Deleting the trouble-maker Web Parts from your SharePoint Page

Sometimes, your custom coded web parts may crash your page and not even allow the page to get loaded. This could be very annoying when you have a production page working with several other web parts on it.

Due to this error, you are left with no option to get rid of that trouble-maker. You cannot go to the edit mode to delete the web part. But there is a workaround for this too.

Append this to the SharePoint site URL:
?contents=1

Ex: http://yoursiteurl/pages/default.aspx?contents=1

You may have to “Check Out” the page and then look for the trouble-maker Web Parts which crash landed your fully functional page. Go ahead and “Delete” them all.

Technorati Tags: Web Parts,Parts,Error,Add,SharePoint

Identifying the Worker process

While debugging my web part, it was very annoying to look for the specific w3wp.exe and get it attached to step through the code. Most of the times, I could see there were multiple w3wp.exe listed when I went to “Debug –> Attach to process…”.

Unnecessarily, I had to attach them to all.

Apparently, there is a way to look for your process and attach your Visual Studio environment only to that worker process. Microsoft has a vbscript command that does just that. To get the list of the worker process and figure the one which you need, follow the below steps:

1. Go to Command prompt.
2. Go back to the Root directory “C:”.
3. Type IISAPP.vbs and press enter.

This will give you the required list. Now you can easily identify the Process ID of the SharePoint site by looking at the AppPoolID.

Technorati Tags: Web Parts,Debug,Worker,Process,w3wp

Customizing "Created By" column in Survey lists

Well, I had'to modify the display of a column in a Survey, where it was required to get the email ID displayed instead of the User's name.
By default, you cannot edit the “Created by” in the question lists. But there's a workaround for you to edit this column as per the below steps:

1. Open your survey, click "Survey Settings" (You will need the Admin rights for this).
2. In the Questions section, click any question of your survey;
3. Change the URL parameter in the Browser:
set Field=Author,
Change the aspx page to FldEditEx.aspx
4. The URL should resemble something like this:
http://yourserver/_layouts/FldEditEx.aspx?List=yourlistGUID&Field=Author
(replace "yourserver" and "yourlistGUID" accordingly)

After this you can select the field you want to display in “Created by”, which can be anything from the dropdown list:
- email
- ID
- Firsname
- Lastname, etc.

Things to remember:
- Page to use: "FldEditEx.aspx"
- Use the respective Internal column names for the columns to modify:
[Created By] = “Author”
[Modified] = “Editor”
[View Response] = "DisplayResponseNoMenu"

Interesting !!! kind of hacking the SharePoint.

Microsoft Search "Bing" launched today

The most surprising news for today I came to know is that of Microsoft going live this morning with the new "Google Rivalry", ahead of its scheduled June 3rd launch date. Well, MS has already invested a lot to distinguish itself from the earlier efforts in search. Certainly there’s far more verb potential in Bing than “Microsoft Live Search,” the service it’s supposed to replace.

So if you visit www.live .com today you'll be redirected to the www.bing.com as here:

Cool !!! Head-to-head with Google.

This is a quest for survival. MS knows it got to take this on.

So few people believe that the term "Bing" could actually have been derived from "Bing Is Not Google".

Now that means business to Microsoft.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Search,Bing,Live,Launch

How to get a list of all features deployed in your environment

Ever wondered how powerful is the STSADM command in MOSS. Actually it is the core of all action items you need to perform. To your much interest, you will be really excited to know about what Gary LaPointe has to share with you. Take a look at this site where he has a bunch of extended commands for SharePoint.

I was actually looking for a quick and easy way to get a list of all the features deployed to the servers in the farm. I had a set of 6 servers, so I simply wanted to run a line-of-code on all of them to help me identify them. Thanks to my colleague Jeff, who pointed out this command to me and help in getting a quick resolution.

Gary's command are all pre-fixed by "gl-" and below is an example of the enumfeatures which did the job for me. Take a look:

C:\>stsadm -o gl-enumfeatures -url http://myserver:1237

1. TeamCollab: Team Collaboration Lists (Web - Active)

2. ReviewWorkflows: Routing Workflows (Site - Active)

3. PremiumWeb: Office SharePoint Server Enterprise Site features (Web - Active)

4. PremiumWebApplication: Office SharePoint Server Enterprise Web application features (WebApplication - Active)

5. MyTestFolder: Cases (Web - Inactive)

6. TransMgmtLib: Translation Management Library (Web - Active)

7. MultipleUploadWebpart: MultipleUploadWebpart (Site - Inactive)

8. GlobalWebParts: Global Web Parts (Farm - Active)

9. DisplayUserProfiles: DisplayUserProfiles (Site - Active)

10. SmartTools.jQuery: SmartTools.jQuery v1.2 (Site - Active)

11. OSearchEnhancedFeature: Office Server Enterprise Search (WebApplication - Active)

12. BaseWebApplication: Office SharePoint Server Standard Web application features (WebApplication - Active)

13. MySiteFeatureStapler: My Site Creation Feature Stapler (Farm - Active)

14. SpellChecking: Spell Checking (Farm - Active)

15. SmartTools.DockNavigation: SmartTools.DockNavigation v1.0 BETA2 (Web - Active)

16. SignaturesWorkflow: Collect Signatures Workflow (Site - Active)

17. Reporting: Reporting (Site - Active)

18. UserChangePassword: User Change Password Web Part (Site - Active)

19. PremiumSite: Office SharePoint Server Enterprise Site Collection features (Site - Active)

20. PublishingWeb: Office SharePoint Server Publishing (Web - Inactive)

21. BaseWeb: Office SharePoint Server Standard Site features (Web - Active)

22. MySiteCustomListInstance: Case Custom List (Web - Inactive)

23. MySiteDocumentLibrary: ListDefinition1 (Web - Inactive)

24. MyCoolDemoContentType1: MyCoolDemoContentType1 (Site - Inactive)

25. BaseSite: Office SharePoint Server Standard Site Collection features (Site - Active)

26. OSearchBasicFeature: Office Server Site Search (WebApplication - Active)

27. TranslationWorkflow: Translation Management Workflow (Site - Active)

28. ExpirationWorkflow: Disposition Approval Workflow (Site - Active)

29. MyCoolDemoField1: MyCoolDemoField1 (Site - Inactive)

30. DataConnectionLibraryStapling: Data Connection Library (Farm - Active)

31. ExcelServer: Excel Services Farm Feature (Farm - Active)

32. SearchWebParts: Office SharePoint Server Search Web Parts (Site - Inactive)

33. PublishingSite: Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure (Site - Inactive)

34. MySiteDocumentLibraryInstance: MyWorkspace Document Library (Web - Inactive)

35. IssueTrackingWorkflow: Three-state workflow (Site - Active)

You may install the extensions from the site and start exploring with all of them.

Technorati Tags: MOSS,SharePoint,STSADM,Extentesion,Features

Installing Windows 7 RC

I know I had earlier promised of coming up with the Windows 7 Beta install steps, but looking at the RC getting released very soon, I thought of holding it off for a while. And that was a good decision. Here I am, coming up with the RC screen shots. I know most of us are eagerly waiting for 7 to jump from XP, skipping that Vista in-between.

So if you are ready, start with downloading the RC from this url: Download Windows 7 RC here

As from Microsoft "The RC will be available at least through July 2009 and we're not limiting the number of product keys, so you have plenty of time."

Also, this RC expires on June 1, 2010. Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Wow, that will be real frustrating for those not having the genuine license.

Okay now that you have the installer, let get started.

Start the Windows 7 Install.

Select the language, Keyboard options and click next.

Click "Install Now". What follows now are very intuitive steps, go on...

Accept the license.

Select "Custom (Advanced)".

Verify and select your install locations.

The installation proceeds for each row items and finally completes with a restart.

Provide a username, PC name.

Have your favorite password entered. Then enter the key next.

Select "Use recommended settings".

You may select the kind of network applicable for you, I select Home.

And there we are, cool and simple enough !!!

Let's start with exploring the much awaited piece of cake from Microsoft.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Windows,7,RC,Install

Call it Microsoft SharePoint 2010

Yes, that's the name we will be using going forward with the next release of the SharePoint.

MOSS has been taken away citing the official needs of the name "Office" should explicitly be attached to the Microsoft Office clients.

Nevermind, SharePoint will still be a great tool to work on with lots of new upcoming features.

Happy Twenty-Ten !!!

 

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,MOSS.SharePoint,2010

SharePoint 14 -New services

It looks like SharePoint 14 is going to be cool in a multiple ways. Trust me, the look-n-feel will definitely give you throbs, if you think finding an option to configure AAM or setting up a Policy for Web Applications is very easy to find. This may again take a while for of all of us to get used to the drill-downs of the Central Admin options.

The new layout of the Central Administration is drastically changing. Though still in its ALPHA stage, a lot would change in the coming BETA and any further releases. So it all depends on the feedback Microsoft gets back. So hold on tight and wait for the exciting 14 release (maybe late 2009 or early 2010).

To give you a bit of taste, here are few of the MUST-HAVEs that was always desired in MOSS 2007.

- Web Analytics Web Service

- Word viewing Service

- LotusNotes connector

- Visio Graphics Service

- BDC Service

- Application Registry Service

to name a few. Not gauranteed, but we may possibly see these getting integrated into the next release.

I also expect Microsoft to either acquire some of the great SharePoint tools available today in the market or have it developed internally. These could be SharePoint Security Explorer, Backup-Restore from AvePoint, Idera and some cool web parts from Bamboo Solutions. There are also some Imaging solutions which are highly wanted in the MOSS world.

Stay tuned...

Technorati Tags: MOSS,SharePoint,14

Know your WSS 3.0 or MOSS version numbers

This can be really helpful in case you are planning for an upgrade or trying to migrate content from one another.

I found this Blog where Dirk has tried to compile all of them in a tabular format. Nice work from him !

Updated: Aug 17, 2010

Bringing the tabular data from Dirk's site here as recently I experienced problem accessing his site.

Remember that you can find these version numbers in Central Administration -> Operations -> Servers in Farm (/_admin/FarmServers.aspx)

Here is a quick table for those who want to find out what version of WSS/MOSS you are currently patched up to:

Service Pack/Hotfix Version	WSS V3.0	MOSS 2007
Infrastructure Update (KB951695 & KB951297)	12.0.0.6318	12.0.0.6318
Post-SP1 hotfix (KB948945)	12.0.0.6303	12.0.0.6303
Post-SP1 hotfix (KB941274)	12.0.0.6301	12.0.0.6301
Post-SP1 hotfix (KB941422)	12.0.0.6300	12.0.0.6300
Service Pack 1	12.0.0.6219	12.0.0.6219
Release To Manufacturing (RTM)	12.0.0.4518	12.0.0.4518

Technorati Tags: WSS,3.0,MOSS,Upgrade,Migrate,Version

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 beta for you !

Microsoft has made the next generation browser available for download here. 

Windows Internet Explorer 8, as described is easier to use, faster and offers leading-edge security features in direct response to people's increasing concerns about online safety.

Furthermore, It can be downloaded in 25 different languages starting at noon EDT on March 19.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Internet,Explorer,8,IE,Download,Beta

How-to see descriptive Error messages in MOSS

How many times you have cursed Microsoft for that single line error message that always appear for so many different reasons but always says "An unexpected error has occured." :-(

To have a more detailed messages in MOSS while you perform your development tasks, you may want to enable debugging in the web.config file for the SharePoint web application. Please note here that this is not recommended to be done in a Production environment.

Edit your web.config file as shown in red below:

<SafeMode MaxControls="200" CallStack="true" DirectFileDependencies="10"TotalFileDependencies="50" AllowPageLevelTrace="false">

And:

<customErrors mode="Off" />

And get rid of any bugs from your application quickly.

Technorati Tags: MOSS,Unexpected,Error,Web,Config,CallStack,customErrors,mode

SharePoint Designer coming your way !!!

Good news guys. The most useful tool for the MOSS community has finally come out-of-the shell, it is believed to be made available for "FREE" coming 1st April, 2009.

Yes, you heard it right. Free, you may download the designer from the official Microsoft download site starting April 1st, 2009.

But administrators, watch out. There may be a bit of thinking required before the developers start using this tool to make those site-level changes. This could mean more efficient backup-restore planning would be required.

But definitely, this is yet another big step for MOSS to get closer to the world.

Technorati Tags: MOSS,SPD,2007,SHarePoint,Designer,Microsoft,Tool

Error writing to the Event Log - Windows Server 2008

The EventLog.WriteEntry code runs successfully under Win Server 2003, but doesn't execute with Windows Server 2008. This line generates and error:

"The source was not found, but some or all event logs could not be searched.  Inaccessible logs: Security".

This can be resolved by following the below steps:

#1 Go to Start -> Run -> regedit

#2 Navigate to Computer > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog

#3 Right click on "EventLog" key, select Permissions, and add the [Network Service] account with read/write permissions.

Note: Microsoft seems to have replaced the ASPNET account with the "Network Service" account.

#4 Restart the IIS (start -> Run -> iisreset)

#5 Now Go to Start -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Local Users and Groups -> Groups

Double click the [Administrator] Group -> Add the "Network Service" account.

Go back and try to refresh your web page again.

There you Go.....

Hope this saves some time for the others.

Technorati Tags: Windows,Server,2008,Security,ASPNET,Netwok,Service,Event,Logs

Remove the '! New' tag for uploaded items

A requirement to reduce the time period for which the "! New" tag is displayed for any new items uploaded to a site made me hunt for this solution.

And it is right under the STSADM hood, such a powerful tool indeed !

I wanted to get the "! New" tag displayed only for the current day on which a document is uploaded to a document library. By default, MOSS looks like it remembers this for more than a day.

Here is a simple command, which does the job fairly easily.

stsadm.exe -o setproperty -pn days-to-show-new-icon -pv 1 -url [your site url]

You may set the propertyvalue (pv) = 0, if you don't want to display it ever.

Technorati Tags: MOSS,New,Tag,Document,Library,STSADM,setproperty,icon

Installing Windows 7 Beta on my VPC

Great !!! So last week-end I was successfully able to install Windows 7 Beta on the Microsoft Virtual PC 2007.

Pretty slick ! Based on the similar lines of Vista, Windows 7 follows a very much identical approach to getting things started up and running.

I will try to get the walk-through document and upload here very soon. This would include the screen-shots of each step I captured during the install.

Stay tuned !!!

Technorati Tags: Windows,7,Microsoft,OS,VPC,Beta

SharePoint Dispose Checker Tool

This one was a long awaited from Microsoft. They have released "SPDisposeCheck" which looks at the code in SharePoint and confirms that there are no memory leakages or extra memory consumption. As we are all aware of, this has been an issue since long going un-noticed into the deployment. So let's use this tool to run our projects through this checker before we go for any deployments.

Visit the MSDN code page and download SPDisposeCheck

Technorati Tags: MOSS,Code,Tools,Microsoft

Web Development Helper

This is a good one!!!

We as a Web Developer may want to leverage this awesome HTTP sniffing tool.  This tool is a great asset when doing web client development like Flash, Silverlight, AJAX, and other likes.  As a Microsoft developer we have these two tools, and they are free :-) Fiddler and Web Development Helper.  I’m getting to like this Web Developer Helper.

It actually sits is your browser.  So you just need to turn it on and  get an explorer bar at the bottom showing all that you need.

Take a look at it.

Technorati Tags: HTTP,Microsoft,Web,Tools

Windows 7 for you !

Last week, Windows 7 beta was made available to all for download and install.

Just to let you know that the 32-bit version is also available now in "Hindi", the Indian National Language. Though, it is not yet included in the list of 64-bit, but let us keep our finger's crossed to hear sooner than later from Microsoft. To help you find and install with the instructions you may find them at the Windows 7 Team Blog.

I'll try to install sometime during this week-end.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,OS,Windows,7,Technology

Using LINQPad

LINQPad lets you interactively query SQL databases in a modern query language: LINQ.

LINQPad supports everything in C# 3.0 and Framework 3.5:

• LINQ to SQL
• LINQ to Objects
• LINQ to XML

LINQPad is also a great way to learn LINQ: it comes preloaded with 200 examples from the book, C# 3.0 in a Nutshell.

Want to look at a preview of How LINQPad looks like, here it is:

Download LINQPad