SharePoint Guild

Sitecore Guild

2010-11-24T19:35:00.001-08:00

I would like to take this opportunity to invite the Sitecore Guild to the family.

You can access the Sitecore Guild at:

http://sitecoreguild.blogspot.com

You may also follow them on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/SitecoreGuild

Sitecore is an amazing CMS built on ASP.NET. It is flexible as it includes full source code but is also easy for an end user to edit and publish content. For those who have not checked it out yet you need to. You will be amazed.

The next user group meeting for Sitecore in Toronto is in February. Check out the Sitecore Guild often for information on the next user group and for tips on using Sitecore.

If you have any tips, tricks or resources you would like to share please email Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com

Toronto Sharepoint Users Group

2010-08-19T06:26:00.000-07:00

It was a packed house last night as Shia Patel spoke on the SharePoint 2010 Ribbon.

His presentation was extremely deep and covered every possible way you could customize the ribbon both in code and by xml.

If you missed the presentation, be sure to check out the article and presentation on his blog at:

http://kwizcom.blogspot.com/2010/07/all-about-sharepoint-ribbon-for.html

Thanks Shia for a very informative presentation. I look forward to hearing you present again.

For those who don't know, the Toronto SharePoint Users Group meets right at the corner of Yonge and Bloor in the CIBC building on the 12th Floor every third Wednesday of the month. Please join the meetup group to get reminders. http://www.meetup.com/TorontoSPUG/

If you have any tips, tricks or resources you think would be helpful, please email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com

SharePoint Nation Web Cast – Creating Custom Actions within SharePoint

2010-07-12T06:17:00.001-07:00

I am not sure if this is 2007 or 2010 but I am hoping this is 2010. I thought I would pass it on to anyone who may be interested in the online training session.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=139739606038026&index=1

Finding all Ghosted (custom) Pages For a Site using SharePoint Designer

2010-07-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

Have you ever needed to find all the pages that were customized? If so, I came across a pretty cool article on using SharePoint Designer to generate a report on all Ghosted pages.

Here is the link to the article:

http://blog-sharepoint.blogspot.com/2009/05/sharepoint-designer-2007-run-reports.html

If you have any tips, tricks or resources you would like to share with the guild please email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com or Chris Williams at chrisw_88@hotmail.com and we will post them here.

Connecting SharePoint 2010 and SAP with BCS

2010-07-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

I came across a few articles on connecting SharePoint 2010 and SAP using BCS.
Here are a couple links:

I also came across a blog article outlining how SAP is seeking participants for the beta shipment of SAP Connector for .NET 3.0. Here is the link to the blog article that explains how to sign up for the beta for those interested.

http://kalsing.blogspot.com/2010/06/sap-is-seeking-participants-for-beta.html

If you have any tips, tricks, resources or articles you would like shared with the guild, please email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com or Chris Williams at chrisw_88@hotmail.com and we will post them here.

Studying for your SharePoint 2010 (70-573) exam.

2010-07-01T04:47:00.000-07:00

I have decided to start studying for my first SharePoint 2010 exam. If you are doing the same then these resources may help.

SharePoint 70-573 Study Guide
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-573#tab2
SharePoint Server 2010: Advanced Developer Training Presentations
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=22882429-EE80-40BB-BA8D-FF55D6E33959&displaylang=en

SharePoint 2010: Getting Started with Development on SharePoint 2010 Hands-on Labs in C# and Visual Basic
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c010fc68-b47f-4db6-b8a8-ad4ba33a35c5&displaylang=en
SharePoint 2010 Virtual Labs will help you get some hands on without having to set up a 2010 environment
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/cc707678.aspx

If you know of any resources not listed here that you think would be helpful to the group either comment on this entry or email Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them here.

Beth Massi has a lot of SharePoint 2010 Videos For You

2010-06-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Rob Windsor for posting this to Twitter and Beth Massi for including all this amazing video content regarding SharePoint 2010 and how to do tonnes of things with it.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bethmassi/archive/2010/06/16/visual-studio-bizapps-launch-content-rollup.aspx

If you have any tips, tricks or resources you would like to share with the guild please email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them here.

Moss 2007 not supported by Visual Studio 2010?

2010-05-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

I ran into an odd error with Visual Studio 2010 and SharePoint and when I did some searching I kept finding the same comments.

"To the best of my knowledge, Visual Studio 2010 targets SharePoint 2010 exclusively in every respect, except for SharePoint 2007 workflow solutions. I doubt that you can connect to a SharePoint 2007 server using Visual Studio 2010."

Is this true? If so I am quite shocked. There are a lot of people still on Moss 2007 or older Sharepoint. I guess this means we run multiple versions of Visual Studio or hold our customers off upgrading to Sharepoint 2010 for yet another reason.

I look forward to hearing comments on this and hopefully a way I can use the robust Visual Studio 2010 to develop for older Sharepoint.

Free tool from Metalogix to import blogs into SharePoint 2010

2010-02-18T09:13:00.001-08:00

I thought I would pass this on to the guild. This tool would allow you to import content from blogs like this one into SharePoint 2010. Thus allowing you to continue to have all your content in one location.

http://www.metalogix.net/Company/News/ByYear/2010/Metalogix-Announces-New-Solution-to-Migrate-Blogs-to-SharePoint-2010---Free-to-Microsoft-MVPs/

If you have any tips, tricks, tools, and resources you would like to share please email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them here.

WebPart Parameter Binding to a static value

2010-01-07T13:38:00.000-08:00

It took me a while to find this out myself so I thought I would post it here. Sometimes you want to use a webpart and bind the parameters to a static value rather than to the querystring.

I had to use this for the sites in category web part since I had to place two on the same page with different filtervalues for the same field. The way to do this is to find the filtervalue parameter binding entry and add an extra property called "DefaultValue" set this to the proper value and voila.

I hope this saves you some time when you are trying to perform the same task.

If you have any tips, tricks, resources you would like to share with the group please post them as comments or email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them in an article.

Problem publishing Workflow to WSS 3.0 From Visual Studio 2008

2009-12-01T08:41:00.000-08:00

I ran into a problem publishing then after some googling came across this article on how to fix it.
I thought I would provide the info here and a link to the original article.
Hope you find this helpful.

http://blogs.msdn.com/kaevans/archive/2008/08/08/creating-sharepoint-workflows-for-wss-with-visual-studio-2008.aspx

Creating SharePoint Workflows for WSS with Visual Studio 2008

I just ran across one of those nuisance things with Visual Studio 2008
that I haven't seen before. Create a SharePoint workflow (Sequential or
State, doesn't matter) for a WSS site (not MOSS). Build the project,
you'll get an error similar to the following:
Error
3 Feature '739f61bf-5616-427a-80d6-ed30fdc04b1f' could not be
installed because the loading of event receiver assembly
"Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" failed: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could
not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature, Version=12.0.0.0,
Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c' or one of its dependencies.
The system cannot find the file specified.
Turns out that VS2008 is only
supported on MOSS. Tucked away in the comments in Nikhil's blog, he shows how
to use Visual Studio 2008 to create workflows for Windows SharePoint Services
3.0.
To get it to work on WSS there is a workaround. Remove the reference
to Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Tasks from project assembly references. This
assembly is only available in the MOSS version of SharePoint and will not be
resolved on a machine with WSS installed.
Also, open the feature.xml in the
project and remove the ReceiverAssembly="Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature,
Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" and
ReceiverClass="Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature.WorkflowFeatureReceiver". This
feature receiver is required for MOSS related functionality (InfoPath forms) and
should not affect your WSS workflow development.

If you have any tips, tricks, resources or articles you think would be useful to the group please email them to susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them or you can simply post them as comments.

Installing Sharepoint 2010 on Vista

2009-11-24T08:45:00.000-08:00

I am going to attempt an install of Sharepoint 2010 on Vista tonight. They are telling me its possible so I am going to test it out.

If you have any tips or tricks to doing it let me know. I will keep you posted on what issues I run into.

PROBLEM:You must have Internet Information Services installed in order to use the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard.
SOLUTION: Under Turn On Windows Features, navigate to IIS. Under Web Management Tools make sure IIS 6 Compatibility is turned on.

Please leave me comments on this post if you run into issues or have solutions to issues other are having. You can also email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com

Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException: Save Conflict

2009-09-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException: Save Conflict Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException: Save ConflictYour changes conflict with those made concurrently by another user. If you want your changes to be applied, click Back in your Web browser, refresh the page, and resubmit your changes.

If you get this error you will want to read this article on the solution:
http://www.theartofsharepoint.com/2007/05/microsoftsharepointspexception-save.html

Hopefully Microsoft fixes this issue in 2010. You shouldn't have to re-get the web pointer and list pointer and tell the list you want to allowunsafeupdates for every item you want to update.

If you have any tips, tricks or links to articles you would like shared with the guild please email them to susan@clinchportal.com or post them as a comment.

Interesting Article on using sharepoint webcontrols properly

2009-07-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

I came across this article and found it extremely useful. It eliminated many lines of code
by using this simple method of rendering the proper control for a field.

http://www.hezser.de/blog/archive/2007/04/29/how-to-use-the-sharepoint-web-controls.aspx

If you have any tips, tricks, or resources you would like to share with the group either comment on a posting or email Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them.

Code blocks are not allowed in this file.

2009-06-08T06:01:00.000-07:00

I got this error then came across this article to fix it. Sharepoint turns off code blocks by default.

This link explains the whole story:
http://blogs.msdn.com/kaevans/archive/2007/04/26/code-blocks-are-not-allowed-in-this-file-using-server-side-code-with-sharepoint.aspx

The fix is to add this web.config key. In the configuration/SharePoint/PageParserPaths configuration section add something like this:

VirtualPath="/pages/test.aspx" CompilationMode="Always"
AllowServerSideScript="true" />

WARNING: There is a reason why Sharepoint does this so only use it when you need it. It can be dangerous to give designers access to the file and accidentally have them edit your code.

Setting up Sharepoint for Silverlight web parts

2009-05-27T07:03:00.000-07:00

When trying to install Silverlight on Sharepoint 2007 or wss 3.0 its not an easy task.
The first step is following the web.config tweeks in this article.

http://www.telerik.com/help/aspnet-ajax/moss-install-aspnet-ajax-35.html

The second step is copying the System.web.silverlight.dll into either the bin folder for the site or registering it with the GAC.

The third step is making sure the scriptmanager is loaded properly. Here is an article that will help you place it in the right spot.

http://blogs.prexens.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?List=7a299699%2Df8da%2D4559%2D920c%2Dbda481608691&ID=3

If you have any tips, tricks or resources you would like to share with the group either post them as comments or email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them.

System.IO.FileNotFoundException error when opening SPSite outside IIS

2009-04-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

PROBLEM:

When developing against the SharePoint object model in an application outside of IIS (service, console, Winforms etc..) you receive the error “FileNotFoundException” when creating an instance of the SPSite object.

ERROR MESSAGE:

System.IO.FileNotFoundException: The Web application at http:// could not be found. Verify that you have typed the URL correctly.
If the URL should be serving existing content, the system administrator may need to add a new request URL mapping to the intended application.\n
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite..ctor(SPFarm farm, Uri requestUri, Boolean contextSite, SPUserToken userToken)\n at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite..ctor(String requestUrl)\n

SOLUTION:

The user running the application needs to have the following permissions and group membership set:

· The user is a server farm administrator.

· The user has Read and Write permissions on the content database.

· The user is a site collection administrator.

· The user has permissions to access the Windows SharePoint Services site or the SharePoint Server 2007 site through which the code iterates.

REFERENCE LINK:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/sharepointdevelopment/thread/5834679b-482b-4924-b881-fa2146840d05/

Sharepoint Custom Timer Jobs

2009-04-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

For those working with Custom Timer Jobs here are a few links to help you out.The first two are right from Andrew Connell so you know they have what you need.

Creating Custom Timer Jobs in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc406686.aspx#WSSCustomTimerJobs_DebuggingCustomTimerJobs

Creating Custom Sharepoint Timer Jobshttp://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/articles/CreatingCustomSharePointTimerJobs.aspx

Debugging Sharepoint Timer Jobs
http://sharethelearning.blogspot.com/2007/12/debugging-sharepoint-timer-jobs.html

If you have any tips, tricks, resources you would like to share with the guild please email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them here.

Shared Service Providers Part 1

2009-03-18T14:40:00.000-07:00

Shared Service Providers

I hear a lot of questions and comments about shared service providers which I hope to address in this 3 part blog. In this “mini series” we will cover everything you need to know to get started using the functionality provided by SSP (Shared service providers)

Today I will introduce you to SSP and the functionality they offer. Tomorrow I will cover the installation process and on Friday we will cover some common pit falls that might come up and how to fix them.

So what is a SSP?

Basically SSP hosts a combination of services that we would want to share across the server farm(s).

SSP itself is a independent component of MOSS 2007. It does not get installed automatically when you first install MOSS as it needs special planning and configuration. Each farm should have at least one SSP but can have many if the situation calls for it. In my 5 years of Sharepoint development I have never had the need to create more than one SSP for my installation but I have heard stories and situations where you would need multiple ones. (A good example of this is a global installation with many farms).

The services that SSP handles includes

· Search

· My Sites

· User profiles

· Audiences

· Excel Services

· Business data catalog

· Advanced usage analyst reports

You will need an SSP Installed and configured to take advantage of any of these services

In all honestly if you have MOSS and don’t Have a SSP installed: you might as well be using SharePoint services 3.0 for your installation because you are really missing out on the meat and potatoes of MOSS

I had a client a few months back that was using MOSS2007 and was not utilizing a SSP infact they did not know what an SSP was. They called me in to figure out why when they typed in a serach term, SharePoint would return errors. The simple answer was you cannot use search without an SSP.

Once I explained to their developers what a SSP was and how they could use it they really stared to take advantage of all the services MOSS can provide.

That just about does it for part one. Please see below a list of references regarding SSP.

Please feel free to email me at any time with any questions or comments on Sharepoint,

mccannblogs@gmail.com

McCann Out

Using Nested Master Pages in SharePoint

2009-03-18T06:50:00.000-07:00

I had a hard time finding info on this one but someone pointed out the article that shows you how to do it:

http://ari.provoke.co.nz/archive/2007/04/10/using-nested-master-pages-in-sharepoint.aspx

If you have any tips, tricks or resources you think the guild would find useful please email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com

Deploying to Sharepoint

2009-01-06T13:54:00.000-08:00

The recommended way to deploy to sharepoint seems to be using Solutions. I found this article that describes how to do this.

http://www.developer.com/mgmt/article.php/3672646

If you have any additional tips, tricks, resources related to deployment then please post comments on this article or email them to susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them here.

Moss vs Wss: What's the difference?

2009-01-06T12:41:00.001-08:00

For those unsure on what the difference is between Moss (Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server) and Wss (Windows Sharepoint Services) I found this good article explaining it:

http://dotnetaddict.dotnetdevelopersjournal.com/moss_vs_wss.htm

If you have any tips, tricks, resources that you think would help the group please email them to susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them here.

SharePoint ConnectStrings and WebParts

2009-01-06T12:02:00.000-08:00

Everybody is wondering where to store the connectstrings for your webpart.

Some say to make it a property, some say to place it in the web.config for your application.

This article offers an alternative that will allow you to change the connectstring without needing to bring down your application. Here is the link to the article:

http://www.sharepointu.com/forums/t/107.aspx

If you have any tips, tricks, resources that you think would help the group please email them to susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them here.

Debugging Sharepoint WebParts

2009-01-06T11:34:00.001-08:00

For those trying to debug sharepoint web parts. I will start to post tips and tricks for doing so.
For now I will just supply you with a link to the microsoft article on how to do it:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms916837.aspx

If you have any tips, tricks, resources that you think would help the group please email them to susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them here.

Beyond Search: Best Bets and Keywords (MOSS Only)

2009-01-06T10:23:00.001-08:00

Sometimes search is not good enough and you need to ensure documents get found. Here is an article on a SharePoint feature that will help:

http://www.thesanitypoint.com/archive/2008/12/15/best-bets-and-keywords-in-sharepoint-and-search-server.aspx

If you have any tips, tricks, resources that you think would help the group please email them to susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them here.

SharePoint Search and editing the Thesaurus

2009-01-06T10:07:00.000-08:00

For those familiar with other search engines, you are probably looking for a keymatch files or some kind of synonym file. In SharePoint it is called the Thesaurus. Here is a link that describes how to customize it:

http://blogs.msdn.com/enterprisesearch/archive/2008/09/23/how-to-customize-the-thesaurus-in-sharepoint-search-and-search-server.aspx

If you have any tips, tricks, resources that you think would help the group please email them to susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them here.

Transferring a site from WSS 3 to MOSS 2007

2009-01-06T07:20:00.000-08:00

Since most dev boxes are probably running WSS and not MOSS these articles I found would probably be quite useful to read. The first walks through some of the things you should do to prepare for the export.

Transferring a site from WSS 3 to MOSS 2007 - Part 1
http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/joe/archive/2008/11/22/transferring-a-site-from-wss-3-to-moss-2007-part-1.aspx

The second article is for times when, even though we prepared for it, we get error messages during import and don't know what to do.

Transferring a site from WSS 3 to MOSS 2007 - Part 2
http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/joe/archive/2008/11/22/transferring-a-site-from-wss-3-to-moss-2007-part-2.aspx

Hopefully these articles will save you some time in doing your migrations. If you have any tips, tricks, resources that you think would help the group please email them to susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them here.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 Developer Evaluation VPC

2008-12-11T12:31:00.000-08:00

For those needing to learn sharepoint but do not have the time or desire to install all the pieces.
Microsoft has provided an alternative. Thanks to JK for letting us know about this resource.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 Developer Evaluation VPC Image available at this link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1beeac6f-2ea1-4769-9948-74a74bd604fa&DisplayLang=en

This VPC is a set of virtual pc imgs from microsoft. It is a time expiring (sometime in fall of next year) img, but it does have the following all PRE-INSTALLED:- sharepoint, visual studio 2k8, sql server & sql studio, IIS properly configured

If you have any tips, tricks, resource you would like to share with the guild please email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them.

Session state cannot be used in ASP.NET with Windows SharePoint Services

2008-12-10T06:17:00.000-08:00

It appears that if Windows SharePoint Services is installed on the web server then none of your other applications can use session state.

When you have Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) installed on your
computer and when you browse the page that is set with session variables in the
Microsoft ASP.NET Web application, you may receive the following error message:

Session state can only be used when enableSessionState is set to true,
either in a configuration file or in the Page directive

The article below explains the situation more thoroughly.

Session state cannot be used in ASP.NET with Windows SharePoint Services
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;837376

If you come across any tips, tricks, resources or gotchas that may help others in dealing with SharePoint issues please email them to susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them here.

OWStimer.exe Memory Leak in Server 2008

2008-11-27T14:04:00.000-08:00

It appears there is a leak in OWSTimer.exe and since SharePoint uses it intensly this could

lead to issues. This article has more information:

http://blogs.pointbridge.com/Blogs/pagnusat_tony/Pages/Post.aspx?_ID=23

If you have any tips, tricks, resources you would like to share email them to me at susan@clinchportal.com

OWSTimer.exe and sharepoint timer job administration

2008-11-27T13:54:00.000-08:00

Someone pointed out this cool free addin to sharepoint that makes managing these jobs a little easier. You can check it out at the link below. You have to register but its free. A couple emails is worth it:

http://www.schaeflein.net/blog/2007/09/12/SharePointUtilityAdminstrationExtensionDownloadForSharePoint.aspx

If you have any tips, tricks, resources you would like to share email them to me at susan@clinchportal.com

SharePoint Offline

2008-11-24T09:36:00.000-08:00

Has anyone had any experience with Sharepoint Offline type products?

I saw a few posting on a this one but they were very vague:
http://www.colligo.com/products/sharepoint/index.asp

Someone suggested this one:

http://www.kwizcom.com/ProductPage.asp?ProductID=212&ProductSubNodeID=254

If you have any comments on either of these or know of any other products that do this please post a comment with them or email them to me at susan@clinchportal.com

SharePoint Event Log Error: Windows NT user or group 'DOMAIN\Administrator' not found. Check the name again.

2008-11-21T11:03:00.000-08:00

So your SharePoint install seemed to work but in the event log you are getting messages like this:

A runtime exception was detected. Details follow.
Message: Windows NT user
or group 'DOMAIN\Administrator' not found. Check the name again.
Techinal Details:
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Windows NT user or group
'RODINIA\Administrator' not found. Check the name again.
at
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean
breakConnection)
at
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnection.OnError(SqlException exception,
Boolean breakConnection)
at
System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning(TdsParserStateObject
stateObj)
at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.Run(RunBehavior runBehavior,
SqlCommand cmdHandler, SqlDataReader dataStream, BulkCopySimpleResultSet
bulkCopyHandler, TdsParserStateObject stateObj)
at
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.FinishExecuteReader(SqlDataReader ds,
RunBehavior runBehavior, String resetOptionsString)
at
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReaderTds(CommandBehavior
cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, Boolean async)
at
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior,
RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method, DbAsyncResult
result)
at
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.InternalExecuteNonQuery(DbAsyncResult result,
String methodName, Boolean sendToPipe)
at
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteNonQuery()
at
Microsoft.Office.Server.Data.SqlSession.ExecuteNonQuery(SqlCommand
command)
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Data.SqlServerManager.GrantLogin(String
user)
at
Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.SharedResourceProvider.SynchronizeConfigurationDatabaseAccess(SharedComponentSecurity
security)
at
Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.SharedResourceProvider.SynchronizeAccessControl(SharedComponentSecurity
sharedApplicationSecurity)
at
Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.SharedResourceProvider.Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.ISharedComponent.Install()
at
Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.SharedResourceProvider.Provision()
For
more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp

I searched for hours for a solution and found lots of posts that were not clear on why. Here are the two reasons I found for it:

The user mentioned in the error does not have access to SQL Server
CONFIRMATION STEPS: To determine this outside SharePoint simply go to Control Panel and create an ODBC Connection to the database and click test connection. If it fails then you hypothesis is right. If not try the second reason.

The user mentioned in the error does not have write access to SQL Server
CONFIRMATION STEPS: You can either drop a simple app that connects to the database on the server or you could look at the security settings on the sql server in question and see if that user has write permission
I found an article on another reason for the error. If you are running SQL Server 2005 on a Windows 2000 box. Here is the article: http://www.tech-archive.net/Archive/SharePoint/microsoft.public.sharepoint.portalserver/2006-08/msg00949.html

The thing to note here is that there may be more than one SharePoint database. You may think its failing on the content database connection but it could be on one of the other databases or if its a farm you may not have configured it on one of the farm databases.

Another thing to try if the above do not work or you are not sure what its trying to connect to is to look at the ULS log. You can find this by looking in:

\program files\commonfiles\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\logs\{Machinename -timestamp}

If you have any more info on this error or other tips, tricks, resources please email them to susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them.

Securing SharePoint

2008-11-12T17:17:00.000-08:00

I found a really good article on SharePoint Security. It summarizes the concepts quite well.

Find the real article at:
http://www.finalcandidate.com/en/tandp/Pages/SharePointSecurityConcepts.aspx

Here is an even more brief summary:

One thing to remember about SharePoint is that it is built on Asp.Net which is built on IIS.Realizing this you will realize that SharePoint 2007 "inherits" a lot authentication providers from Windows and IIS

Internet Information Server:

Basic
Digest
Certficates
NTLM
Kerberos

ASP.NET adds

LDAP
SQL Server
Active Directory
as well as quite a bit of extensibility.

I found an example of using a sharepoint list as an authentication provider at:

http://www.willierust.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=5

Forms-based authentication

HOWTO: Configuring a Office SharePoint Server 2007 Publishing Site with Dual Authentication Providers and Anonymous Access

http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/articles/HowToConfigPublishingSiteWithDualAuthProvidersAndAnonAccess.aspx

Office SharePoint Server 2007 - Forms Based Authentication (FBA) Walk-through - Part 1

http://www.devcow.com/blogs/jdattis/archive/2007/02/23/Office-SharePoint-Server-2007-Forms-Based-Authentication-FBA-Walkthrough-Part-1.aspx

If you have any tips, tricks, resource you would like to share with the Guild, please email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them here.

SharePoint Tutorials

2008-11-11T19:37:00.000-08:00

Developing for SharePoint seems like such a large topic that its hard to know where to begin.
This topic will become a living document as we place links here to various topics and tutorials to help us all learn sharepoint:

WebParts - These elements are the foundation of SharePoint so it is best if we learn how they work. This tutorial will walk you through using an existing webpart and creating a custom webpart.

http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/Web-Parts/10361

If you have a suggestion for a tutorial or topic that would be the logical next step in our learning curve, please email Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com and she will post them here.

SharePoint developer explorer on Visual Studio 2008

2008-11-11T18:32:00.000-08:00

I found the work around to get the sharepoint developer explorer to work with visual studio 2008.

http://blog.thekid.me.uk/archive/2008/03/20/using-the-sharepoint-developer-explorer-with-visual-studio-2008.aspx

If you come across any tips like this please send them to me at susan@clinchportal.com and I will post them here.

WSPBuilder - What is your experience? Do you have any alternative?

2008-11-11T18:23:00.000-08:00

When it comes to building manifest files and deploying the sharepoint webparts, I am still a newbie. I came across this tool and it seems to work. I am just wondering what your experience is with this tool and if you are aware of any other tools that would be useful when working with SharePoint.

http://www.codeplex.com/wspbuilder

If you come across any tooks please email them to me at susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them here.

Installing SharePoint On Vista

2008-10-30T19:01:00.000-07:00

I tried it an it actually worked quite well, provided that you follow the steps in this article exactly. I missed a couple of the subtle things they mentioned like choosing web application and NOT standalone as you would expect.

Also, there is the final security step in IIS to turn on Basic Authentication. Once I fixed those two issues it worked like a charm. Below is the link to the steps and software provided by bamboo solutions to help developers work on sharepoint applications without needing a server environment:

http://community.bamboosolutions.com/blogs/bambooteamblog/archive/2008/05/21/how-to-install-windows-sharepoint-services-3-0-sp1-on-vista-x64-x86.aspx

Additional Tip: After installing, you may run into this issue. If the central admin just shows a blank page then you need to go into iis and click on the central admin website. Once you have done so you will see an authentication folder or tab. Make sure basic authentication is enabled.
If you are running Vista Home then it does not support Windows Authentication so you must use basic.

If you have any sharepoint tips, tricks, resources you would like to share with other sharepoint developers, please email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com

SharePoint deleted my default directory!!!!

2008-10-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

SharePoint deleted my default website. If you got in the same boat here are some ways back. It will not do it all for you but if you catch it quick enough you can save yourself some time rebuilding.

Default website was deleted
http://geekswithblogs.net/lorint/archive/2005/12/09/62737.aspx

Recreate Virtual IIS directories for exchange http://msmvps.com/blogs/kwsupport/archive/2004/10/02/14723.aspx

If you have any tips, tricks resources you would like shared with other sharepoint developers please email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com and we will make sure they are posted.

choosing the name of your configuration database

2008-10-03T14:02:00.001-07:00

You may find that you don't want to use the standard configuration database name but use another one. If this is the case the following link provides instructions to help you out.

http://blogs.inetium.com/blogs/wpreston/archive/2007/03/12/psconfig-and-stand-alone-mode.aspx

If you know of any tips, tricks, resources that would benefit other sharepoint developers please email Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com and she will ensure it get posted.

Access is denied starting Sharepoint wizard

2008-10-03T13:59:00.000-07:00

The reason may be permissions but if you uninstalled and reinstalled sharepoint please see my previous post as it explains the other reason for this error:

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/30290537/access-is-denied-except.aspx

If you have any tips, tricks, recommendations, warnings please email them to susan@clinchportal.com and I will post them on this blog.

Error during encryption or decryption. System error code 0

2008-10-03T13:57:00.000-07:00

If you get this error when trying to start sharepoint services then you probably installed and uninstalled sharepoint to reinstall it but did not remove the admin database first. This article will assist you in fixing the issue:

http://kbalertz.com/927156/Error-message-SharePoint-Products-Technologies-Error-during-encryption.aspx

If you have any tips, tricks, recommendations, warnings please email them to susan@clinchportal.com and I will post them on this blog.

Secret to Connecting to Sharepoint internal admin database

2008-10-03T13:52:00.000-07:00

During install it will allow you to set the database name but not the server in standalone mode. However the database is installed on the local sql server. See the following article for details:

http://blogs.inetium.com/blogs/wpreston/archive/2007/03/12/psconfig-and-stand-alone-mode.aspx

The database instance is using the microsoft internal database server on the same server but its hidden. This article shows you how to unhide it so you can manipulate it.

http://channel9.msdn.com/forums/TechOff/255490-How-to-connect-MICROSOFTSSEE/

If you have any tips, tricks, recommendations, warnings please email them to susan@clinchportal.com and I will post them on this blog.