Portal Solutions Blog http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/AllPosts.aspx RSS feed for Portal Solutions Blogs Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:30:31 GMT Microsoft SharePoint Foundation RSS Generator 60 en-US Blog: Posts http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/_layouts/images/homepage.gif http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/AllPosts.aspx How to leverage SharePoint 2010 dialogs? http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=88 Body:

SharePoint 2010 has a robust modal dialog system that can be easily leveraged to build highly interactive solutions. Imaging being able to  pop-up item edit forms or displaying notifications all without redirecting the user back and forth!
Here is the client side JavaScript that will allow you to open any page within a dialog box-
//Handle the DialogCallback callback
function DialogCallback(dialogResult, returnValue){
    window.location = window.location;
}

//Open the Dialog
function OpenEditDialog(link){
    var options = {
        url:link + '&IsDlg=1',
        width: 700,
        height: 700,
        dialogReturnValueCallback: DialogCallback};
    SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog(options);
}
To invoke the dialog, simply call the OpenEditDialog function with the target URL.
Notice that the IsDlg=1 query string parameter is appended within the OpenEditDialog function. The presence of “IsDlg” dynamically loads the "/_layouts/styles/dlgframe.css” file which applies “display:none” to all items using the “s4-notdlg” css class. This effectively hides items of this class in a dialog box. For example, v4.master uses the “s4-notdlg” class for the Ribbon control to hide the ribbon within dialogs.
​

Category: MOSS; WCM
Published: 8/31/2010 7:45 PM
Trackback ping URLs: http://www.pranavsharma.com/blog/2010/08/31/how-to-leverage-sharepoint-2010-dialogs/
]]> Pranav Sharma MOSS; WCM Wed, 01 Sep 2010 02:46:27 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=88 Applying Site Templates Programmatically in SharePoint 2010 http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=87 Body:
Applying Site Templates Programmatically in SharePoint 2010
In previous versions of SharePoint, applying a site template (STP) to a new site through the object model was just a matter of referencing the template by its filename.
 
code1.jpg
In SharePoint 2010, site templates are stored and referenced a little bit differently. When saving a site as a template, the site is packaged as a WSP and stored in the site collection solution gallery. The contents of the template are different from STP’s which is why they are not compatible and you must re-save all your templates when migrating to SharePoint 2010.
solution.jpg

Attempting to apply a template by name no longer works and you will receive an error saying the template cannot be found. The reason being that template names are now stored with a GUID that is unique to the site collection where the template resides. NOTE: The GUID is not the same as the Solution Id that you see above. The easiest way I’ve found so far to determine the template name is to use a PowerShell script.

Script:
Add-pssnapin Microsoft.Sharepoint.PowerShell
$site = get-spsite “http://server.url” //Replace with your URL
$site.GetWebTemplates(1033) | format-table name

After running the script, you should get output that looks like the following.
templatescript.jpg
This is the template name that you must use when applying the template to a new site.

code2.jpg
One thing that I’m still looking into is deploying site template solutions globally. In 2007 it was a simple command:
·         stsadm –o addtemplate –filename ProjectTemplate.stp –title “Project Template”
However, in 2010 this command no longer works and I have yet to find some type of global solution gallery in which to deploy. Adding the solution via stsadm –o addsolution does not seem to work either. I will update this post if I find another way.
Category: WSS; MOSS
Published: 8/27/2010 11:37 AM
Categories: MOSS; WSS
]]> Hector Ramos WSS; MOSS Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:40:42 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=87 Inherit Site Theme programmatically http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=86 Body:

The Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities namespace contains a class called ThmxTheme which gives us some nice utility methods to interact with site themes in SharePoint 2010. Here is an example of how to automatically set the theme for a newly created SPWeb to be the same as the root web-

ThmxTheme.SetThemeUrlForWeb(newWeb, ThmxTheme.GetThemeUrlForWeb(newWeb.Site.RootWeb));
 

 

Do you know of a nicer way to inherit site themes? Please post a comment below.

 

Category: MOSS
Published: 7/20/2010 6:40 PM
Categories: MOSS
Trackback ping URLs: http://www.pranavsharma.com/blog/2010/07/20/inherit-site-theme-programmatically/
]]> Pranav Sharma MOSS Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:42:38 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=86 Avoiding URL Encoding in SharePoint http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=84 Body:

As you work with content in SharePoint you'll notice a few oddities and also inconsistencies in how SharePoint handles certain content attributes. One of the most glaring inconsistencies is how SharePoint handles spaces in URLs. If you notice when you send a link to someone in SharePoint, and it has a %20 in it and wonder why then this is for you.

The Reason Why

SharePoint automatically adds the %20 which is the encoded equivalent for a space. URLs in HTTP do not like spaces so it's safer to add an encoded value then to leave it blank. However, it's nasty and leads to very unreadable URLs. This is especially problematic for public content where a readable URL is very important (and has led to a popularity of "pretty permalinks").​

How to Get Around This Behavior

There are ways to avoid this in your SharePoint content URLs, but SharePoint doesn’t handle it consistently. You would think that it would handle creation of URLs consistently, but it differs when creating different kinds of content. I also hoped this would’ve been fixed in SharePoint 2010 as it’s common to programmatically add an underscore (which SharePoint does do for some content but not others) or remove the space entirely. Regardless, here are several different kinds of content that can be created in SharePoint, and here is how to avoid those %20 in the URL.

  • List/Libraries – SharePoint does not allow you to specify a URL when creating a list or library. To avoid the space specify the title for the list/library using camel casing (when I mention camel casing that’s a preference, you can simply keep the characters all upper or lower case). For instance, when specifying the title use “ProjectContacts” as the title for the list, and after it has been created go and modify the title (List/Library Settings – Title, description, and icon) to add the space in. If you create it with spaces you cannot change the URL so you’ll have to delete and recreate to remove the encoded spaces.
  • Sites – SharePoint does allow you to specify URLs when creating sites. So to avoid the encoding be sure to specify the URL text box as a string without spaces. So use “HumanResources” and not “Human Resources.”
  • Views – Views are one of the few items where the URL can be changed after creation. In fact, you can only specify the view URL after it has been created (not sure why this is). You have two options: you can either create the view and specify a name with spaces then go back in and edit the view to remove the spaces from the URL, or you can camel case and go back in and add the space to the title like you do for list/libraries.
  • Document Names – To avoid the encoding you have to have no spaces in the name for the document. Whether the space exists before upload or you add it afterwards in the edit metadata screen it will show the %20. It’s unavoidable unless you keep the name with no spaces and use the the title field in addition to the name column.
  • Pages – In SharePoint 2010 when you create the page from the site actions menu it tells you it will add a hyphen between spaces. If you create the page from inside the pages library by specifying a content type it will allow you to specify the URL and shows you it will add the .aspx suffix. In the latter case simply camel case the URL.
  • Wiki Pages – Finally, what would a bad news post on SharePoint be worth if I didn’t eventually tell you there was somewhere you had no control over the behavior. In SharePoint wiki pages you either make the choice of having no spaces in the title that will give a URL without encoding or you add spaces and the encoding. It’s one or the other, and chances are you don’t want a page title without spaces.

There are many types of content in SharePoint, but these are the big ones worth mentioning. I hope that either some third party solution will come out to handle this nasty behavior, or eventually Microsoft will realize this is an issue and fix it either in a service pack or more likely a completely new version.

Category: Troubleshooting; MOSS
Published: 7/10/2010 11:17 AM
]]> Chris Poteet Troubleshooting; MOSS Sat, 10 Jul 2010 18:17:12 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=84 Cannot modify Title field in Content Type declaration http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=85 Body:
Problem
Unable to make changes to the title field when declaring a content type in SharePoint 2010. For example, the following declaration has NO EFFECT on the title field being required-
<ContentType ID="0x010092E61E2438E84353B7211741448DE18A"
             Name="Example"
             Inherits="TRUE"
             Version="0">
  <FieldRefs>
    <RemoveFieldRef ID="{fa564e0f-0c70-4ab9-b863-0177e6ddd247}" Name="Title" />
    <FieldRef ID="{fa564e0f-0c70-4ab9-b863-0177e6ddd247}" Name="Title" Required="FALSE" />


 
Workaround

Attach a feature receiver to your content type and use the object model to modify the Title field-
SPContentType contentType =
     site.RootWeb.ContentTypes[
             new SPContentTypeId(contentTypeId)];
SPFieldLink title = contentType.FieldLinks["Title"];
title.Required = false;
contentType.Update(true);


 
Discussion

This is a ‘cheap’ solution so to speak because modifying the content type via the object model disconnects it from the XML definition thus making future updates messier (Read More).
I’m a strong advocate of doing things declaratively and this solution clearly violates that rule. A colleague of mine made a case for writing content types completely non-declaratively using the object model.
What best practices do you follow when writing content types?
Category: Troubleshooting; MOSS; WSS
Published: 7/12/2010 1:09 PM
Categories: MOSS; WSS; Troubleshooting
Trackback ping URLs: http://www.pranavsharma.com/blog/2010/07/12/cannot-modify-title-field-in-content-type-declaration/
]]> Pranav Sharma Troubleshooting; MOSS; WSS Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:11:02 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=85 Content Deployment to blank site http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=83 Body:

 

 

When you make use of content deployment you need to deploy to a blank site.  Using Central Admin ​to create the site by selecting the blank template will not work.  Instead you need to create the site from the command line using STSADM.

 

Example:  c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\ web server extensions\12\bin>stsadm -o createsite -url http://sitename -owneremail bob@company.com -ownerlogin domain\bob

 

Hopefully this will save you a bit of wasted time and effort.

 

 

 

Category: MOSS
Published: 6/30/2010 2:10 PM
]]> Gary Hess MOSS Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:22:13 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=83 The Pros and Cons of Telecommuting http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=82 Body:
Telecommuting has become an increasingly popular benefit offered by companies to their employees especially in the IT sector. Many people start these jobs without understanding the full implications of such a lifestyle choice.
 
As one of Portal Solution's full time remote employees, I'd like to share some of my experience and things I've learned to remain effective while telecommuting. Portal Solutions does allow their employees to work from home on occasion even when they are local, so this would apply on a smaller scale to that work situation as well.
 
The Pros of Telecommuting
 
Telecommuting has some advantages that make it a particularly attractive alternative for employees. While the telecommuting situation is most often desired by employees there are benefits to the employer as well.
  • Physical commuting ceases to exist. The most amount of commuting I do on a daily basis is from my bedroom into the office, and there are no traffic jams in between.
  • There is no dress code. I don't have to worry about ironing pants or shirts since I work in casual clothes all the time.
  • You are close to family. Most jobs pull apart families for at least 40 hours a week, but in this situation that doesn't exist.
  • More flexible than flex time. Telecommuting allows you to work when you want (within reason) as long as you complete your tasks and hourly requirements.
  • Less distractions during the day. During a normal work day there are many impromptu meetings and discussions that can interrupt your workflow, and a remote worker often isn't included in those.
  • Cheaper to have employees. If a company is completely a remote workplace then there is no need for physical offices, utilities, etc.

The Cons of Telecommuting

Even though telecommuting appears on the surface to be all positive there are some things to keep in mind.

  • No real relationships with co-workers. One of the fun things about work is that your co-workers become your extended family. When you're remote it's difficult to build that level of familiarity especially when you miss out on birthday parties, company picnics, etc. Also, sometimes the most productive work happens informally, and it can't be duplicated working remotely.
  • You are close to family. Even though this was listed as a pro it is also a con. Family can often get in the way of productive work if they are not giving you space while you work.
  • Chores around the house await. For some reason when you're working from home the immediacy of needing to clean your apartment/house increases. It's not fun to work in disheveled environment.
  • The need to travel. Some may view this as a pro or con, but telecommuting most often requires of the employee the need to travel whether to the main office or to a client site.
  • The blurry line between work and home life. When going into an office it's much easier to separate your work from home life since they live in different physical locations but not so when telecommuting. Your home is your workplace, and if you're not careful one can consume the other.

Tips to Stay Productive

While there are pros and cons to working remotely there are some things you can do to stay productive and maintain a good relationship with your employer.

  • Stay in constant communication. The responsibility lies with the remote worker to maintain active communication with everyone. You must not let yourself fall between the cracks.
  • Be involved when you're in the office. Whenever I travel to the office I make an extra effort to do activities with my co-workers. This might be meals, hanging out at night, or even getting the opportunity to enjoy those informal conversations.
  • Ensure personal accountability. The remote worker is responsible to an even greater degree that their tasks are being done effectively and efficiently. The best way to ensure this is to set up accountability for yourself and not wait on others to do it for you.
  • Get into a working mindset. Some remote workers still dress up like they're going to work to ensure they stay in a work mindset. Do what you need to do to put your attention to work when it's time to do so.
  • Set up work/home boundaries. After you've worked your eight or so hours for the day you have to consciously put work down to focus on your home life.

Conclusion

As you can see there are real pros and cons to this lifestyle, but when you take necessary steps to ensure success then both the employee and employer can have a successful experience.

Category: Misc
Published: 6/11/2010 8:00 AM
]]> Chris Poteet Misc Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:37:33 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=82 SharePoint 2010 – Is it living it up to the hype? http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=81 Body:

SharePoint 2010 has been released for about a month now and at Portal Solutions, we had the chance to work with pre-release of the product since June of 2009. With every new release version of SharePoint, the product comes with its set of hypes, excitement and also disappointments.

So what is the hype all about? I really like the new user interface, Fluent UI, document management capabilities, records management, new search interface, integration of FAST, term store and meta-data management. I am also excited about the development capabilities, integration with Visual Studio and how much easier it is to build on the platform.

So why should I be disappointed? Well, the licensing and packaging is still too confusing, complicated and not always in line to what customers wants. I actually gave a presentation at the last SharePoint Saturday (click here to see my slides) on the SharePoint packaging, evolution and licensing. Microsoft also published a nice Silverlight editions browser, here. Confusing isn't it?

Personally, I am also quite disappointed that Microsoft did not enhance some of the core features of the collaboration platform. Discussion boards and Survey are still as basic as they were in V1 and although it is easier to customize them, it still leaves a lot to be desired. Contact lists and Tasks list are still too basic to be meaningful. And Exchange integration, well you need Outlook to integrate your SharePoint and personal calendar. And how about Document Libraries, it still does not have the Item Level Permissions template. I know we can get a feature from codeplex but shouldn't this be included? Lastly, we all love the term store and its ability to store hierarchical meta-data. This is a great concept that we were all waiting for a long time but until all the client machine are upgraded to Office 2010, it is going to be difficult to force adoption. Isn't it time for Microsoft to admit that business users adoption of new Office application tend to come years after the server is upgraded. Most businesses are still working on their Office 2007 plan so Office 2010 maybe in 2012.

So I will love to hear your thoughts, ping me on twitter @dcohendumani

Published: 6/7/2010 2:42 PM
]]> Daniel Cohen-Dumani Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:42:23 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=81 Portal Solutions Security Group Cleanup Tool http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=80 Body:

Cleaning up unused SharePoint Security Groups is one of the most tedious things for a Site Administrator to handle. First of all, the Site Administrator has to manually go through each individual SharePoint Security Groups and check if there are users assigned to them. If no users are assigned to the security group then the administrator will have to remove the Security Group. This can become a nuisance when you have the possibility of having hundreds of SharePoint Security Groups throughout your site. The tool is also handy during the development or testing phases of any SharePoint development. Portal Solutions has developed a tool that can check all of the Security Groups which were created, and if no users are assigned to them the tool will remove the Security Groups automatically. The tool can also be set as a scheduled task which will run periodically on your SharePoint Site. The Portal Solutions Security Group Cleanup Tool will be coming to codeplex soon!

Category: MOSS
Published: 6/4/2010 8:15 AM
Categories: MOSS
]]> Arya Parsee MOSS Fri, 04 Jun 2010 15:15:42 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=80 Error occurred in deployment step ‘Activate Features’ http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=79 Body:

Problem
An error related to feature activation is generated when deploying a sharepoint wsp package using visual studio 2010’s default deployment configuration -

Error occurred in deployment step ‘Activate Features’

Workaround 1
Use the “No Activation” deployment configuration and use Post-deployment command-line operations to manually activate your features since the retraction process will deactivate your features regardless.

Workaround 2
Deploy using default configuration until you see error message. Then manually Enable/Disable problem features and then RE-DEPLOY using default configuration-
1) Enable-SPFeature -identity "FeatureTitle" -Url http://localhost
2) Disable-SPFeature -identity "FeatureTitle" -Url http://localhost

Published: 5/26/2010 2:18 PM
Trackback ping URLs: http://www.pranavsharma.com/blog/2010/05/26/error-occurred-in-deployment-step-activate-features/
]]> Pranav Sharma Wed, 26 May 2010 21:19:28 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=79 Anonymous Blog under publishing site in Sharepoint http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=14 Body:
Some web-facing sites may need to implement a blog as part of the hierarchy. There are a few things to keep in mind when trying to get an anonymous blog to work under a publishing site.
  1. Make sure that in Central Administration > Application management, you have enabled anonymous acces on your web app
  2. Make sure that you have enabled anonymous access in your site settings for the publishing root site
  3. Disable the ViewFormPagesLockDown feature on your MOSS 2007 server*
  4. For your POSTS list, first disjoin the permissions from the root site and then edit the anonymous access settings to let anonymous users view blog posts
  5. If you want comments by unauthenticated users, disjoin the permissions from the rooth site and then enable view and add permissions for anonymous access users
  6. Repeat the permissions process for any other relevant lists that you want

*It is critical to disable the ViewFormPagesLockDown feature BEFORE creating the blog site.

Published: 2/4/2007 2:55 PM
BlogTitleForUrl: anonymous-blog-under-publishing-site-in-sharepoint
]]> System Account Sun, 04 Feb 2007 22:56:15 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=14 STP uploaded by feature doesn’t appear on create page http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=78 Body:

Problem
STP list templates uploaded using a feature are not available to instantiate on create.aspx

Solution
When you upload a list template (STP) using a feature to the list template gallery ( _catalogs/lt ), you must set some attributes in order for the template to show up on the create.aspx page-

<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
    <Module Url="_catalogs/lt" Name="PS.AACP.Stp" Path="">
        <File Url="StpTest.stp" Type="GhostableInLibrary" IgnoreIfAlreadyExists="TRUE">
           <Property Name="Title" Value="StpTest" />
           <Property Name="Language" Value="1033" />
           <Property Name="FeatureID" Value="{D90095AD-86D4-4e55-AE28-119E21530552}" />
        </File>
    </Module>
</Elements>

Published: 5/6/2010 12:52 PM
Trackback ping URLs: http://www.pranavsharma.com/blog/2010/05/06/stp-uploaded-by-feature-doesnt-appear-on-create-page/
]]> Pranav Sharma Thu, 06 May 2010 19:54:58 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=78 SharePoint 2010 Site Themes are not exact http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=77 Body:

SharePoint 2010 doesn’t directly apply a site theme but instead generates its own colors based upon the theme. Let me explain by example-

The default top navigation bar in SharePoint 2010 uses ‘Accent 1’ from the site theme to determine the background color for each one of the navigation items. However, SharePoint doesn’t directly use the user-provided hex code for this accent. Instead, there seems to be some sort of a ‘normalizing’ algorithm that generates a new hex code.

1) Let us set the Accent 1 color for our site theme to Red (#FF0000):

Accent 1 Select a Color Color Old Color #FF0000 New Color #FF0000 OK Cancel

2) Now inspect the global top navigation bar and what you’ll notice is that the background color is NOT what you would have expected. SharePoint interpreted the red accent and generated its own hex code: #FFA5A5

Home Global Navigation Background

 

corev4-8A0ABD2F.css .s4-toplinks .s4-tn A.selected - background: url(selbg-1A8EB265.png?ctag) #ffa5a5 repeat-x left top

Conclusion
SharePoint doesn’t directly use ‘Site Themes’ but instead seems to generate its own interpretations based upon it. Therefore, designers looking for some discreet control over the branding of a SharePoint site need to still write custom CSS in 2010.

Published: 5/3/2010 1:12 PM
]]> Pranav Sharma Mon, 03 May 2010 20:13:29 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=77 How to Hide Field Labels for Publishing Pages http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=76 Body:

By default SharePoint will add field’s label to any field control defined in the page layout. The label appears as a small tab above the actual control when the page is in edit mode. In some instances, you may want to customize your edit form to show labels and controls in a different format.  

One way to achieve this is to create a simple control and insert it in your page layout. SharePoint automatically determines whether to show or hide labels during PreRender event of AuthoringContainer. Label visibility is set by EnableInputFieldLabels property of FormContext.  Our custom control will override Render method to insert our custom logic:

    public class EditModeUtility:Control

    {

        protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)

        {

            SPContext.Current.FormContext.EnableInputFieldLabels = false;

        }

    }

Last step is to add this control to your layout page and all labels will be hidden. To manually output field’s label you can use SharePoint’s FieldLabel control, like so:  <SharePointWebControls:FieldLabel FieldName="Title" runat="server" />. One benefit of using FieldLabel control is that you can use SharePoint UI to change display name and all of your pages/forms will reflect the new name.

Published: 5/2/2010 10:20 AM
]]> Eugene Wilson Sun, 02 May 2010 15:02:24 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=76 Connect to Outlook Link is Missing in MOSS 2007 http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=75 Body:

In MOSS 2007 if you create a custom list definition based off of the out of the box list definition for example in this case the Events list definition. You will have the “Connect to Outlook” link missing when you go to that list after the site is provisioned.

 After reading many blogs I realized this occurs if your custom site definition assigns a new Type for example in this case Type=”5502”.

  <ListTemplate

  Name="cenetereventslist"

  DisplayName="Center Event List"

  Type="5502"

  Description="Used to Rollup Center Events"

  BaseType="0"

  OnQuickLaunch="FALSE"

  SecurityBits="11" />

 

Since the “Connect to Outlook” link is critical the work around is to create a feature to add this back to any lists based off the Type=”5502”.

The first step is to create a feature.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<Feature Id="{DF5009DE-15B7-4397-9933-995727F3E276}"

         Title="PS.USO.OutlookLink"

         Description="OutlookLink"

         Version="1.0.0.0"

         Scope="Site"

         Hidden="FALSE"

         xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/" >

  <ElementManifests>

    <ElementManifest Location="elements.xml" />

  </ElementManifests>

</Feature>

Next we create an elements.xml file:

<!-- Document Library Toolbar Actions Menu Dropdown -->

  <Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

    <CustomAction

        Id="{DF5009DE-15B7-4397-9933-995727F3E276}"

        Location="Microsoft.SharePoint.StandardMenu"

        RegistrationType="List"

        RegistrationId="5502"

        GroupId="ActionsMenu"     

        ControlAssembly="PS.Branding, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=23597f5ec0230fd9"

        ControlClass="PS.Branding.Outlookmenu">  

    </CustomAction>

  </Elements>

Notice the RegisterationId, that is to bind it to lists with the id of 5502 only. The RegisterationType must also be set to a “List” in this case. The other thing to note is that we are referencing a control to construct the “Connect to Outlook” url.

 

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;

using Microsoft.SharePoint;

using Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities;

 

namespace PS.Branding

{

 

    public class Outlookmenu : System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebControl

    {

        protected override void CreateChildControls()

        {

            MenuItemTemplate template = new MenuItemTemplate();

            template.Text = "Connect to Outlook";

            template.Description = "Synchronize items and make them available offline";

            string url = "stssync://sts/?ver=1.1&type=Calendar&cmd=add-folder&base-url=" + SPContext.Current.Web.Url + "/&list-url=" + SPContext.Current.List.DefaultViewUrl+ "&guid={" + SPContext.Current.ListId + "}&site-name=" +SPContext.Current.Web.Name +"&list-name="+ SPContext.Current.List.Title;

 

            template.ClientOnClickNavigateUrl = url;

            this.Controls.Add(template);

           

        }

        protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)

        {

          

                try

                {

                    base.OnLoad(e);

                    this.EnsureChildControls();

 

                    // Your code here...

                }

                catch (Exception ex)

                {

                  

                }

         

        }

 

 

    }

}

 

Here we create a control that is baed off of System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebControl. The key now is to construct the url based off of the styssync Portocol. More information on the protocol can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd587524(office.11).aspx.

 

Published: 4/22/2010 7:34 AM
BlogTitleForUrl: Connect to Outlook Link is Missing in MOSS 2007
]]> Arya Parsee Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:35:16 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=75 Where Do I Store My Stylesheets? http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=74 Body:
A common question in altering the SharePoint user interface is where should one place their stylesheets and other interface assets. Let's take a look at two different options for where to store them and the pros and cons of each.
 
Unless specified otherwise everything in this article applies to SharePoint and SharePoint Designer 2007 and 2010.
 
The Style Library
 
In a SharePoint site collection there is a "Style Library" which contains some core styles, XSL and images. This can be opened with SharePoint Designer and edited. These files are provisioned from a site definition when creating the site collection.
 
Pros
  • You don't have to edit files on the file system.
  • You can simply make changes and save and see changes instantly instead of having to redeploy to the 12/14 Hive.
  • The file(s) will be backed up when doing SQL backups.
  • You don't have to have physical access to the server to make changes.

Cons

  • The stylesheet is confined only to that site collection.
  • Version control provided by SharePoint Designer is not very robust.
  • The administrator might not want even someone with elevated permissions to add/edit stylesheets in that directory.

Stored on the File System

The second option is to store the stylesheets on the file system. This is in the 12/14 Hive, and can be deployed manually or even better with a feature. They most commonly are stored in the 12/14 Hive/TEMPLATES/LAYOUTS/STYLES.

Pros

  • You can use a more robust version control solution such as TFS, SVN, Git, etc.
  • You can access the stylesheet across site collections.
  • Deployment can be heavily managed with feature deployment.
  • You can restrict editing of the stylesheets to a very select few.

Cons

  • Seeing edits involves deploying the file to the 12 Hive (which is made much easier with tools like WSPBuilder and WssDeploy).
  • An alternate backup method is needed in place of content database backups. Version control would alleviate this.

The Middle Ground

There is finally a "middle ground" option if you want to deploy to the file system and yet still allow for certain users to publish content to the style library.

If you look in the default master pages for both 2007 and 2010 you'll see a reference that looks like the following

2007

<sharepoint:csslink runat="server" />

2010

<SharePoint:CssLink runat="server" Version="4"/>

This pulls the stylesheet that is referenced from the SharePoint UI where the master page can be changed in the "Alternate CSS URL" option. This allows a user to add a stylesheet, edit it, and browse for it which is the only place that exposes the style library in a browser.

A note of consideration is where this is placed. The cascade in cascading stylesheet will determine which styles are chosen to be applied to an element by a browser. If two selectors are exactly the same the last referenced stylsheet will be applied to the element. I suggest putting this after all your stylesheets that you point to in the 12/14 Hive.

With this in place you can leverage the power of deployment to the file system while still allowing your customer or power user to make style changes that are confined to a specific site collection.

Published: 4/6/2010 12:59 PM
]]> Chris Poteet Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:46:07 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=74 Migrating a farm from physical to virtual - be aware http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=73 Body:
One our client decided to test a migration from physical to virtual, they have a farm comprise of 2 front-end web servers, 1 application server and 1 sql server.
 
The migration went well but we noticed that server have been renamed and alias thru DNS. After the migration, site was rendering well but there were many issues and error in the logs. The major issue was the search would not work. After trying to stop search services from Central Administration, we realized that because of the server being renamed this would not work. Short of rebuilding the configuration database to reference the proper server names, we found the following command
 
stsadm -o renameserver -oldservername <yyy> -newservername <xxx>
 
This command is to be used to change reference in the config database. It is critical that this comamnd is ran on every server of the farm and also executed to rename the SQL server.
 
We ran the command and noticed that the server name were not correct and after this command, the search would start.
 
Lastly, the SSP would not throw the following error
"The remote certificate is invalid according to the validation server". Clearly something was still not working. After some research on line, we found that Office Web Services web app has a self assigned SSL certificate which is generated during installation of MOSS.
 
The following MS article was helpful to troubleshoot and assign a new certificate
 
After running this, the SSP would correctly render and we were able to start a new crawl.
 
So be aware if you rename a server, replicate a farm for disaster recovery, you can't just alias server, it is critical to rename those using the proper procedure.
 
Published: 3/4/2010 4:34 AM
]]> Daniel Cohen-Dumani Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:42:44 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=73 MOSS – Site Local Search incompatible with Server Name Mappings http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=72 Body:

In order to do site specific search (a.k.a. “This Site” scope) you can append a query string parameter as follows-

http://server/results.aspx?k=sharepoint&u=http%3A%2F%2Fserver%2Flists

Problem
The above will return zero results if you have a server name mapping configured in your search settings-

image

Solution
Removing the server name mapping will resolve this issue and site specific search works as expected

 

Tip: Adding a query string url restriction is equivalent to the following-
 image

Published: 2/26/2010 5:30 PM
]]> Pranav Sharma Sat, 27 Feb 2010 01:31:41 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=72 Huge SharePoint Memory Leak Discovered that can impact all MOSS 2007 Environments. http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=71 Body:

The other day I was browsing the interwebs, reading up on disposal patterns for SharePoint OM - to keep fresh on any changes that may have occurred in guidance - when I ran across a big post by Todd Carter.

Todd found a memory leak in the way that SharePoint's HttpApplicationFactory handles requests. So despite your best efforts to follow disposal patterns you could end up with an environment that is plagued by high memory consumption.

Please read Todd's blog for a detailed breakdown of the issue. I'm sure it will be just as eye-opening for you as it was for me.

http://www.todd-carter.com/post/2010/02/08/SharePointe28099s-Sasquatch-Memory-Leak.aspx

Published: 2/26/2010 9:42 AM
BlogTitleForUrl: Huge SharePoint Memory Leak Discovered that can impact all MOSS 2007 Environments.
]]> Carlos Fernandez Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:41:31 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=71 Text selection disabled w/ Kwizcom Calendar Plus http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=70 Body:

Problem
After installing Kwizcom Calendar 3.2.90, text selection is disabled on your sharepoint site on pages that have the calendar webpart. This was a huge issue for us since we had the minicalendar in the page header.

Workaround
Modify one of the Kwizcom javascript files (“12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\KWizCom_KSCP\KSCP.js”) to comment out the drag drop functionality (See lines 13, 21 & 22) -

   1:  function kwiz_cal_DragDropOnLoad(q)
   2:  {
   3:      g_WPQ = q;
   4:   
   5:      // attach onscroll event (needed for recalculating table cells positions)
   6:      window.onscroll = kwiz_cal_Scroll;
   7:      
   8:      if(browseris.ie || browseris.safari)
   9:      {
  10:          kwiz_cal_Calculate_Cells();
  11:          
  12:          // disable text selection for ie, safari
  13:          //document.onselectstart = function(event) {return false};
  14:      }
  15:      else
  16:      {
  17:          // firefox does not execute this function when assigning to onscroll event, but IE & Chrome do
  18:          kwiz_cal_Scroll(); 
  19:          
  20:          // disable text selection for firefox
  21:          //if (typeof document.body.style.MozUserSelect != "undefined") 
  22:          //    document.body.style.MozUserSelect = "none";
  23:      }
  24:  }

More Info

The official word from Kwizcom Support on this issue is as follows:

“The issue is caused by dragdrop functionality. The new release version 3.3.00 will allow the users to disable drag drop through settings.  Currently there is no exact timeline for release.”

Published: 1/26/2010 7:54 AM
]]> Pranav Sharma Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:55:44 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=70 Why links to some crawled documents are included in the search index as pointing to DispForm.aspx http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=69 Body:

If you stumble upon a situation when clicking on search results links brings you to a list item view form (DispForm.aspx?ID=<itemid>) instead of an actual document, be sure to check that the extension for the problematic document configured in the search center as a valid type. The problem most commonly arises for non-standard (read non- Microsoft Office) file types. Below are the steps to check:

  • Go to Central Administration and navigate to an SSP admin site
  • Click on the Search Administration link under the Search group
  • On the left-hand of the screen, select the File Types link
  • Confirm that the extension for your document appears on the list of file types

Any documents newly discovered by the crawler will be recorded correctly in the index with an actual URL to the document and not it's view form. It will usually take three full recrawls before the links for existing documents are updated in the index.

Published: 1/13/2010 11:02 AM
]]> Val Orekhov Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:02:57 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=69 Looking for a better way to connect people and information? Microsoft SharePoint 2010 can do that. http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=68 Body:
 

When:   Monday, Janurary 25 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Where:  Microsoft
             12012 Sunset Hills Road, Suite 100 
             Reston, VA 20190

 

What happens when the right people and the right information come together?

More important, what can it do for your organization? Find out. Please join Portal Solutions at a special seminar presenting the latest collaboration tools and technologies of Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010.

At the SharePoint 2010 Lunch and Learn event, we’ll discuss how SharePoint 2010 can help your business:

·    Collaborate and innovate. Organizational knowledge gets where it needs to go. With advanced social computing tools, you can build more flexibility into your business. Ideas cross-pollinate, sparking innovation and new perspectives.

·    Gain business insights and act. People across your organization get the ability to monitor and analyze up-to-date information. They can make informed decisions and speed up response times, both of which can give your business a competitive edge.

·    Reduce risk. You control security levels and usage policies. Information is findable and useable by the right people, and content has policy and process attached.


Free your people to collaborate easily, and put them in contact with the knowledge they need. Register today to learn what SharePoint 2010 can do for your business.
 
 
 
Published: 12/18/2009 1:25 PM
]]> Joshua Hernandez Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:09:16 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=68 Live from SPC – What’s new with SharePoint Search http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=67 Body:

Search gets plenty of enhancements, mainly toward user experience. Finally SharePoint Search gets refinement out of the box (Faceted search on codeplex was a good alternative, but we are happy to see plenty of incremental new feature like

  • Out of the box refinement (faceted search) and easy to extend
  • One stop search center
  • Improved did you mean, view in browser for most office docs and improved query syntax
  • Improved relevance ranking
  • Enhanced multi-lingual support
  • Improved query syntax (boolean, range refinement <,>,...
  • Desktop search integration in windows 7
  • Search Web Part UI can be easily customized
  • Enhanced people finding experience, address book search
  • Click thru behavior on search results to enhance relevance
  • Crawl performance is improved, distribution, index partitioning

More information at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee667266(office.14).aspx

 

Published: 10/20/2009 10:09 AM
]]> Daniel Cohen-Dumani Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:09:25 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=67 Live from SPC – Bye WSS, welcome SharePoint foundation “SPF” http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=66 Body:

Get used for new acronyms. Say goodbye MOSS and WSS and welcome SharePoint Foundation and SharePoint Server. We have gotten used to Microsoft ever product renaming. I have to admit, I like the new name for WSS "SharePoint Foundation" (will it be SPF?). SharePoint Foundation brings great new capabilities to the "free" version of SharePoint. At Portal Solutions, we always viewed WSS as a foundation for team collaboration; no the name supports the concept. A few highlights about SharePoint Foundation below:

- Provides a consistent framework

- SPF is a development platform

- Provide Core team collaboration experience

- Is built on the value of WSS 3.0

- Administration has been enhanced, no more stsadm, get ready for PowerShell

 

Some keys major Investments:

- Good news, some of the scalability limitations have been lifter. SPF lists now support terabytes of data, multi-million item lists and granular content import/export. Business Connectivity Services ("BCS") the successor of BDC is now included in SharePoint Foundation which means, we can create integration with back-end data directly from SPF. In addition, SPF supports external lists; that means you can create lists on the fly (no code) while storing content in structured SQL or other databases

More information at: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ee518670.aspx

 

Published: 10/20/2009 9:49 AM
]]> Daniel Cohen-Dumani Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:49:01 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=66 Live from SPC 09 – Day 1 wrap-up http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=65 Body:

Just announced today, we wanted to share some of the great sites with technical content—uploaded in last 12 hours from Microsoft.    What's best, they categorize by audience, so, you can pick and choose what is relevant to your role. 

SharePoint 2010 content on Microsoft.com

http://www.mssharepointitpro.com – For IT Pro

http://www.mssharepointdeveloper.com – For IT Developer

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com – For Sales /Marketing and some technical

 

Quick Update:

  • Conference is going very well! There are 7,000+ attendees here in Las Vegas
  • Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO made reference to 3 of Portal Solutions clients to 7000 attendees. Those clients: Pfizer, LOC, and CI!!  Exciting  moment for us!
  • The energy, buzz and excitement around SharePoint 2010 has  been non-stop.  What they see in this release in unprecedented and does not compare to any other release in terms of # of upgrades and new capabilities.
  • Everyone, we speak to wants to upgrade . .
Published: 10/20/2009 9:07 AM
]]> Daniel Cohen-Dumani Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:07:06 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=65 Live from Vegas Day 1 – mid day update http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=64 Body:

This morning we heard from Steve Ballmer, Tom Rizzo and Jeff Teper. Having been in the SharePoint community since 2001, I was amazed to sit in a room with 7000 SharePoint enthusiast. SharePoint has grown in popularity. The keynotes were full of announcements, including a nice note regarding some of our project with Conservation International and Library of Congress. I summarize a few of the exciting announcements below:

  • Developer experience has been dramatically enhanced; no more long steps to develop and deploy. Visual Studio is not fully aware of SharePoint and developers are going to love the 1-click, build and deploy. Developer dashboard is a great enhancement to troubleshoot performance of deployment and enhance scalability.
  • Dramatic improvement in user empowerment
  • SharePoint internet sites will see nice enhancements. First the packaging will be revised to include better tier level for smaller deployments. Compatibility has been enhanced and I loved the 1-click page layout change. In addition, Microsoft will be offering cloud deployment of SharePoint internet sites; this is exciting news for medium to small businesses that have been hesitant to move their public facing sites to SharePoint mostly due to licensing constraints.
  • WSS no more; we got used to the MOSS and WSS acronyms. Get ready to revise your vocabulary. WSS is now SharePoint Foundation and MOSS has been renamed SharePoint Server. FAST will now be offered as a package to SharePoint Server (both for intranet and public facing sites)
  • Business Data Catalog (BDC) is now renamed Business Catalog Services

More to come as the day unwinds….

Published: 10/19/2009 1:00 PM
]]> Daniel Cohen-Dumani Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:00:59 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=64 SharePoint 2010 posts coming soon http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=63 Body:

We will be attending next week SharePoint conference in Las Vegas. If you are available to meet, join us for a Happy Hour Monday night at the Mandalay Bay, http://sharepointconference.eventbrite.com/

Starting Monday, we will be posting about SharePoint 2010. We have been holding up information for about 6 months and are excited to finally able to talk about it.

Next week is going to be a lot of fun and excitement in the SharePoint community. I remember attending the first SharePoint conference in 2003. It took place on Microsoft campus and we were less than 300 attendees. Next week attendance truly speaks about the popularity that SharePoint has gained about the business community.

We look forward to sharing the exciting advances that Microsoft has included in the next wave of SharePoint

Published: 10/16/2009 6:10 AM
]]> Daniel Cohen-Dumani Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:10:38 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=63 Process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=62 Body:

When you try to start a web site in IIS, you may receive the popup error “The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process”. In the system event log event ID 1004 and 15005 will have been generated stating that they cannot register or bind to the port number that the web site is assigned. 

 

To find which process is conflicting run the following commands:

netstat -anop TCP|find “:<port #> “

 

Match the PID with the process name;

tasklist /SVC /FI “PID eq <process ID #returned from 1st command>″

 

Here is a sample:

C:\Documents and Settings\MOSSfarm>netstat -anop TCP|find ":8080"

  TCP    0.0.0.0:8080           0.0.0.0:0              LISTENING       1336

 

C:\Documents and Settings\MOSSfarm>tasklist /SVC /FI "PID eq 1336"

 

Image Name                     PID Services

========================= ======== ============================================

miniwinagent.exe              1336 miniwinagent

 

With this information you can determine if you can stop or change the blocking process or if you need to use another port for your web site.

Published: 10/6/2009 5:59 AM
]]> Gary Hess Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:21:09 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=62 Records Center: When the Records Center Web Service Submitters group gets deleted http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=61 Body:

MOSS Records Center feature is using to the "Records Center Web Service Submitters for <center name>" group for securing access to the record center submission interface (OfficialFile.asmx web service). The group is provisioned automatically whenever a new web is created based on the Records Center template. Adding authorized users into this group is usually the first step for enabling submissions into the records center, besides configuring the URL of the OfficialFile.asmx web service in the Central Admin -> Applications -> External Service Connections -> Record Center page.

 

When the Record Center Web Service Submitters group gets inadvertently deleted, submission of documents fails with an event id 7022 with an obscure message of “The <Records Center Name> Records Center is not properly configured for this request.” begin logged in the Application Event log.  Additionally, if you are trying to add or update records in the Records Routing list, you may see an error message stating “Unable to add Records Center Web Service Submitters group into the target list”.

 

Resolution:

The Records Center feature stores SharePoint Site Group ID for the Records Center Web Service Submitters group in the web-level property bag of the records center web. The value is stored in the _dlc_RepositoryUsersGroup property. Unfortunately, the no UI exists (that I am aware of) that lets you to update this group after it has been created. To resolve the issue of the deleted group, short of re-activating the Records Center feature or re-creating the web, the following SharePoint OM script may be tried:

 

SPWebUtility.WebOp("http://portal.com/sites/records/",

  web =>

    {

       web.Properties["_dlc_RepositoryUsersGroup"] = 21.ToString();

            web.Properties.Update();

     }

);

21 above is the ID of the Records Center Web  Service Submitters group specific to the installation. To lookup yours, create a new group (preferably named the same) and note it’s ID in the address bar of the browser:  http://portal.com/_layouts/people.aspx?MembershipGroupId=21

As with all hacks involving direct modifications through SharePoint object model, please be sure of what you attempting to do or engage qualified support.

Best,

Val

Published: 9/15/2009 1:56 PM
]]> Val Orekhov Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:17:03 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=61 SharePoint AreaNavigationSettings.aspx error because of customizing application.master http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=60 Body:

In IE7 a JavaScript error is thrown because of a customized application. master. This causes an error that only is apparent in IE and not Firefox. In SharePoint let’s say you want to modify the navigation. Normally you would do this in the Site Actions in SharePoint. Move rearranges pages in the view etc. Because a JavaScript error was thrown it messes up the page and displays all wrong.

 

After a little research on the internet I came across a forum mentioning the issue but giving me no solution. All I had from the post was a line number, Line 1480 in the file HierarchicalList.js in the _layouts/1033 folder in the hive. Taking a look at the JavaScript I noticed putting var in front of container=document.getElementById('InsertInspectorPane'); made sense to me because that how I usually write my code. In the end it worked. Fixing that issue fixed many other in the process :) 

Published: 8/4/2009 2:35 PM
]]> Noah Iturriaga Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:37:34 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=60 SharePoint & Reporting Services Integration http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=59 Body:

By default, reporting services 2005 in SharePoint gives you easy access to reports from a nice SharePoint integrated interface. However, I’ve found that sometimes my users needed a quick mechanism to access the same report with different default parameters. In this article, I’ll go over a simple modification you can make to the SharePoint reporting services integration which will allow you to supply default parameters.

So I dug into the reporting services integration and noticed that there is a single page responsible for rendering reports (12\Template\Layouts\ReportServer\RSViewerPage.aspx). Then I realized that there is a web part on this page that does all the heavy lifting (ReportViewerWebPart).

rswp1

At this point, I dug into the web part using reflector and determined that the best approach would be to implement my own web part that derives from the ReportViewerWebPart.

So I opened Visual Studio and added a reference to the Microsoft.ReportingServices.SharePoint.UI.WebParts.dll assembly that I copied from server. I then added a few lines of code in the OnInit() event to parse any query string parameters that begin with the keyword “rp:”. After they are parsed I add the parameter name and value to the OverrideParameters collection.

rswp2

I then deployed the assembly to the server, added a register directive to the RSViewerPage.aspx file and replaced the web part reference. Remember to make a backup of this page. Now I can supply any number of default parameters to my reports by using the following format.

  • RSViewerPage.aspx?RelativeReportUrl=/Reports/TestReport.rdl&
    DefaultItemOpen=0&rp:ClientID=12345&&rp:Year=2009
Published: 7/27/2009 8:11 AM
]]> Hector Ramos Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:54:49 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=59 Cutting ties with your laptop http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=58 Body:

I made the mistake yesterday of forgetting my laptop and turning up to the office with no computer to work with.  As was debating on turning my car around (I got all the way to the office) and heading back home when I got thinking.  In today’s connected environment, did I really have a dependency on a single computer to work?  The short answer is no.

When I thought about it some more, having no laptop didn’t mean I couldn’t continue my work day as normal.  I spoke nicely to one of our IT people and asked for a temporary laptop for the morning, hooked it up to the network, logged in, and continued working as normal – how?

The answer is in the tools that I use.  Granted, I’ve moved on from localized development and no longer require a host of specialized tools to work, which makes life easier. Also, I’ve always had a healthy paranoia about keeping work files on portable devices that may inadvertently fall in the parking lot and break into a million pieces, so wove redundancy into my personal workspace some time ago, meaning I was already in great shape for using another computer for work. 

With Internet speeds getting faster and online storage becoming cheaper, there is a definite shift in mentality to store files in the cloud.  I realized this about a year ago.  The following is a list of applications and approaches I use to enable portability in the my day-to-day work:

GTD with ClearContext

I use ClearContext to arrange my inbox within Outlook.  CC uses folders within my inbox, so I don’t have to worry about carting around backups of my settings.  If I choose not to install CC on a loaner laptop, I can still work with my email because filed messages live in Exchange folders and I can put aside new inbox email for filing later when I get back to my laptop – left at home.

Evernote

I am never ever caught out talking to a client without notes from previous meetings.  I know a lot of people like to use One Note, but if you use EN your notes are available on the web, phone, or any other computer (Windows and Mac) that you choose to install the application.  My notes synchronize in a few minutes and I’m up and running.

Drop Box

A well thought out product that synchronizes files across computers and in the cloud.  I use this application on all my computers, and the UI is a simple folder on my desktop – I drag all my files to the special drop box folder and have peace of mind that my files are available on all other computers, or via the web interface.

IM

Using both Communicator (corporate) and MSN (personal), I am able to stay in touch with clients and colleagues.  Both applications install in minutes and require no setup for me to get back online.

SharePoint and Colligo Contributor

With Colligo Contributor – an application that works much like Groove, only better - I can keep a cached version of files on any PC, so if I loose network access I can carry on working on a local copy of my files stored in SharePoint.

X-Lite

X-Lite is a SIP VOIP client.  If I want to take a call from Starbucks, the road (using mobile broadband), abroad, or a client office, it’s no big deal.  The recipient of my call doesn’t know I’m not calling from the office.

So… Flexibility in a nutshell.  If you’ve not done so already, it’s time to cut the chord from your working computer and get into a portable mentality. 

Published: 7/24/2009 7:24 AM
]]> Robert Garrett Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:23:51 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=58 SharePoint 2010 Sneak Preview! http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=57 Body:

Microsoft has published several videos as part of reaching technical preview milestone for the next SharePoint 2010 version. Videos highlight some of the exciting new features that will be available to developers, system administrators and end users in the next release.

Here’s a brief overview of the three videos available and information that’s provided within:

·          General Overview

o    New UI, similar to O12 “Ribbon” interface

o    New Web Editing tools, to aid in customizing SharePoint sites

o    Enhanced theming; providing ability to use Office Client themes for SharePoint sites

o    Visio Services

o    Improved SharePoint Designer

o    Business Connectivity Services (BCS) – next evolutionary step for BDC

·          IT Professional

o    Revamped Central Admin site

o    Ability to analyze and monitor farm’s health, with ability to fix issues automatically

o    Improved Logging & Reporting. Contains new database dedicated to logging

o    Improved scalability and management of large lists

·          Developer

o    Deeper integration with Visual Studio 2010 and VS Team Foundation server

o    LINQ for SharePoint

o    Developer Dashboard to help analyze and debug custom Web Parts

o    Client OM for use with client technologies such as Silverlight

o    Business Connectivity Services – 2 way integration with Line of Business applications

.
Published: 7/13/2009 2:05 PM
BlogTitleForUrl: Sharepoint2010Preview
]]> Eugene Wilson Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:05:01 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=57 SharePoint Rendering Templates http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=56 Body:

One thing that I’m often tasked with doing is to changing the way SharePoint renders specific controls or to change the functionality behind out of the box controls. A lot of times the task is fairly easy due to SharePoint’s use of rendering templates.

In the ControlTemplates folder of the 12 hive you will find a file called “DefaultTemplates.ascx” which SharePoint uses to define how out of the box controls are rendered. This file contains a large list of rendering templates defining how fields and forms are rendered. There is so much content, I’ll let you look at all the options.

For the purposes of this post, I’ll do a quick sample on how to override the “UserInfoListDisplayFormToolBar” rendering template to add a custom button that redirects the user to the EditProfile.aspx button.

If you inspect the rendering template, it looks like this:

Rendering Template

What I want to do it, override the “UserInfoListEditItemButton” functionality. The first step is to create a custom control that inherits from the SharePoint “UserInfoListEditItemButton” and overrides the OnLoad() method.

Rendering Template

Then I will copy the rendering template and paste it into a separate ASCX file and replace the standard EditButton with my own button.

Rendering Template

To deploy, simply copy the compiled assembly to the GAC and place the ASCX file in the ControlTemplate folder. Then recycle the application pools and you are done.
Published: 6/18/2009 2:02 PM
]]> Hector Ramos Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:58:17 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=56 Alerts cannot be opened http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=55 Body:
We had a client that who was experiencing issues with alerts after a server migration. We ran a series of stsadm commands to get the alerts back up and working, then we discovered a new problem. Users who were using Outlook 2007 could not open the alerts.
 
Out client was running Exchange 2003 with Outlook 2007. This is a known issue. Exchange 2003 cannot convert the MIME-type properties to MAPI-type properties correctly if the names of the properties begin with X-. Microsoft has released a hotfix for the issue, which can be found at the following link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930807/en-us.
 
If you do not want to install the hotfix, there is a work around. Disabling the Cached Exchange Mode in Outlook, will allow the users to open the alerts. I found the information on the following blog. http://www.mindsharpblogs.com/Kathy/archive/2007/02/15/1568.aspx. Our client disabled the Cached Exchange Mode and were once again, able to open the alerts sent from MOSS.
 
 
Published: 4/6/2009 8:32 AM
]]> Jamie Nace Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:47:23 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=55 Alerts Stop Working After Migration http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=54 Body:
After migrating a MOSS farm from one server to another, users informed us that the alerts were no longer working. Users would receive the email that an alert was set up on a list, but would not receive the actual alert.
 
We ran through many troubleshooting steps to no avail. Finally, we ran the following commands and the alerts started working again.
 
As a side note, some of these commands needed to be ran twice.  (The first and third command)
 
 
 
 
Published: 4/6/2009 8:11 AM
]]> Jamie Nace Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:31:52 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=54 Announcing public availability of WssDeploy – a remote deployment and debugging tool for SharePoint developers http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=53 Body:

With this belated post, I would like to introduce the WssDeploy tool recently published on CodePlex. The tool simplifies life of a SharePoint developer by automating a number of deployment steps and making them easily accessible from within Visual Studio 2008. Ever since release of SharePoint Server 2003, development for the platform necessitated installing Visual Studio on a server OS alongside SharePoint. While a number of advances have taken place in enabling SharePoint to run on client OSs running IIS7, no compelling option, with enough automated support, existed which would allow you to decouple the dev process from the server without making the deployment and debugging process too arduous. Enter WssDeploy.

Building upon successes of the WspBuilder, the WssDeploy tool embraces the WSP-first SharePoint development paradigm and allows a developer to develop locally on a regular workstation without any SharePoint runtime present (other than DLLs necessary for compiling SharePoint projects) and deploy complete WSPs, DLLs and individual file assets over to another machine (physical or virtual) with WSS/MOSS server runtime. This introduces a number of benefits primarily derived from the fact that the Visual Studio and SharePoint no longer are fighting for the same virtual address space (yes, we are still not allocating more than 1 Gb of RAM per MOSS development environment). The upshot of all of this is:

  • Improved developer experience by having a more responsive Visual Studio;
  • Faster SharePoint app pool reset / pregnant load cycles.
  • Simplified multi-project development environment maintenance as only a single Visual Studio setup needs to be configured to push to multiple separate environments;
  • Reduced burden in setting up remote debugging by cutting out a number of manual steps involved in preparing the remote server for a debugging session (starting / stopping the debugger service).

The tool uses WSPBuilder console utility to build your WSPs, so everything you learned in setting up Visual Studio projects for WSP build support applies here. Once the WSP project infrastructure is configured in your project, the remote deployment settings are configured from within Visual Studio:

Having configured the settings, the following actions can now be executed by right-clicking on your project node in the Solution Explorer:

The development process is comprised of deploying (once) and upgrading (repetitively) WSP remotely for large drops (involving configuration, feature assets and assemblies) interspersed with assembly GAC deployments for smaller incremental code changes.

As mentioned above, the tool has a number of features supporting the process of remote debugging. This is one area where we are going to be investing additional development hours to make the F5 deployment & debug experience a reality for SharePoint developers. For now, the tool assists you with performing remote debugging by starting, stopping the remote debugger, copying DLLs to a target server, resetting app pools and putting PDB files side-by-side with assemblies (in GAC).

To support the deployment functionality, the tool comes with a server-side enabler service developed in WCF that needs to be deployed to every physical server that a developer works against. For farms, putting in the service on a single server is enough so long only the WSP Deploy and Upgrade actions are used. More complete installation requirements can be found in the project workplace: http://wssdeploy.portalsolutions.net/

In closing, this tool is but the first in a series of tools we will be releasing onto CodePlex in coming weeks. The highlights of the upcoming open and closed source releases are:

  • A custom search web part alleviating a number of pains with the standard MOSS Core Search Results Web Part. eXSL support, built in paging and finer control over query formats is what the web part provides over the OTB one.
  • A cross-site and cross- site collection data rollup component designed to compete with SPSiteDataQuery in execution speed of rollup queries.
  • A declarative web post-provisioning framework bridging the gap between feature set provided in STPs and site templates and real-world requirements, such as applying a consistent ACL to created webs.

Please head on over to the project workspace to download and try WssDeploy and stay tuned for more project release updates!

Val

Published: 3/28/2009 11:30 AM
]]> Val Orekhov Sat, 28 Mar 2009 18:28:59 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=53 Microsoft PDC 2008: Day three update, New C# 4.0 features http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=52 Body:

The keynote address this morning was entirely dedicated to presenting the Microsoft Research and its projects. No new major technology announcements were made with the majority of happenings shifting to the sessions. Out of the four sessions I visited, the following one stood out:

TL16, The Future of C#. A repeat from the presentation on Day 1, but nevertheless most interesting.

Anders Hejlsberg, C# Chief Architect described the progression of language features from v1.0 to 4.0 and beyond. Key new additions upcoming in the C# language include:

  • Language-level integration with dynamically (or weakly) typed objects. Dynamic Language Runtime, a new extension is being introduced on top of CLR to support dynamic objects and provide translation of calls to functions in properties in the runtime. A new variable declaration type called "dynamic" in the strongly-typed world is being added to the language to supported "dynamically-static" references. Such examples as calling JavaScript/DOM functions, IronRuby and calling COM objects, and .NET types whose interface is not known at the compile time will be supported. As expected in this scenario, any "dynamic" object variable has type checks deferred to run time. Needles to say, the added support provides for much cleaner code!
  • Parallel execution support with PLINQ. Using this language extension, a query plan can be created with various selection, join or filtering operations performed on multiple parallel threads, or offloaded in part to external database engines. Language support was necessary in this case to abstract the specifics of manipulating data from loops and logical forks to high level kewords so that an overall query plan could be inferred by the compiler and work units broken up.
  • C# purists beware, the optional and named method parameters are making it into the language spec with v4.0. Though, the result is, again, much cleaner code when it comes to creating multiple overload methods intended to support optional parameter scenarios. As a logical extension, calling COM proxies is getting much easier now.
  • Covariance/contravariance support in generics allowing to pass around collections of objects that can be safely down/up-casted for the purposes of matching a type required by the generic declaration. Such scenarios as passing a IEnumerable<strings> to a method that expects a IEnumerable <object> is now going to be possible, as one example. In short, scenarios involving generics, which previously did not work, where types could be safely up or down-casted should now be just fine.
  • Compiler as a service. Since v1.0 Microsoft.Csharp namespace contained means to programmatically invoke a process of compiling input C# program into byte code. With upcoming releases of the language, Microsoft is looking to open up the compiler blackbox to expose APIs for manipulating DOM expression trees and doing on the fly compilation of strings and streams into IL. The concept was demonstrated with a cool application behaving like a C# console, accepting valid C# grammar and executing typed actions on the fly.

For the fool session, please see this Channel 9 link.

As I will be flying back tomorrow, I will only be able to report on a part of the morning sessions and any other content I will catch online. Stay tuned.

Val

Published: 10/29/2008 10:58 PM
]]> System Account Thu, 30 Oct 2008 05:58:37 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=52 Microsoft PDC 2008, the second day http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=51 Body:

The second day of the PDC proved to be much more exciting! During a keynote address at the morning session, Microsoft unveiled an early preview of the upcoming version of Windows 7. On the Office side of things, Microsoft announced today that it will be including a web-based lightweight client integrated with Live services. Also, the majority of demos features Visual Studio 2010 and showcased its enhancements.

On the Windows 7 side, many feature improvements were demonstrated, cf. the UI and wizard enhancements, multi-monitor and touch display support, search service –based catalogs dubbed Collections, home networking improvements, and even the extension of the current Bitlocker drive encryption software towards thumb drives. While the new OS continues to look and feel like Vista with many dialogs and productivity centers improved and taken to their logical functional conclusion, many promised improvements in the core internals such as optimizations in the kernel and graphic subsystem memory footprint, indexer service HDD impact and improved power management features will definitely be well received by the IT professional and user communities.

On the development front, building upon the announcement of Windows Azure yesterday, a detailed code dive provided a better insight into the development model and process involving consumption of Azure APIs. Demonstrated scenarios included development of ATOM WCF services capable of processing messages locally and also proxied by cloud-based Azure messaging bus with subsequent scenarios going into consumption of Live and SQL Services APIs as a part of the same service. The technical demos also covered scenarios of developing a WPF application for managing and viewing photo collection whilst integrating with Live and Mesh service APIs and consuming changes in real time on connected rich and mobile clients. All the above technical sections were conducted to showcase new features offered as a part of the upcoming Visual Studio 2010 release. Many smaller controls and framework releases were mentioned and announced for availability "today" or "this week", to name a few: Silverlight Control Toolkit, Ribbon Interface Controls for WPF, and .NET CTP.

While many VS 2010 code editor enhancements demonstrated in the past two days may be familiar to users of refactoring add-ons, such as Resharper and CodeSmith, one thing that jumped out was the revamped WPF-based editor implementation that allows easy customizations plugging directly into the editor canvas, which can be implemented by any .NET developer with little effort. However, one thing that received the most applause from the audience was introduction of config-driven, environment-specific Web.config files (Web.Stage.Config, Web.Production.Config, etc).

From seeing the demonstrations, an unavoidable feeling emerged that the importance of WPF and its offspring Silverlight ( a.k.a WPF/E) is taking a prominent place in all future Microsoft roadmaps, with examples including eventual migration of VS 2010 IDE over to WPF and reliance of Microsoft Office Online apps on Silverlight. Further breakout sessions on Silverlight confirmed that Microsoft is going to continue evolving the technology and is currently working on as series of extensions controls meant to simplify construction of business applications and improve robustness of its visual and interactive features.

Stay tuned for updates from day three!

Val

 

Published: 10/28/2008 10:54 PM
]]> System Account Wed, 29 Oct 2008 05:54:09 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=51 Microsoft PDC 2008: Conference update from the first day http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=50 Body:

In continuing its push for the software + services strategy, Microsoft unveiled today, at the first day of PDC 2008, a new set of technologies for an internet-grade cloud services platform under the moniker of Windows Azure. Building upon the extensive stack of developer technologies, Azure offers new features meant to simplify the process of deploying, managing, scaling and integrating with applications running within Microsoft geo-redundant data centers. Azure integrates with and incorporates the following technologies:

  • .NET Services
  • (Windows) Live Services
  • SQL Data Services
  • SharePoint Online Service and Dynamics CRM Service

On the side of all things SharePoint, Microsoft outlined a roadmap for continuing to integrate the current and future SharePoint technology offerings into its online services platform. While many items are currently in the burn-down stage, the most anticipated feature requested by developers will allow to apply code-based customizations to SharePoint Online Services environments running in the multi-tenant mode. In its current incarnation, the Standard version of SharePoint Online Services will remain friendly to content database –based customizations performed through the web UI and the SharePoint Designer companion tool . In the same Standard offering, the roadmap does not propose to include BI feature set of SharePoint with all other feature stacks having a significant coverage to be completed in the future versions.

Special attention during SharePoint sessions was given to interactive development and integration of the recently-released Sliverlight 2.0 technology with SharePoint online services.

Stay tuned for updates from the second day of PDC!

Val

Published: 10/27/2008 8:54 PM
]]> System Account Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:54:57 GMT http://www.portalsolutions.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=50