=ctl00_ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_PWA_PlaceHolderMain_idTB_Publish_ToolbarButton class=ToolbarButton title=Publish onclick="var __ret =Publish(); if (!__ret){return false;} else {__doPostBack('ctl00$ctl00$PlaceHolderMain$PWA_PlaceHolderMain$idTB_Publish_ToolbarButton','');}"><IMG style='BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px' class=ToolbarButtonImage alt=Publish src='/_layouts/pwa/images/PublishAll.gif'>Publish</BUTTON>

- mutaz

Outlook 2010, makes people's life better!

MutazAG — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:49:00 GMT

A big big fan of Outlook my self, outlook by far is my number one favorite software ever! and I love outlook 2010, check out this Backstage With Office 2010 video on Outlook.

cheers,
- mutaz

“Typing Arabic has never been this easy!”

MutazAG — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:46:53 GMT

This is one of the best innovations I’ve seen for a while!

Microsoft Maren is a Windows extension that allows users to type Arabic in Roman/Latin characters (Romanized Arabic, Arabizi, Arabish or Franco-Arabic) and have it converted on the fly to Arabic script.

ya3ni lamma ebtoktob arabizi, maren ba7awwlo lala 3arbi –> يعني لما بتكتب عربي بالانجليزي مرن بحوله لكتابه عربي.

it is so easy to use, it integrates with Windows in the form of an arabic keyboard, which means anywhere and on any application.

to get maren, go to http://www.getMaren.com

اصلي

Customising Content Query Web Part (CQWP) and Discussion Boards

MutazAG — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 05:22:38 GMT

I had a requirement to customise the CQWP in a way to display the number of replies on a discussion board item. and change the URL link of the item in CQWP to take the user to the threaded view of the discussion, rather than dispform.aspx of the discussion item.

this post shows how to create an aggregate view of discussion boards in a site collection, and its sub sites, hence the usage of CQWP with the required customisations.

one objective here is to avoid .custom development, so this post will use the CQWP customisation features: customising item styles and viewing custom fields in a CQWP.

the final result will be similar to this:

few things that you should learn before attempting to follow the instructions:

1. how to customise item styles for a CQWP: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms551040.aspx, and http://www.heathersolomon.com/blog/articles/CustomItemStyle.aspx

2. Where does the number of replies come from?

A: an internal field on the Discussion list named: ItemChildCount. the field has a display name of “Replies”. look into the discussion board list feature schema for a complete list of fields.

3. how to return custom fields in a CQWP, the key is to use the CommonViewFields property to add custom fields, the method is described in details here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms497457.aspx

To prepare the item style:

1. customise ItemStyle.xsl to add a new style that will show the number of replies

Replies:(<xsl:value-of select="substring-after(@ItemChildCount,'#') "/>)

2. in the same item style, fix the URL link to point to the threaded view of the discussion item:

<xsl:variable name="vv1">
<xsl:value-of select="@LinkUrl"/>
</xsl:variable>

<div class="ms-vb">
<a href="{$vv1}" target="{$LinkTarget}" title="{@LinkToolTip}">
<xsl:value-of select="$DisplayTitle"/>
</a>
</div >

(or copy and paste the below in your itemstyle.xsl before </xsl:stylesheet>)

download file

Customising CQWP properties:

1. drop a CQWP on your page, build you’re query. In the additional filters part filter on Content Type is not equal to Message (or Content Type is equal to Discussion).

2. Change the item style to use the new custom style.

3. Export the web part and add a line to the webpart manifest file in the CommonViewsFields section to retrieve the ItemChildCount field and then re-import the customised CQWP file:

<property name="CommonViewFields" type="string">ItemChildCount, Text</property>

5. now use your new content query webpart on the page.

cheers,
- mutaz

SharePoint is not returning federated search results. Proxy settings required on the server.

MutazAG — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:59:17 GMT

Search centre in SharePoint collaboration sites has built in federated search result page that pull from live search.

in cases when no federated search results are displayed, or a Location not found error message appears. this could be related to proxy setting on the server that is stopping the search from reaching the federated search location.

You can specify proxy server settings for crawling content and querying federated sources on computers in other networks, such as the Internet. In many cases it is necessary to use a proxy server to bypass intranet security restrictions.

Set configure proxy settings for federated search locations:

1. from central admin site, go to Application Management, and click on “Manage search service” (that will be http://centraladminserver:portnumber/_admin/managesearchservice.aspx)

2. click on “Farm-level search settings” (http://centraladminserver:portnumber/_admin/SearchFarmSettings.aspx)

3. fill in the proxy server settings and select the option to use these settings for access to federated sites.

for more information check this out: Configure proxy settings for federated sources (Office SharePoint Server)

- mutaz

How-To: Self service site creation?

MutazAG — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:24:54 GMT

Creating a new site collection usually requires a farm admin permission level since the tools to do so are available through the central admin or by using an stsadm command line.

In some cases, you want to delegate the site creation to end users (without granting them farm admin privilege obviously!).

Self-Service Site Creation allows users with the use Self-Service site Creation’ permission to create sites in defined URL namespaces (the web application). This post will show how to enable Self-Service Site Creation, and control the access rights to this feature.

Enabling Self-Service site creation:

the feature is enabled from the Central Admin on the web application level.

browse to http://<your central admin>/_admin/ConfigSSC.aspx.

2. select the web application where you want to enable self-service site creation, and select “On” in the Enable Self Service Site creation section.

Granting permissions to use the self service site creation

permissions to use this feature can be control on the “top-level root web site” for the web application. the site “Members” group will have the required permission level to use the feature, which is granted through the “Contribute” permission level.

all you need to do now is to add users to the members group. and publish the URL for self service site creation. (http:/your/webappurl/_layouts/scsignup.aspx).

Note: you should control the group memberships on the root level web site in your web application as often you want to restrict access to self service site creation. remember self service site creation is creating new site collections (not sub webs), site collections are boundaries for management and security, and you should have rules for allowing people to create new site collections.

- mutaz

error: “The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation “

MutazAG — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:02:02 GMT

this is a common DCOM error that often seen in sharepoint deployments. the error details form the application event log:

Event Type:    Error
Event Source:    DCOM
Event Category:    None
Event ID:    10016
Date:        10/02/2009
Time:        10:51:42 AM
User:        KIOSKPOC\svc_SP
Computer:    HTS0367
Description:
The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
{61738644-F196-11D0-9953-00C04FD919C1}
to the user KIOSKPOC\svc_SP SID (S-1-5-21-4047873115-1278379611-1960023932-1132). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

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

to fix the error, you need to grant the local activation permission to the component that is referred to in the error log. in the case of the error above, the component is IIS WAMREG admin service.

here are the instructions to grant the required permission to the component:

1. Open Component Services management consol.	to do so on a Windows 2008 server - run the commend: comexp.msc from the Run window (or a command prompt). or just go to Administrative tools, and select to run Component Services.
2. Select the IIS WAMREG admin Service component. (you will find it under: Component Services \ Computer \ My Computer\ DCOM Config)
3. Right click the component, select properties and switch to the Security tab.
4. Click Edit in the section named: Launch and Activation Permissions.
5. Add your service account and grant it local launch and local activation permissions.
6. OK your settings, and reset IIS

cheers,
- mutaz

SSP Admin cannot manage existing BDC applications?

MutazAG — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 02:00:45 GMT

A newly created SSP admin with full set of permissions on BDC gets access denied messages when trying to manage existing BDC applications if the new SSP admin was created after the BDC application was imported to the SSP.

To resolve this issue, go to manage permissions on BDC (/ssp/admin/_layouts/BDCAdminUI/ManagePermissions.aspx) select the new user and click on "copy all permissions to descendants".

- mutaz

patterns & practices: Application Architecture Guide 2.0 (The Book) - Home

MutazAG — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 06:02:35 GMT

was released few weeks ago, includes a good little section on architecture decisions you often see in building a SharePoint based LOB.

patterns & practices: Application Architecture Guide 2.0 (The Book) - Home

- mutaz

PowerShell SharePoint deployment scripts

MutazAG — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 06:01:33 GMT

cross posting from the Norwegian MCS IW team:

It is an pleasure to announce the first of our two new SharePoint projects on Codeplex.com:

Project Description
SharePoint PowerShell Deploy is a set of PowerShell files to help you build, deploy, upgrade and destroy a SharePoint farm. It can be used on development machines as well as test and production scenarios.
Background information and thoughts about the project are available at this blog entry

SharePoint PowerShell Deploy
It is often very tideous to create and set up SharePoint on one machine, then reproduce the same steps on another machine in another environoment over and over again for development and testing. SharePoint PowerShell Deploy automates this process from start to end. From psconfig (the SharePoint installation wizard) to creation of subsites based on your own site definitions. All you need to do is to define your settings in the "deploy.ps1" file and start the project with the run.cmd file.

Read on the the CodePlex site - http://www.codeplex.com/sharepointpdeploy

cheers,
- mutaz

Patterns and Practices: SharePoint Guidance

MutazAG — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:30:00 GMT

The patterns and practices SharePoint Guidance is here, this guidance helps architects and developers design, build, test, deploy and upgrade SharePoint intranet applications. A reference implementation that is named the Contoso Training Management application demonstrates solutions to common architectural, development, and application lifecycle management challenges.

This guidance discusses the following:

Architectural decisions about patterns, feature factoring, and packaging.
Design tradeoffs for common decisions many developers encounter, such as when to use SharePoint lists or a database to store information.
Implementation examples that are demonstrated in the Training Management application and in the QuickStarts.
How to design for testability, create unit tests, and run continuous integration.
How to set up different environments including the development, build, test, staging, and production environments.
How to manage the application life cycle through development, test, deployment, and upgrading.
Team-based intranet application development.

Links to the new sharePoint Guidance: http://microsoft.com/spg and http://www.codeplex.com/spg.

- mutaz

SSRS 2008 and Report Builder 2.0

MutazAG — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:57:00 GMT

Today i finally had a chance to look at SSRS 2008. some of the new features that i already like about it:

the new tablix control: a mix of table + matrix, will let you combine both table capabilities and matrix capabilities in one grid. some examples of its new features are combining both static and dumanic columns, and having multiple parallel dynamic groups in a grid.
gauges indicators, gives you new ways to visualize KPI data
enhanced design experience for tablix and charts
new chart types
and export to Word, so now you can expert your report to Word, and then edit it to add commentary before publising

also, the new Report Builder 2.0 looks cool, unline the old builder, this one allows you to connect to any data source known to the designer. not only report models. I am still to experiment with custom built data extensions. I find more user friendly for report designers who are not developers or dont want to deal with Visual studio tools to create and design reports.

the new builder can be downloaded from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9f783224-9871-4eea-b1d5-f3140a253db6&displaylang=en.

cheers,
- mutaz

"Command Prompt" here!

MutazAG — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:25:00 GMT

here is a very handy registry edit that will add a "Command prompt" and "12 Folder" commands to your windows explorer contenxt menu: http://blogs.msdn.com/jb/archive/2007/09/19/12-folder-from-here.aspx. use when you want to open a command prompt on the 12 folder direct (useful when using stsadm command).

here is the trick (copied from the blog post above):

Save the following as a .REG file and import it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Open12Folder]
@="12 Folder"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Open12Folder\Command]
@="cmd.exe /k cd \"%%CommonProgramFiles%%\\microsoft shared\\web server extensions\\12\\BIN\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\OpenNew]
@="Command Prompt"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\OpenNew\Command]
@="cmd.exe /k cd %1"

cheers,

- mutaz