Ex-Domino went to Sharepoint

Force Sharepoint to open full site when viewed from a mobile device

2012-01-10T10:42:00.001Z

What sounded really cool when first launch may turn to be not so great in Sharepoint : opening a page with a mobile / smartphone.

By default Sharepoint 2010 detects that you are using a mobile device and will redirect your page to the mobile version of that same page (/_layouts/mobile/xxx.aspx or old /_layouts/m/xxx in 2007).

to force your site to open the full (desktop) version, follow this blog post and either edit one of the 3 settings or all did the trick for me:

http://blogs.pointbridge.com/Blogs/broweleit_seth/Pages/Post.aspx?_ID=14#EntryTabs

Quick and easy: Hiding a SharePoint Ribbon Button with CSS

2011-12-05T11:50:00.000Z

thanks Doug !

Hiding a SharePoint Ribbon Button with CSS - Elumenotion Blog

Make a Sharepoint publishing site NOT convert to mobile format

2011-11-30T11:54:00.001Z

It has been like months that I wanted to look at this common issue : when you open a Sharepoint publishing site from a mobile device, it recognises the device is mobile and forces to open the mobile version, but prompts fo ra login, not great for anonymous users !

thanks to Glyn Clough's I now have an explanation of the why (cf. feature in his reverse engineering tests) and thanks to Randy Drisgill I manage to force mobile users to open the full desktop site, which looks much better on an iPhone anyway.

Excel services not loading on Project server 2010 environment

2011-11-17T15:42:00.000Z

While in EPM 2010 Administration training this week the Excel Services webparts refused to load and threw a Javascript error.

A quick search and we realised that the root site collection didn't exist just as suggested in this blog :

Microsoft Project Server 2010 Implementer: Blank Installation of Project Server 2010 with SP1 - Excel Services not working

Strange error not exactly explicit, so I keep this in my blog to remember if it happens again.

Honestly Infopath ?! What kind of error was that ? "Field or group: #text"

2011-10-28T14:07:00.000Z

Lucky someone blogged about it, and I also had an incorrect default value in my PeoplePicker field, but come on.. really would have looked for a long time, thanks Microsoft InfoPath team! :-(

Cryptic Infopath Error “Field or group: #text” « codearetoy

Run SPD2010 workflows with impersonated permission

2011-10-27T17:02:00.001Z

Today one of my users reported that “something is not happening as supposed to” on a site, which most IT professional would say is quite a typical call we receive…

ISSUE:

After a quick test I realised that a workflow meant to start on item submission of an InfoPath form was failing to complete and the workflow status would show “CANCELLED” (very misleading as nobody actually “cancel” that workflow… and this message “The workflow could not update the item, possibly because one or more columns for the item require a different type of information.”

CAUSE:

Basically the user’s permissions had changed on the site so that he could not anymore update items in the library but the site owner didn’t realise the knock-on effect this would have on existing workflows as well, especially if the workflow is meant to go search for other items in the library and update them. The user not authorised to edit them will fail the workflow.

SOLUTION:

Short Google on “SharePoint Designer workflow elevated permissions” and I was reminded by this blog article http://is.gd/RdjmWH about impersonation in SPD 2010 Workflows (and not elevated as mentioned) which was new from SPD 2007.

But not any kind of permission, since it will the logged in user on SharePoint Designer so bear that in mind when releasing to Production environment.

STEPS

Make sure you are logged in SharePoint Designer with the correct user (one that will not disappear once you finish your development) – note: use the little “change user” icon on the bottom left corner of SPD2010

to change user.

- Edit your workflow

- Within the steps of the workflow that require to be impersonated with your user insert an “Impersonation Step” by just typing the label

- Move all required steps into it (using Move Up or Down)

- Publish your workflow

- Test with the access level of your user

Et voila !

Note: This short blog article is my first attempt to participate to my colleague Giles‘ blog http://ghamson.wordpress.com as an author and therefore you may also see it on my other blog.

Update Infopath connection file automatically when deploying to new environment

2011-09-02T10:54:00.001Z

Discussing with some colleagues a few weeks ago we were not sure to like the Data connections in InfoPath because the issue is when we move the InfoPath form to a new server, this data connection cannot be edited to point to the new server (greyed out below, can’t edit it).

Last week I managed to deploy the same form to a totally different server without having to recreate the data connection and this week I found out how I did it (yes sometimes you get thing the other way !)

SOLUTION :

Re-publish the form to the new server but before clicking the last step of the Wizard make sure you tick the box “Adjust data connections to the new location”.

Don’t miss this chance ! If you miss this tick box it will not offer it to you a second time as InfoPath think you always wanted to publish the form to server http://server1 and use data connection to http://server2 .

Voila !

So we can like Data Connection file saved on SharePoint data connection libraries again !

Francois

Content database not associated with site collection after restoring its content

2011-07-30T23:23:00.002Z

I came across a strange behaviour while doing some SharePoint 2010 database administration last Monday and didn’t find an exact equivalent on the internet, two of my colleagues retried the steps and were as puzzled as I was, let’s see if someone else experienced the same issue, and I am sharing how I fixed the problem.

TASK

The task of the day was quite basic for a SharePoint admin: “move a content database from one SharePoint environment to another”.

CRITERIA

The only requirement was to keep the initial environment live so that we could continue using it while finishing configuring the target environment, therefore we could not stop the access to the content on that one.

ENVIRONMENTS

The new server is a different web application (therefore URL), site collection and content database name.

For the purpose of this article let’s call the environment “OLD” and the target environment “NEW”.

Both environment comprises of just one SharePoint 2010 Enterprise server (index and web front end) and one SQL 2008 R2 dedicated server for simplicity.

APPROACH

Standard steps to achieve this should be :

On the OLD SQL Server:

Backup the content database to file

(no need to disconnect the site collection from content database as we need to keep old server up and running too)

On the NEW server’s Central Administration:

Create a new content database. eg. SharePoint_Content
Switch new content database Online and any other databases Offline (this ensures that any new site collection created will be stored on that new database)
Create new site collection

Eg. http://newserver.sharepoint.com/sites/newsitecollection

Switch back new content database Offline and the main one online

Now that the new empty database exists on the new server, let’s restore the content of the old server’s database into the new one.

On NEW SQL server

Copy the old database backup file into the new SQL server
Select new content database and restore it

From the old content database backup file (“restore from device” in SQL studio)

Now check the content of the NEW site collection which should show everything from the OLD database.

Open Central Administration, Application Management, “View all site collections”
Select the newly create site collection.

From that page it should show the content database associated with that site collection as below

Here comes the problem:

in my case the site collection showed up as associated with

none

, making the site collection unusable.

SOLUTION

Re-linking a site collection to a content database can be done in PowerShell or STSADM but since our Site Collection already had this association before we restore the content it was just a question of refreshing that association:

In Central Administration :

remove the content database from the list (removing it only “disconnects it” but doesn’t delete the physical database in SQL)

by opening “Manage Content Databases” from “Application Management and” (write down the name of that database before proceeding, for the next step)

now add that same content database to the SharePoint Content databases list (type the name you wrote down)

Go to “View all site collection” and check that the site collection is now re-associated with the correct content database it was initially.

CONCLUSION

It seems that when a database is restored on the SQL side SharePoint got confused and lost its balance which caused the content database to disconnect itself from the site collection(s), re-adding the database manually in Central Administration only revived that association and all went back to normal.

Clearly the best practice would have been to disconnect the database from SharePoint before doing this migration and reconnect it after but in my case I had to keep the old system up and running.

Is this a bug or forgotten step by SharePoint in the restore background process ?

UPDATE 03/08/11:
It appears that the database restored to the new environment was from a Sharepoint environment with a higher CU, which may have caused the split between database and site collection.

SharePoint Columns – Pros/Cons of what can be done with such and such data type

2011-07-20T11:01:00.000Z

Thank to Toni Frankola, SharePoint MVP, for this mash-up of what every client asks at one point ...

SharePoint Columns – Features and limitations | SharePoint Use Cases

Column Type	Ad-hoc filter & sort	Edit in Datasheet view	Use in calculated columns	Use for Lookup columns
Single line of text	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multiple lines of text	No	No	No	No
Choice	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Number	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Currency	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Date and Time	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Lookup	Yes	Yes	No	Yes (Use only to count number of items)
Lookup (projected field)	Yes	N/A	No	No
Yes/No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Person or Group	Yes	Yes (No people picker)	No	No
Hyperlink or Picture	Yes	Yes	No	No
Calculated	Yes	N/A	No	Yes
External Data	Yes	No	Yes	No
External Data (projected field)	Yes	N/A	Yes	Yes
Managed Metadata	Yes	No	No	No
(Special) ID	Yes	N/A	No	No
(Special) Created By	Yes	N/A	No	No
(Special) Created On	Yes	N/A	Yes	Yes
(Special) Modified By	Yes	N/A	No	No
(Special) Modified On	Yes	N/A	Yes	Yes
(Special) Version	Yes	N/A	No	Yes

Editing Infopath xsl and repacking without Visual Studio help

2011-07-06T09:46:00.000Z

very simple...

To re-bundle the files:

Locate the manifest.xsf file among your extracted files.
Right-click and select "Design" from the popup menu

A new instance of Infopath will open based upon the amended xsl files.

source: Editing view1.xsl within the solution file.

InfoPath error: Person/Group Picker control not displayed

2011-04-28T09:53:00.000Z

I was going crazy not finding why a simple Person/Group Picker control would not show correctly in InfoPath 2010, I upgraded the latest build until I came across this discussion: it's linked to Sharepoint Designer that I installed and broke InfoPath.

Who would know that! :-(

My steps to fix it:

uninstall InfoPath and SPD
install InfoPath : not fixed
install SPD : fixed infopath

InfoPath error: One or more required custom controls in this form cannot be created

Outlook Webparts not available in list of webparts

2011-04-12T15:01:00.000Z

Another thing that is very basic today.
I needed to drop the OWA webparts on a page and to my surprise they were not listed in the list of wepbart in my 2010 Publishing site.
Looking at the list of Features acitvated it wasn't obvious at first which one was missing, so here it is :
Activate the "Sharepoint Server Standard site features" will do the job.

Voila !

Sql Server: The backup set holds a backup of a database other than the existing (Restore failed) « Pranas.NET

2011-04-12T13:55:00.000Z

Sometimes I really hate the UI in SQL Management Studio , I have done this manipulation dozens of times but because I stop doing it for 6 months it totally didn't occur to me that I had to click Options - Overwrite database.

Thanks to this blog.

Sql Server: The backup set holds a backup of a database other than the existing (Restore failed) « Pranas.NET

Migrating Workflows to SharePoint 2010 Question

2011-02-11T11:03:00.000Z

I am currently preparing for migrating a client's 50 Site Collections and individual SQL database, custom master pages, a few SPD2007 workflows and lots and lots of data and I found my answer regarding migrating Workflows before I tested myself,

so here it is for my own bookmark : Migrating Workflows to SharePoint 2010 Question

Bamboo Workflow Connector vs. Nintex Workflow

2010-11-30T18:09:00.000Z

I am putting below the main points I see between Nintex workflow (2007/2010) and Bamboo Workflow Connector since I could not find any comparison with a quick good.
I may omit something or be wrong so I will correct and accept criticism if it comes.

Nintex : Approve/reject by email (Lazy approval)
Bamboo: none

Nintex: No Feature to deploy, therefore no disruption for end user.
Bamboo : need to recycle IIS= disruption for end user.

Sharepoint 2007 Change colour of Site Actions menu

2010-10-01T10:42:00.000Z

This one below I need to log somewhere as it took me a while to find this class.
I was trying to change the background colour when hover the Site Actions drop down menu in Sharepoint 2007. In fact it's the same colour on all drop down menus, site actions, action buttons, etc..

Here is the class in CSS :

  .ms-MenuUIItemTableHover {
   background-color: #f1f1f1 !important; /* Roll-over on sub-menus and all drop down menus*/
   border: 1px #7BA8CE solid;
}

How to Group-By a Column with Multiple Values | EndUserSharePoint.com

2010-08-18T11:25:00.000Z

Just what I needed for a while but didn't bother investigating with code, for instance you have a list with columns:

Title ¦ Categories

Basketball ¦ France ; UK

Football ¦ France

Swimming ¦ UK

How to show a view grouped by like :

France ¦ Basketball; Football

UK ¦ Basketball; Swimming

SharePoint - Group By a Column with Multiple Values | EndUserSharePoint.com

InfoPath 2007 may break youor disk space on Sharepoint web front end server

2010-08-10T08:59:00.003Z

Infopath is a funny beast …

The upload a new form template from Central Admin was stuck and then unlock itself and stuck again a few days later….

We now found out the main issue : a disc space issue on the web front end server.

And caused by.. infopath solutions, as all the previous Solutions that were uploaded / deployed on the server do not get deleted and therefore polluted the directory C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES, with a few Gigs of unused solutions.

So check that folder next time as SharePoint is silly sometimes !

How to Browse in Explorer with Windows Server 2008 SP2

2010-06-28T12:08:00.000Z

Thanks to Tihomir's blog....

Let's Sharepointing together: Sharepoint Error Message: “Your client does not support opening list with windows explorer”

Running Hyper-V on a Dell Latitude laptop

2010-05-24T09:51:00.000Z

Re-installed my Dell Latitude E6500 laptop with Windows server 2008 R2, enabled Hyper-V Role and still ... didn't want t load a new machine or existing Hyper-V machine.
Just need to know that a "virtualization Trust Execution" settings needs to be disabled on the Bios (all the otehr Virtualization needs to be enabled.
Weird .. but works now !

Top Tips for InfoPath form development with SharePoint

2010-02-26T12:40:00.001Z

If I had found this the first day I started developing on InfoPath for SharePoint it would have saved me some times. Make sure you follow these simple tips !

UK SharePoint Team : Top Tips for InfoPath form development with SharePoint: Part 1

How to save and update an InfoPath form into a Sharepoint library, the simple way

2010-02-19T10:05:00.002Z

It took me a bit of time to get around the notion of the Submit feature in InfoPath when trying to save a form into a SharePoint Document Library, because in some cases it would always save a new form into the library, even when I just edited an existing one.

So here is what to do : (start with a simple form and only one submit button to make it simpler)

Create a simple infopath form
Open the Controls list and double click the TextBox to add a field. (no need to rename it)
Double-click the button to insert a button

Double click the button and select “Submit”

The label will change automatically to Submit, you can rename it.

Click Submit Option
Enable “Allow users to submit this form” (otherwise what’s the point of a Submit?)
And select send form to “SharePoint document library”

- Click ADD to add a data connection to the Sharepoint library

Fill-in the URL of the library
Now here is the bit to pay attention : chose a name for the form that will be unique for each form, but will however not change if you go and edit the form (ie don’t use “Now()” as it will change every time you submit. Use a value from a field of that form for instance.
And more important: make sure “Allow overwrite” is ticked, so that any future update to the form will be allowed.

That’s it, now the form will be the same behaviour as any item in a Document Library when you click SUBMIT it will actually do a Save if we talked in a SharePoint language.

Why is it confusing ?

Well… because InfoPath is not just designed for SharePoint, so they had to adapt it to meet other usage, like receiving an infopath form by email, filing it and “submitting” it once.

Voila.

Hope someone finds this useful if you had the same doubt.

Continue to sync a Sharepoint list with Excel 2007

2010-01-19T14:45:00.001Z

As you used to do with Excel 2003.

I just stumble upon this add-in, so forgive me if I am a bit late ;-) (just 2 years)

Synchronising a list with Excel 2003 is very easy out of the box,

but this functionality has been removed in 2007.

An Excel 2007 table can be published but any changes on either Sharepoint or Excel will not be sync in the future.

This.. until Microsoft released this add-in (certainly after thousands of users complained of the loss of functionality).

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=25836e52-1892-4e17-ac08-5df13cfc5295&DisplayLang=en

If your users are on Excel 2007, it may be a must-install plug-in.

Sharepoint lookback of death on 2010

2010-01-15T12:32:00.002Z

After playing with Sharepoint 2010 beta using only the same machine names I now created a new web application and new site collection but the Site collection didn’t want to open as it prompted me for Login and Password and would not accept any of the login I typed, even though the logins were Site Collection administrator.
I thought I was going mad since it was exactrly the same steps as 2007 and same as when I created the http://machinename which worked fine... finally I stumbled uppon a reminder : disabling the loopback in Regedit that I forgot about (or thought 2010 would be more clever).
note : This behaviour only occurs on local machine.

Thanks to Michael Nemtsev who blogged about it for 2007 which came up on Google results...
http://msmvps.com/blogs/laflour/archive/2009/10/11/sharepoint-2007-on-windows-server-2008-r2.aspx

2009-08-24T14:16:00.001Z

Uninstall a MOSS SP1 failed upgrade and re-install MOSS RTM on the server (without wiping the whole OS! ;-)

Microsoft gave the following steps to manually remove MOSS SP1 as described thereafter we encountered further problems which proved that some additional elements needs to be removed or updated. The uninstall may "appear" to be successful but more errors may show when re-installing MOSS RTM. Below are some of the scenarios I encountered and resolution, it might be useful to some users who, like me, could not find an exhaustive un-installation steps list.

Disable and Stop the following services

-Microsoft Single Sign-on Service

-Office SharePoint Server Search

-Windows SharePoint Services Administration

-Windows SharePoint Services Search

-Windows SharePoint Services Timer

-Windows SharePoint Services Tracing

-Windows SharePoint Services VSS Writer

Note the following registry keys:

From HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0

-InstallPath (default is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\12)

From HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0

-Location (default is C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server

Extensions\12)

Delete the following registry hives:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0

[x32] - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\OSERVER

[x64] - HKLM

\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\OSERVER

Delete the following folders:

The value of the InstallPath key

The value of the Location key

C:\%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\SERVER12

Uninstall using Windows Installer Cleanup utility

Download the tool msicuu2.exe from the link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301
Install the tool on MOSS server and run the program from Start > All Programs >
Windows Install Clean up
Select the entries that start with "Microsoft Office SharePoint *.*" and "Microsoft SharePoint Service *.*" and select remove

Reinstalled MOSS

NFR : At this stage Microsoft says it's enough to configure MOSS but I found that it's not the case, so do not try and carry on to next steps (in the table below is the experience why)

MOSS Installation failed on a previous uninstalled MOSS SP1

Following the manual uninstall steps, I bumped into the following problems and here are some possible solutions, at least that worked for me and successfully let me re-install MOSS from scratch without having to rebuild the machine.

1- run MOSS RTM setup

Language pack error during install

2- error on language pack

3- a fix is offered on this blog too but was not enough for me http://www.sharepointforums.com/Blogs/tabid/147/EntryID/51/Default.aspx (even though you don't have Language Pack installed (typical Microsoft, no !)

use MS uninstall tool to remove all Office softs starting with v. 12.0.6219.* in addition to one Microsoft recommended

add Language pack in Registry

osrchwfe.msi could not be found by installation program

error on "MS Search Front End cannot be found" osrchwfe.msi
run "osrchwfe.msi" from /global/search install cd (http://blogs.msdn.com/brsmith/archive/2009/01/29/sharepoint-uninstall-the-product-installation-has-been-corrupted-run-setup-from-original-source.aspx)
run MOSS RTM installation
success, ready for Sharepoint config

Files Locked by Process

folder C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN cannot be deleted as DLL still in use
stop task K2HostServer, folder removed ok. manual uninstall done. (K2 workflow server is on that server too)

run MOSS RTM installation
success, ready for Sharepoint config

Off bug : Export a MOSS2007 list to Excel 2003 error - now fixed

2009-04-28T10:15:00.000Z

Found the answer in a post on EggHeadCafe.com.
the problem was a column Date/Time format that must have got corrupted, once I change the type one by one to TEXT it then exports OK, and the type can be changed again to Date/Time and exported fine.
Don't we love these kind of bugs.. grrr....
Is there a KB article for this ?

Sharepoint general Cannot get the list schema column property from the SharePoint list: "Cannot get the list schema column property from the SharePoint list"

Technical VISIO Sharepoint diagrams

2009-04-22T15:58:00.000Z

OK, I might be a bit behind the train as this was released a long time ago.
Nevertheless, quite useful VISIO Sample diagram of MOSS/WSS3 Architecture to re-use.
I actually found out that the wonderful architecture diagram that the supposably-Sharepoint-Architect did of MOSS 2 years actually was just coming from one of this Visio chart with the name of servers and farm changed ;-)

Architecture Design Example: Twynham School (U.K.)

Technical diagrams and other supplemental documentation

SharePoint Kings: Run SQL Queries and Fetch List Data from SharePoint Database (WSS_Content) Part-2

2009-04-02T17:07:00.000Z

For once, short and simple steps showing how-to query Sharepoint lists directly from SQL.

SharePoint Kings: Run SQL Queries and Fetch List Data from SharePoint Database (WSS_Content) Part-2

How to apply Site Quotas and Lock to multi site collections

2009-03-27T12:21:00.000Z

Site quotas and locking can be applied via Central Admin but this will quickly prove to be time consumming in number of clicks if you have more than 5 Site Collections in each Web Applications, so use the custom STSADM command from Gary Lapointe so do so.

SharePoint Automation: Synchronizing Quota Settings via STSADM: "Synchronizing Quota Settings via STSADM"

Vicious circle : How to disconnect MOSS connections to SQL database without shutting whole Sharepoint down

2009-03-11T12:02:00.002Z

Today I woke up to discover that 2 of my 30 Sharepoint content databases on SQL2005 were locked in a "single-user mode" process, and did not get back into multi-users mode as expected every night after the backup ran.
The user were experiencing on the sites using these DB a "An unexpected error has occurred" message, as I didn't display more explicit custom error in web.config (not to scared users).

I called the SQL Admin guys for process and they confirmed that they only need to unlock it and switch back the status to Multi-users mode.
As even though the sites are not accessible the Front end and Index servers are still making lots of request to the database, and killing the connected users from SQL will not solve it as they will reconnect as soon as they are killed :-(

Problem was :
I have another 28 databases with users connected which meant 8 web apps, 28 sites collections and about 40 to 60 sub-sites.
So for only 2 site collections connecting to these 2 databases I was going to stop access to the other 26, even if only for a few minutes it was not really my idea.

So I decided to only take these 2 site collections and see if I can stop the access to their associated databases only, without touching the rest on Sharepoint.
The solution is simple :

from the Sharepoint server : detach the content database from the site collection
from the SQL box: fix the DB (back in multi-users mode in my case)
form the Sharepoint box: re-attach the content db to its site collection.

Voila.

Just make sure that prior to detaching the DB at step 1, you also do a "prepare move" so that the database "doesn't get too scared" when you detach it ;-)

STSADM steps are below :

1- preparetomove (tell server to be cool)
stsadm -o preparetomove -contentdb SQDB-Server1:WSS_Content_DB1 -site http://webapp.mysharepoint.com/sites/sitecoll1

2- detach db ("deletecontentdb")
stsadm -o deletecontentdb -url http://webapp.mysharepoint.com/sites/sitecoll1 -databaseserver SQDB-Server1 -databasename WSS_Content_DB1

3-attach db ("addcontentdb)
stsadm -o addcontentdb -url http://webapp.mysharepoint.com/sites/sitecoll1 -databasename WSS_Content_DB1 -databaseserver SQDB-Server1

Should this be Best Practice in Enterprise: Connecting the CQWP without changing ItemStyle.xsl

2009-02-26T12:28:00.000Z

I was always amazed that my power users would need editor level to the itemStyle.xsl on their site collection so that they can customise the QCWP.
Thanks to this tip we should now stop this non sense and give them the ability to have their own XSL file, sepearate form the shared ItemStyle.xls one.

Connecting the CQWP without changing ItemStyle.xsl : Brendon Schwartz Collaborating on SharePoint: "Connecting the CQWP without changing ItemStyle.xsl"

Add a Site Approval Workflow to your environment

2009-02-20T15:53:00.000Z

Phil Wicklund created a pretty simple yet useful workflow to let users create sites but locking it until approved. All on CodePlex so can be easily improved too.

Home - Site Approval Workflow: "Site Creation and Approval Workflow"

Finding my way between programming in Visual Studio and using what I did into Sharepoint (ie Publishing/Deploying)

2009-01-07T18:58:00.003Z

OK, so may be I am dumb, but having work in the past in Lotus Domino environment, the release of code into Test and Live environment is a piece of cake and yes .. still allows roll-back with not much risk.
Oh.. and I forgot to mention : Domino would offer 1, 2 way may be to do a change in its code but not err... more like Microsoft does.

Anyhow : Having a background in development I can still program some tricky code to make things better on my software and pages in VB or C# but could not figure (or took the time to ) how to place my code onto my Sharepoint server/ site/ page or Webpart.

I followed the article from Greg Galipeau on http://sharepointmagazine.net (exact link here) and below is my summary as I was doing the steps (and as always it is here so that I can refer to it in the future... as I will NOT remember anything ;-)

Click the Mind Map below and the link on the two method for viewing my notes.

Want an AJAX RSS Feed on your Sharepoint page that updates itself every 30 seconds or so?

2009-01-07T14:39:00.000Z

SharePoint AJAX RSS Aggregator WebPart - Zlatan's Blog [MVP SharePoint]

Great HOW-TO article: Deploying a Custom Master Page to Sharepoint site(s)

2009-01-05T17:20:00.001Z

Deploying the Master Page (Master Pages and SharePoint part 4 of 6) | SharePoint Magazine: "Deploying the Master Page"

Installing Jan Tielens' Silverlight graphs to a MOSS Server

2008-12-22T14:38:00.003Z

I read Jan 's blog quite often, and last week he came up with this great (free) Webpart (here) to display a graph of any list in your Sharepoint site.
After a few problems I finally got around it so below are the steps to follow.

Silverlight Graph taking data from a Sharepoint list.

STEP 1)
run the SETUP.EXE to deploy the Webpart

STEP 2)
open (each ) Site collection where to use the WP, and activate the Site Features under site settings

STEP 3)
Configuring IIS for Silverlight Applications (following http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/262/silverlight/)

3a) create a VBS file containing
----------------------------------------------
Const ADS_PROPERTY_UPDATE = 2
'
if WScript.Arguments.Count < mimemapobj =" GetObject(" amimemap =" MimeMapObj.GetEx(" i =" UBound(aMimeMap)" extension =" WScript.Arguments(0)" mimetype =" WScript.Arguments(1)" style="font-weight: bold;"> 3b) execute
ADDMIMETYPE.VBS .xap application/x-silverlight-app
ADDMIMETYPE.VBS .xaml application/xaml+xml
ADDMIMETYPE.VBS .xbap application/x-ms-xbap

SharePoint 2007 Permissions Matrix

2008-12-08T11:33:00.001Z

Useful list of Permissions level in MOSS

Mark Arend : SharePoint 2007 Permissions Matrix: "SharePoint 2007 Permissions Matrix"

PeoplePicker Filtering - Active Directory configuration on MOSS

2008-11-28T13:45:00.000Z

This morning while having a "normal" second line support call with a user, she just mentioned something that she thought was a temporary or minor problem on her site :
- when adding a user to a site, she would click the Address Book icon to search for a name, and all name would just come up twice.

Obviously this translated in my language to be a more important problem as it meant that another domain has been added to Active Directory where all members of domain1 where also created in domain2, and Sharepoint just displayed the additional domain if there is a two-way trust between my Sharepoint domain.
Within just a few hours I could have dozens of people who would be added to a newly released site and who would call 1st line support asking why they can't access the site although they are listed as user :-(

Bugger I thought! because any user who is added to a site using the additional AD Domain will not be recognised by the site SSO like that, the user will never know how to log in with a different AD domain and why would should they anyway.

My Active Directory obviously rejected the fault on Sharepoint that should "know what it's doing" ..
Sharepoint can indeed add some rules to the display of users in the list, using STSADM commands (see links to "ninja"'s blog). It all sounds good as I can do something like :

stsadm -o setproperty -pn peoplepicker-searchadcustomfilter -pv "(dc=mydomaintoinclude)" -url http://mywebapp

Only problem in my case is that this property "-searchadcustomfilter" is only available from Sharepoint 2007 SP1 onward. Well... . in a way I am glad as it will give more pressure to push management to approve an upgrade to SP1 and Infrastructure Update for WSS3 and MOSS2007. We should really on the upgrade wagon by now !
Come on, with all the pre-requisites steps, backups and testings that will be done and Microsoft Premier to support us if problem, why wait ?
Is there many organisation like mine who are still waiting for the train to pass ?

READ MORE ABOUT PeoplePicker Customisation with STSADM:
Have fun and knowledge with me.: Active Directory configuration on Sharepoint Server: "Peoplepicker: Stsadm property (Office SharePoint Server)"

Thanks Heather: How to Activate the Drop Down Menu in MOSS Sites

2008-11-20T15:52:00.001Z

I always thought that I 've seen a MOSS site using cascading roll-over menu on the Top Navig bar, Heather explains how to activate it.

Just one thing to add: the site has to be with the Publishing Feature activated so that the "Show Pages" can be ticked.

Great tip ! (as long as you don't fast-reast like I did as the first site REALLY needs a page to be created , even if not used)

SharePoint Tip: How to Activate the Drop Down Menu in MOSS Sites: "SharePoint Tip: How to Activate the Drop Down Menu in MOSS Sites"

Creating MOSS 2007 Theme

2008-11-05T13:28:00.001Z

and another tip to customise a MOSS site theme
Creating MOSS 2007 Theme « Point to Share: "Creating MOSS 2007 Theme"

Rename Files to DOS 8.3 Format with FileBoss

2008-08-14T14:24:00.001Z

Today I had the most boring task ever : a document library with hundreds of PDF and hundreds of folders/sub-folders was missing some files,
the original files were in a CD-Rom and the problem was the lenght of the file that was too long (from htp://sharepointserver..../sites/doclib/folder/sub-folder/sub-folder/sub-folder..../verylongfilenameof40characters.pdf)
Lucky enough I found this little utility (free for a few days) that helped me GREATLY !
I managed to make all the filename in a Dos format with a few clicks, rename the ~ characters and ' to -, and finally copy back to Sharepoint which didn't complain.

I recommend it!

Rename Files to DOS 8.3 Format with FileBoss

Corasworks webpart - Active Display roll-up

2008-06-05T09:29:00.009Z

I am using the Corasworks webparts in a few sites, not the whole Suite as Corasworks offers to install it, as it will install around 25 templates and 30+ webpart which will pollute my server but I only have installed the webpart I need : Graphs, Active Display (or called the new roll-ups -the name keep changing :-(

The webpart Active Display or what I keep calling (as previous version) Roll-up, is used to pull data from lists or document libraries from other sites and lists on different sites or even site-collection and display in a list style in a page, other webpart can even display the data in a graph style.
Yes it does mimic the feature of the "Content Query Web Part" but you don't need to change any XML to add column or action such as Edit item. (and despite they did it before there was the content query included into MOSS.

This week I came across a problem when filtering on a Boolean column.

Detail :
I create a column called "Filter-Historic" which is computed and the result is either True or False, in Sharepoint the value is displayed as 1 or 0.
To filter the roll-up I just open the Webpart in Admin mode, go to the Filtering tab and add my filter as to only display Filter-Historic is equal to 1 ].

When testing the WebPart, no data was returned. I then tried to use [ Filter-Historic is equal to "1" ], still it would not show any data.
In that case the Webpart does not allow to filter on Boolean column using the filter builder, instead we need to use the CAML filter integrated with the Webpart.

Solution:
This webpart offers to enter a "Manual filter" which in turns is a query in CAML.
when we open the CAML dialog box we can see that the calculated column is understood by the filter as "Calculated", just by changing the Value Type to "Boolean" it will fix the Filter to understand the value 1 or 0 from the calculated column.
Solution summary --> updating the [Value Type="Calculated"] to read [Value Type="Boolean"].

Thanks to Coraswork support analyst Christian for this tip.

How cold I compare Sharepoint with domino .... errrrrrr.....

2008-01-24T17:54:00.000Z

This week I am looking at restricting the security of entries in a Sharepoint list, only to a group of users and depending on conditions.
See "one" of my post in a Sharepoint forum here:
Conditional Item permission AND Create View menu - SharePoint University

I cannot BELIEVE how stupid and unsecure Sharepoint IS!
One of my user likes to call it "Sh*tP-point" .. I may start doing the same.

Basically any system I used in the past would either do "item level security" well, or will not do it AT ALL, whereas with Microsoft ... it's a bit different. It's more like we try to do it, but we cannot guaranty that it will be easy or just working, and to "help" you, we are even going to give you more than one way to "try" to achieve what you want.
hic ! ! !

So what is item level permission for Sharepoint ?
1) first solution is to use the exact term in Sharepoint called "item level permission" which means that the user will create an item and once he saves it he will then come back to that item and click the option "Item Permissions" and then select which groups/persons he want this item to be seen by.
How many clicks ....?
2) second option would be to use what Sharepoint calls "Target Audience" where you specify that an item "uses" "target audience" and then it will be shown in a special Webpart only to the right group of users.
As said : ONLY in a special webparts which really means that if the user is using the normal Sharepoint view.. well YES he will see all the data !
Where is the security ??

In the Domino time, we were always cautious NEVER to create a view or item that could be accessible by typing the address in the browser, so we would lock the security per document with an easy computed field , but that in Sharepoint doesn't exist ! you can't have computed field and item level permission !

I am hoping to change my mind about this security soon as I hoep someone in the Sharepoint world is going to find a solution that doesn't involve having a degree in Bionuclear technology (which is what any programming nowadays means for me ! ) but we'll see.
So far am quite pissed off with Sharepoint !

Dabble DB: If only Sharepoint was looking like this !

2007-11-03T12:44:00.000Z

Check this online database to share data, all what Sharepoint does but it a much faster Ajax way !
You wish you had this for your corporate environment! :-(

Dabble DB: Explore Dabble

The Strategy Behind Microsoft Silverlight

2007-05-23T14:27:00.000Z

So is Microsoft really trying to change the web by releasing this Microsoft Silverlight ?
Jeremy Zadowny has summarise a few bloggers' thoughts on his article, interesting reading to discuss the next strategy of Microsoft, is it going to compete with Google, Yahoo and Adobe-Macromedia and their Flash product ? is it going todeliver the full web-enabled Office suite ? ...
have a read..
Thinking About The Strategy Behind Microsof Publish t Silverlight (by Jeremy Zawodny)

Find what is this little process on your Windows Tasks list

2007-04-24T10:09:00.000Z

I was going to say that this site is great as it explains every task process running on your Windows but I actually can't fidn the one I am looking for : "wrapper", seems to run on a Win2003 server with Avepoint installed on it.

TaskList.org - List of Windows Proccesses and Descriptions

Google Acquired Video Conference Software - Googlified

2007-04-23T14:06:00.000Z

Great news for Googlers, not yet so much for us, or we can hope for it..

Google just bought an internet-video-conferencing-software company which will allow its employees to join any conference call from their desktop.
Some would love that on Google-Talk... in a few years may be ;-)

Google Acquired Video Conference Software - Googlified

My IE "Edit in Datasheet" has stopped working :-(

2007-04-19T16:45:00.000Z

And I can't figure out why, when , how ..
I knew that this feature is specific to Office 2003 Pro which is what I have, so I tried to fix Office but it doesn't do it.

I then remembered that a few months ago while working in a company where we only used Office Standard I found the list of small components that are needed to only use the Sharepoint features, but obviously... I don't know where I took a note of this. At the time I was using a "drop box" site under Lotus Quickplace and not a blog, so I need to look there, and may be fix my PC.

Otherwise I will reinstall IE as well. :-(
Love Microsoft... hate Microsoft ...

Create a Google Maps Webpart without using Google Maps API

2007-04-03T09:55:00.001Z

I think Google Maps is one of the best if not the best Web-map in the market. The only problem is that if you want to use the advance features, such as add markups and predefined pop-ups on a map, it's OK until your site is for public viewing.
Since most of the Sharepoint you are working on are generally for a Private audience (ie: you need a login and not everyone on the internet will be able to request a login) then Google will charge your company.
And the price starts at $10,000.

OK I really like what Google does so I am not going to be friend with them, but here is a tip if you want to just add a Google Maps inside your page and make it look like it was designed for it (however without markups and other tools that Google API bring).
Just add a Web Content Editor webpart to your page and add this as the source :

" iframe frameborder=""0"" width=""400"" height=""400"" src=""'http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=""q&hl=""en&q=picadilly,london&ie=UTF8&om=0'> /iframe"

That will do the trick for now, until you make your IT Director or business customers to sign to extend your budget. ;-)

Google Maps
(edit : iFrame removed as it would focus on it when page opened)

I am now on the other side of the game

2007-04-02T16:40:00.000Z

Another title I thought of for this blgo entry is "IT-specialised world is a small world".

This year I will be in the IT business (I mean not a student anymore) for 10 years.
As I said in the first entry of this blog, I started or fell into Lotus when I was at University and quickly was working for an IT consultancy company and learnt how to provide my services, ie:my expertise in a software, to clients.
For a bit more that a month I am now on the "Dark side" as some friends are saying.
TWO REASONS :
1) I am now working with some Microsoft technologies (Sharepoint mainly): I am considered as a traitor for some Lotus lovers ;-)
2) I have stopped working for IT company (and for myself) and joined a large corporation to be on a full-time payrol.

The situation now is very different :
- instead of receiving clients to a seminar my company organise, or visiting them and showing my experience in the product and obviously trying to make the client to love me and my skills, I am now doing the opposite way : I go to partners events and share my problems with the product and the IT consultants are here to propose to me.

What is interesting is that I kind-of know the talk the IT consultant has, as I used to "bluff" a bit when I wasn't sure about the answer when I was in their case.
It is even more amuzing to see a sales-guy talking about his product when you can easily realised that he has a very limited knowledge of it, himself not being technical.

Last Friday I attended a first seminar organised by Sword UK and Bamboo Solutions, these 2 companies provide a very high level of Sharepoint expertise. The first one for consultancy and the second for selling Webparts products that are missing in Sharepoint.
It wasn't a technical workshop, despite that there was one laptop to demo some webparts, but mainly was a "networking reunion" for Sharepoint customers to share their experience regarding SWS2003 and moving to MOS2007.
I was also glad to meet some strong techy guys including Nick Swan (MVP and Creator of Sharepoint User Group) and will attend the Seminar (or more a "hands on" as Nick promised) called "Exploiting Business Data - Business Data Catalog with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007" at Microsoft Reading this wednesday. I am hoping to learn a bit more about how to connect Sharepoint to other applications.

SharePoint Server 2007 Language Pack (ServerLanguagePack.img - 104MB) » Sharepoint BUZZ - Blogging the Best of SharePoint 2007

2007-03-29T14:44:00.000Z

I am bookmarking this article from "Sharepoint Buzz" here since I will certainly instigate the multi-lingual of my next Sharepoint Sites WSS3 at some point.
How about offering to my French compatriotes some menu in their language and same for spanish, portuguese etc..

This page gives a few good links to ressources aroung the Language Packs.

Download SharePoint Server 2007 Language Pack (ServerLanguagePack.img - 104MB) » Sharepoint BUZZ - Blogging the Best of SharePoint 2007 (MOSS)

Webpart : Open List Items in a New Window

2007-03-23T16:34:00.000Z

Another webpart to add that allow to open each item in list and document list in a new window.
Open List Items in a New Window

Tip: Open off-site links in a new window

2007-03-23T15:09:00.000Z

his is quite a good tip found on sharepointblogs.com : using this webpart you can control every external URL on that page and make sure they open in a new window.

The Dean's Office : SuperGeek Tip: Open off-site links in a new window

Sharepoint tip : Quick Hide of the Quick Launch Bar

2007-03-23T12:09:00.000Z

To hide the quicklaunch menu form a home page, just add this webpart anywhere.

Hide the Quick Launch Bar

SharePoint: Powerful Command Line Administration for SharePoint -- TechNet Magazine, January 2007

2007-03-16T10:25:00.000Z

SharePoint: Powerful Command Line Administration for SharePoint -- TechNet Magazine, January 2007
As a newbie into Sharepoint Administration I found this article useful to learn the bascis about "stsadm.exe" command line.
I understand better how I can use the stsadm.exe to create 20 sites in the background or install webparts.

Below is a quick list of useful command as per that website.

Add webparts:
Stsadm -o addwppack -filename
Add site template to an install:
Stsadm -o addtemplate -filename
-title
Operations:
enumtemplates : list installed templates
deletetemplate : remove install template
enumwppacks : list installed webparts
deletewppack : remove webpart
setproperty
getproperty
propertyname (shortcut pn)
propertyvalue (shortcut pv)
Alerts-enabled : Turns alerts on or off for your virtual server or Web application.
Alerts-limited : Specifies whether users are restricted to setting a certain number of alerts on the virtual server or Web application.
Alerts-maximum : If alert limits are set, this is the maximum number of alerts that a user can set.
Days-to-show-new-icon : This sets how long the "New" icon appears next to items added to the Web site, like announcement posts, for instance.
Job-immediate-alerts : Specifies how often SharePoint looks for immediate alerts to send out. The default for SharePoint 2.0 is five minutes. Decreasing the time will increase load on your Web and database servers.
Job-daily-alerts : This sets the time the daily alerts are sent out. SharePoint 2.0 defaults to "between 22:00 and 06:00."
Job-weekly-alerts : This sets the schedule for weekly alerts.

I am in !

2007-03-02T15:15:00.000Z

After a bit of off-line from technical blogs and taking notes on other web-"thingies" I find, as I also took sometime off to go skiing in the Pyrennees in France (OK, without snow :-( here I am :
- back in London
- new job
- new area (great, full of restaurant, shops and people what a change !)
- new collegues (having to re-socialise after my previous job that was very social :-(
- new "busy" status (in my previous I was really never busy and I was complaining so much about that, now I can enjoy the new feeling is being useful, well... at least before I complain to be too busy !

Yes I am working with Sharepoint Web Services, for now only version 2/2003 but hopefuly soon WSS3. And the weird thing is that : after 9 years of Domino and a few months on Sharepoint, I actually understand everything ! How amazing ! I surprise myself ! ;-)

About this blog and its author

2007-02-01T17:08:00.000Z

In 1997, while at Staffordshire University (UK) I was working as a trainee for a large corporation in the city of London, they gave me the opportunity of training myself on developing databases using a software called "Notes". I have no idea what this was, I even thought it was to create some kind of Post-it Notes on your desktop screen (but this idea was stollen to me when 3M release their utilities;-).
That's how I fell into the "Lotus world". Back at the Uni I developed a large Notes application and as my final year project and when graduated I was recruited by a leading Lotus Notes consultancy (at the time) in the City. My job as a Notes developer lead me to work in Paris for 6 years (I am french but wasn't meant to go and live there, all right ... ;-) and after years of experience and various level of responsibilities in my parisian consultancy company I provided my services to quite a few organisations in France, England, Switzerland, Senegal and Algeria.
Three years ago I moved back to live in London and

After 9 years of playing with all version of Lotus Notes, developing Notes & Web applications for many clients, administering Domino Environments and providing Training sessions to technical and beginner users, I have decided to accept a position as a MS Sharepoint Administrator. Therefore as from February 2007 I guess I will talk a lot about Sharepoint and other Microsoft products.