SharePoint @ code|influence

SharePoint Tip: Common error when creating Project Web Database site

2011-11-08T08:12:00.001+02:00

Thought I could share this one. I was creating a SharePoint 2010 Project Web database subsite and was faced with an error message "The formula contains a syntax error or is not supported."
After doing some research on technet, I found that my site collections regional settings Locale was set to "English (South Africa)" and apparently for the site database schema to be created, it required the regional settings to be "English (United States)", probably because the Database instance may have been set up this way, but anyway, after changing the regional settings to "English (United States)", site creation immediately worked.

SharePoint 2010 People Search: Did you know that....

2011-08-29T08:52:00.000+02:00

After configuring User Profile Synchronization, I found that SharePoint People Search could still not work as the the content source for the user profiles was being denied access.

With some good research, I came to learn that the Default Content Access Account I had set from my search service application was being denied access to crawl and index the sps3://my.intranet.com repository. To resolve this, I granted the default content access account administrative rights on the User Profile Service application as "Retrieve People Data for Search Crawlers" as seen below.

After the above, I did a full crawl, and when again attempted to perform a people search, I was hit by an error on the results as "Property doesn’t exist or is used in a manner inconsistent with schema settings". I went into more research, and I found out that if I edited the People Core Results webpart and under Core Results section, I expand the Display Properties, I checked the "Use Location Virtualization", as seen below, it finally sorted the issue.

Good luck.

SharePoint Collection Enumeration: Did you know that....

2011-08-17T12:26:00.000+02:00

This one time I was trying to programmatically modify an SPListCollection, and I stabled into the error "Collection was modified; Enumeration operation may not execute". This error came about during the code block that looped through the SPListCollection and attempting to update the collection.

After some research, I came to find out that it was because I was using "foreach" enumerator, and enumerators can be used to read items in a collection but can not be used to modify them. This was also true for the SPWebCollection, SPListItemCollection, SPFieldCollection etc. I hope this was helpful to someone. Happy coding.

SharePoint Lookup Fields: Did you know that....

2011-07-01T12:11:00.002+02:00

This one time I was trying to figure out why every time I created a SharePoint lookup field, be it programmatically or via the UI in SharePoint 2010 and 2007, which looks up to another SharePoint list field, it would always have a value "none" in it when in use. So now I really wanted to eliminate that value...

After much thought and research, it came to make sense that the reason was because the lookup field was not a required field, and if set to be a required field, the "none" value would disappear, and there I had it. Basically if I really wanted my users to choose only from the options being looked-up, then I might as well set it as a required field.

I hope this saves some time for 'you' who wanted to use some javascripts to hide it :)

ciao...

SharePoint Alerts: The default 9 "Send Alerts for These Changes " Task List Alerts

2011-05-23T10:31:00.001+02:00

Hello folks.

Once upon a time, I was trying to create SharePoint Task list Alerts programmatically for each user that had been granted permissions to the specific site. The requirement was that these users would be assigned tasks and they needed to receive notifications summarising all the tasks that they had been assigned, on a daily basis.
Thanks to our old man Mr SharePoint, who has Alerts that can help us achieve this need. The major work for me to achieve this was setting up the "Send Alerts for These Changes" filter, which required building a CAML query. I finally came right but then I thought about documenting the CAML queries for each one of these filters,, with the correct syntax, which by default out-of-the-box are 9, and am sure would save someone sometime.

So here is a list of the default 9 "Send Alerts for These Changes " Task List Alerts.

1. Anything changes

alert.Filter = "";

2. A task is assigned to me

alert.Filter = "<Query><And><Eq><Value type="string">" + user.LoginName + "</Value><FieldRef Name="AssignedTo/New"/></Eq><Neq><Value type="string">" + user.LoginName + "</Value><FieldRef Name="AssignedTo/Old"/></Neq></And></Query>";

3. A task becomes complete

alert.Filter = "<Query><And><Eq><Value type="string">completed</Value><FieldRef Name="Status/New"/></Eq><Neq><Value type="string">completed</Value><FieldRef Name="Status/Old"/></Neq></And></Query>";

4. A high priority task changes

alert.Filter = "<Query><Or><Eq><Value type="string">" + PriotityChoiceString + "</Value><FieldRef Name="Priority/New"/></Eq><Eq><Value type="string">" + PriotityChoiceString + "</Value><FieldRef Name="Priority/Old"/></Eq></Or></Query>";

5. Someone else changes a task assigned to me

alert.Filter = "<Query><And><Or><Eq><Value type="string">" + user.LoginName + "</Value><FieldRef Name="AssignedTo/New"/></Eq><Eq><Value type="string">" + user.LoginName + "</Value><FieldRef Name="AssignedTo/Old"/></Eq></Or><Neq><Value type="string">" + user.LoginName + "</Value><FieldRef Name="Editor/New"/></Neq></And></Query>";

6. Someone else changes a task

alert.Filter = "<Query><Neq><Value type="string">" + user.LoginName + "</Value><FieldRef Name="Editor/New"/></Neq></Query>";

7. Someone else changes a task created by me

alert.Filter = "<Query><And><Or><Eq><Value type="string">" + user.LoginName + "</Value><FieldRef Name="Author/New"/></Eq><Eq><Value type="string">" + user.LoginName + "</Value><FieldRef Name="Author/Old"/></Eq></Or><Neq><Value type="string">" + user.LoginName + "</Value><FieldRef Name="Editor/New"/></Neq></And></Query>";

8. Someone else changes a task last modified by me

alert.Filter = "<Query><And><Eq><Value type="string">" + user.LoginName + "</Value><FieldRef Name="Editor/Old"/></Eq><Neq><Value type="string">" + user.LoginName + "</Value><FieldRef Name="Editor/New"/></Neq></And></Query>";

9. Someone changes an item that appears in the following view

alert.Filter = "<Query><Eq><FieldRef Name="AssignedTo"/><Value type="string">" + user.LoginName + "</Value></Eq></Query>";

Enjoy!

SharePoint: Did you know that......CAML Query OrderBy not working???

2011-05-05T09:40:00.001+02:00

So this one time I was creating a SharePoint view programmatically, whose items I wanted to be ordered as "Most recent item must be top". This meant ordering by the "Created" column in descending order.

So I used the following query:

And I wondered why this was not working. After a lot of research, I found that actually, its CASE SENSITIVE...aaarrrrgggghhh!!!

False is supposed to be FALSE, and the query should be:

And there you have it. I hope this will save someone some time.

SharePoint 2010 Search: Does not work when I’m offline…oh now it does!!!

2011-04-26T16:08:00.001+02:00

Normally, for Specialists that are installing their SharePoint 2010 Demo environments, so as to demonstrate custom solutions to clients, they usually do their installations onto their machines (Laptops) that in most cases are connected to their company domains. So what happens when the Specialist goes home or is at a client site is that, their SharePoint 2010 Search fails to return any results, and the wonder why this is so when not only are there no errors being registered but they also have full permissions on anything they can think of, after all, they did the installation themselves using an account with admin privileges. ;)

In my opinion, it actually makes sense that an environment installed this way should actually have its SharePoint 2010 Search fail to return any results.

Unfortunately there are not so many solutions (if at all any) to this issue out there on the Internet, and so I thought I could write it down in an effort to help someone out there.

The Cause:

The cause is simple. It’s because you are not connected to the company domain. Remember that SharePoint 2010 now has service applications for each service, and each service application can have assigned credentials that it uses to run under. So basically, the domain\username account that is being used on the service application is practically trying to get authenticated from the company domain and this fails because there is no connection back to the domain, therefore, it won’t access the service application and search won’t work.

The Solution

1. Firstly, if you are going to set up a Demo SharePoint 2010 Environment, log in to the machine using the Local Account

2. Make sure that the Local account you are using has got the right permissions on the machine and your SQL Instance.

3. Once you finish the installation, make sure that the Search Service Application Pool uses a Local Account, NOT local Service.

4. Access Central Administration > Application Management > Manage Service Applications, and highlight the Search Service Application for your Web Application.

5. On the Ribbon, click Administrators and add the Local Account that the Search Service Application pool is running under.

6. And your SharePoint 2010 Search should now work when you are offline!!!

Cheers!

SharePoint 2010: Did you know that......Taxonomy feature?

2011-04-11T13:47:00.000+02:00

Recently, a lot of people have been faced with the Taxonomy error message that says "The Taxonomy feature (Feature ID “73EF14B1-13A9-416b-A9B5-ECECA2B0604C”) has not been activated" and they wonder why this is so when their installation is so clean, both on site collection features and site features, this Taxonomy feature is not listed, and the administrator ends up activating it via STSADM.

Did you know that creating a BLANK SharePoint site collection does not activate the Taxonomy feature? well now you know :), so that you can now include this step in your deployment documentations.

SharePoint Tip: Did you know that…..in SharePoint Content types?

2011-03-17T08:57:00.001+02:00

When creating SharePoint site columns and adding them to content types programmatically, we normally commit out changes by calling the update function in the syntax:-

ContentType.Update();

Did you know that on the site content type you are updating, this function does not tick ‘Yes’ on the “Update all content types inheriting from this type?” but leaves it tick as ‘No’ as seen below, did you know? I didn’t.

So now for this option to be tick ‘Yes’, you would have to call the same function, but this time pass the boolean as follows:-

ContentType.Update(true);

Please take note that I would have already declared ‘ContentType’ as SPContentType of course.

Happy coding!

SharePoint: How to create a custom action to open Word Documents using "Edit in Microsoft Word".

2011-03-08T07:54:00.001+02:00

Imagine you have a SharePoint custom search webpart, and on your search results, you return word documents, you will obviously want to at times be able to open them in your MS Word client program for editing.

So basically, depending on your office client installed on your local machine, there are 2 different approaches that can be made for Office 2003 and Office 2007/10, using the same function "editDocumentWithProgID2".

For Office 2003:

- If your document libraries versioning settings have got "Require Check out" ticked, then you will first want to check out the document using:

onclick="CheckoutviaXmlhttp(‘{SiteURL}’, ‘{DocumentDownloadURL}’)"

- Then to open the document, you use:

onclick="return editDocumentWithProgID2(‘{DocumentDownloadURL}’, ”, ‘SharePoint.OpenDocuments’, ’1′,’{SiteURL}’, ’0′);" href="#"

- and now combining the above 2 actions into one clickable action:

onclick="CheckoutviaXmlhttp(‘{SiteURL}’, ‘{DocumentDownloadURL}’); return editDocumentWithProgID2(‘{DocumentDownloadURL}’, ”, ‘SharePoint.OpenDocuments’, ’1′,’{SiteURL}’, ’0′);" href="#"

For Office 2007/10:

- Again if your document libraries versioning settings have got "Require Check out" ticked, this line will do it all, i.e. check out and open the document:

onclick="editDocumentWithProgID2('{DocumentDownloadUrl}', '', 'SharePoint.OpenDocuments', '1', '{SiteUrl}', '0')" href="#"

- Note that the variable "1" means that the document is being opened in Edit mode. If you change it to 0, the document would open in read-only mode.

Happy Coding!

How to document your SharePoint Projects.

2011-01-30T19:11:00.000+02:00

Here are the essential documents you need to complete…

Initiation

Business Case: To justify the financial investment in your SharePoint Project, you need to write a Business Case. It lists the costs and benefits, so everyone knows what the return on investment will be.

Feasibility Study: Before you kick-off your SharePoint Project, you need to determine whether your project is feasible, using a Feasibility Study.

SharePoint Project Charter: You then need to document the objectives, scope, team, timeframes and deliverables in a SharePoint Project Charter.

Planning

SharePoint Project Plan: You need to create a Project Plan listing all of the tasks required to undertake your SharePoint Project from start to finish. Every task must be scheduled, so you know what needs to be done and when.

Resource Plan: Next, you need to plan your resources by documenting the money, equipment and materials needed for your SharePoint Project.

Quality Plan: You then need to set quality targets, so that the SharePoint Project deliverables meet the expectations of your customer.

Risk Plan: All of the risks need to be documented and their likelihood and impact on the SharePoint Project identified.

Communication Plan: You need to plan your communications, so that you send the right messages to the right people, at the right time.

Execution

Time Management: You need to use Timesheets to track time spent on your SharePoint Project. Then update your Project Plan with your Timesheet data to see whether your SharePoint Project is still within schedule.

Cost Management: Track your costs using Expense Forms. Every expense is formally logged and approved, so that you can confirm at any time that you are currently under budget.

Change Management: Document each change to the SharePoint Project scope, using Change Forms. You can then control change to ensure your SharePoint Project is always on track.

Risk Management: Use Risk Forms to document each risk to the SharePoint Project. You can then manage SharePoint Project risk carefully to ensure that nothing happens that will affect the project schedule or budget.

Issue Management: As each issue occurs on the SharePoint Project, you need to investigate its impact on the SharePoint Project and then write it up on an Issue Form. You can then kick off the tasks needed to resolve it quickly.

Closure

SharePoint Project Closure Report: When your project is complete, document all of the actions needed to close the SharePoint Project properly. This includes releasing teams and suppliers, equipment and materials.

Post SharePoint Project Review: And after your SharePoint Project has been closed, you can review its success and document the results for your sponsor. That way, you can show that all of the objectives were met and that the SharePoint Project was delivered on time and within budget.

And there you have it. By completing each of these documents for your SharePoint Project, you can boost your chances of success.

The search application for 'SharedServices' on server [SERVERNAME] is not provisioned.

2011-01-13T13:00:00.000+02:00

Happy New Year All,

I stumbled into an error "The search application for 'SharedServices' on server [SERVERNAME] is not provisioned. Confirm that the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service and Windows SharePoint Services Administration service are running on the server" when I tried to open search settings from my SSP site.

After some little reasearch on the Internet, I came to find that most likely the config database cache was corrupt, and to resolve this, I had to clear the cache.

So here is how I went about it:

1. Central Administration > Operations > Global Configuration > Timer job definitions > Application Server Administration Service Timer Job > Disable.

2. Then open windows administrative services (services.msc), stop Windows SharePoint Services Timer (aka OWSTIMER)

3. Navigate to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config\GUID and delete only the XML files from the directory, then open the cache.ini and change the number in it to 1.

4. Start the OWSTIMER and give it a few seconds so that the new XML files from the location you deleted then are re-populated.

5. Central Administration > Operations > Global Configuration > Timer job definitions > Application Server Administration Service Timer Job > Enable.

and your search settings should now be accessible.

Thanks to Joe Rodgers for pointing me in the right direction.

ERROR: One or more types failed to load.

2010-12-28T08:20:00.000+02:00

Let me save someone some time.

So I was trying to run SharePoint Products and Technology Configuration Wizard for MOSS 2007, and during the course, I faced the error message, as seen from the screen dump above, "One or more types failed to load. Please refer to the upgrade log for more details". After alot of research, I came to learn that this was being caused by Office 2010 which was installed on the same machine as MOSS 2007. Therefore, the error went when I uninstalled Office 2010.

Happy holidays ;)

How to Scope your SharePoint Projects

2010-12-14T22:05:00.000+02:00

The "SharePoint project scope" is all of the things that must be produced to complete a SharePoint project. These 'things' are called deliverables and you need to describe them in depth as early in the SharePoint project as possible, so everyone knows what needs to be produced. Take these 5 Steps to scope your SharePoint projects:

Step 1: Set the Direction

Start off by setting the direction for the SharePoint project. Do you have an agreed SharePoint project Vision, Objectives and Timeframes? Are they specified in depth and has your customer agreed to them? Does everyone in the SharePoint project team truly understand them and why they are important? Only by fixing the SharePoint project direction can you truly fix the SharePoint project scope.

Step 2: Scope Workshops

The best way to get buy-in to your SharePoint project scope is to get all of the relevant stakeholders to help you define it. So get your SharePoint project sponsor, customer and other stakeholders in a room and run a workshop to identify the scope. What you want from them is an agreed set of major deliverables to be produced by the SharePoint project. You also want to know "what's out of scope".
Run the workshop by asking each stakeholder for a list of the deliverables they expect the SharePoint project team to deliver. Take the full list of deliverables generated in the workshop and get them to agree on what's mandatory and what's optional. Then ask them to prioritize the list, so you know what has to be delivered first.

Step 3: Fleshing it out

You now have an agreed list of deliverables. But it's still not enough. You need to define each deliverable in depth. Work with the relevant people in your business to describe how each deliverable will look and feel, how it would operate and how it would be supported etc. Your goal here is to make it so specific that your customer cannot state later in the SharePoint project that "when they said this, they really meant that".

Step 4: Assessing Feasibility

So you now have a detailed list and description of every deliverable to be produced by your SharePoint project, in priority order and separated as mandatory / optional. Great! But is it feasible to achieve within the project end date? Before you confirm the scope, you need to review every deliverable in the list and get a general indication from your SharePoint team as to whether they can all be completed before your SharePoint project end date. If they can't, then which deliverables can you remove from the list to make your end date more achievable?

Step 5: Get the thumbs up

Present the prioritized set of deliverables to your SharePoint project Sponsor and ask them to approve the list as your SharePoint project scope. Ask them to agree to the priorities, the deliverable descriptions and the items out of scope.
By getting formal sign-off, you're in a great position to be able to manage the SharePoint project scope down the track. So when your Sponsor says to you in a few weeks time "Can you please add these deliverables to the list?", you can respond by saying "Yes, but I'll either have to remove some items from the list to do it, or extend the SharePoint project end date. Which is it to be?". You can easily manage your Sponsors expectations with a detailed scope document at your side.

The scope document is the SharePoint project Manager's armor. It protects them from changes and makes them feel invincible!

SMS integration with SharePoint

2010-10-13T07:48:00.000+02:00

As part of my Code|Influence projects, I embarked on developing and copyrighted an SMS powered application, that would receive text messages in form of SMS perform various types of functions based on the SMS content, and reply back to the sender the results via SMS.

With the SharePoint passion in me, I then went further to see how this would work with SharePoint. With a proof-of-concept done, I finally can perform various SharePoint functions e.g create list items, kick off workflows, search etc...all via SMS.

The good thing to note is that this SMS application's various operations that it can perform are so unlimited, including those outside the SharePoint world. For now, I will end here. Enjoy!

How to implement a SharePoint "Change Management Process"

2010-10-07T15:45:00.000+02:00

Not so much from the technical point of view, SharePoint Change Management is the process of monitoring and controlling changes within a SharePoint project. By managing the implementation of change, you can:

• Reduce the impact of changes to the SharePoint project

• Identify new issues and risks as a result of changes raised

• Ensure that changes do not affect the SharePoint project's ability to achieve its desired objectives

• Control the cost of change within the SharePoint project

Change Management is comprised of the following processes:

Step 1: Identify Change: The first step in the change process is to identify the need for change. Any team member can suggest a change to the SharePoint project, if he or she believes it is needed to keep the SharePoint project producing deliverables to the customer's specified requirements. After identifying a need for change, the team member records relevant information on a Change Request Form (commonly called a CRF), describing the change, and identifying drivers, benefits, costs and likely impact of the change on the SharePoint project. The CRF is forwarded to the SharePoint Project Manager for review and approval.

Step 2: Review Change: The SharePoint Project Manager investigates the change to identify the reason for it and its impact. Then he or she decides whether it is critical to the successful delivery of the project. Changes which are not critical to SharePoint Project delivery should be avoided whenever possible to prevent "scope creep" (i.e. the gradual increase in scope throughout the SharePoint project Lifecycle).
If the change is deemed critical to success, the SharePoint Project Manager either approves the request or seeks approval for the CRF raised. In some cases, the SharePoint Project Manager has the direct authority to approval minor change requests; however, in most cases the SharePoint Project Manager needs to seek CRF approval from the Project Board.

Step 3: Approve Change: The Project Board reviews the details in the CRF to determine whether or not the change should be implemented. Based on the level of risk, impact, benefits and cost to the SharePoint project, it may decide to decline, delay or approve the change request.

Step 4: Implement Change: The SharePoint Project Manager approves all changes, which are then are scheduled and implemented accordingly. After implementation, the SharePoint Project Manager reviews the effects of the change on the SharePoint project to ensure that it achieved the desired outcome, when the change is then closed in the Change Register.
Throughout the Change Management Process, the SharePoint Project Manager can monitor and control changes to the SharePoint project by keeping this Change Register up-to-date.

There you have it. By completing these 4 steps, you can carefully monitor and control SharePoint project changes, to increase your likelihood of success.

How to Plan Your SharePoint Projects

2010-10-06T14:26:00.000+02:00

Because I have always looked at SharePoint as a platform for building your organisations solutions that help improve business productivity, I thought I could write about a few simple project management steps that can aid when building these business solutions, classified as SharePoint Projects.

Step 1: Set the Direction

Before you start out, set the direction for the SharePoint project. Do this by clearly identifying the SharePoint project vision, goals and deliverables. State the overall timeframes for delivery and clarify the amount of resource available. Determine what is "in scope" and "out of scope". Identify the benefits and costs in delivering the SharePoint project and any milestones and constraints. Only once this is agreed with your SharePoint project Sponsor will you know what it is that you have to achieve.

Step 2: Task Selection

You're now ready to start planning. Identify the groups of tasks that need to be completed to build your SharePoint project deliverables. Then for each group of tasks, breakdown those tasks into sub-tasks to create what is known as a "Work Breakdown Structure" (WBS). Your WBS is essentially a hierarchical list of tasks, in order. Assign start and end dates to each task, as well as task durations. Always add a little extra time (e.g. 10%) to your durations, providing you with contingency. Next add Milestones to your plan. These are tasks that represent major achievements along the way.

Step 3: Inter-linking

The next step is to add links (or dependencies) between SharePoint project tasks. While there are a variety of link types, most SharePoint project Managers add "finish-to-start" links so that one task cannot start until another one finishes. To make your SharePoint project achievable, only add links between tasks if there is a critical dependency between them. Remember, when one task slips, all tasks linked to it may slip as well. So use links wisely.

Step 4: Resource Assignment

Now comes the fun part, assigning resources. A "resource" may be a person, equipment, location or materials. Against each task in your plan, assign one or more resources required to complete it. As you assign resources, watch your resource utilization. In other words, make sure you don't over-assign a specific resource to multiple tasks, so that it’s impossible for that resource to complete everything assigned to it.

Step 5: Baseline, Actuals and Reporting

With a fully completed SharePoint project plan, you're now ready to save it as a "baseline", so that you can later compare your progress against it. Then start recording your actual progress against the plan. Every day, record the amount of time you've spent against each task. Also record the new planned start and finish dates, and monitor the overall SharePoint project completion date. Report on progress as you go. By regularly updating the SharePoint project plan with your progress, you can control the delivery of your SharePoint project and meet those critical goals set.

Types of Event Receivers in SharePoint 2010

2010-08-11T17:44:00.000+02:00

I recently have come to learn that there are 6 types of Event Receivers that can be done in SharePoint 2010. I thought I could share them here.

List Events -
Adding/ed a new list field.
Updating/ed a field.

List Item Events -
Adding/ed a new list item or document.
Document checking/ed in or out.
Adding/ed an attachment.
Deleting/ed an item or document.

List Email Events -
A list received an email.

Web Events -
Deleting/ed a site collection or site.
Creating/ed a new site collection or sub site.

Feature Events -
Feature activating/ed or deactivating/ed.

List Workflow Events -
A workflow is starting/ed, postponed, or completed.

Thanks to Isha.

SharePoint Training Kit: Assignment Not Available

2010-07-07T17:11:00.000+02:00

Hello fox,

While going through a training video of the Collaboration module of the SharePoint Training Kit, I happened to to have clicked "Complete Training". After which, when I tried to view the video again, its assigned action read as "Continue", so when I clicked on "Continue", it brought up a message saying "Assignment Not Available. This assignment is not available because it has been submitted as complete. You can review this assignment after it is returned by your instructor.".

So I tried to log in to the site as an instructor but i still couldn't review any assignments. I therefore went into the SQL Database, tried to study the tables in the DB, and i finally found that in the STKTrainingResult table, a record for every training module you take is entered in this table, and there was a column named "TrainingStatus" on my particular training record that needed to change from 0 to 1 the time I had clicked on "complete training", but it didn't change. I therefore changed this field manually and I was able to retake the training video successfully.

Am sure this is not the recommended workaround though.

Workflows from SPD 2010 wont automatically start

2010-06-30T09:01:00.000+02:00

I recently had to do a workflow from SharePoint Designer 2010, that sends an email once a list item is created. After publishing it to its associated list in SharePoint 2010, I found that the workflow was not automatically starting when I create a list item, but when I manually start it, it would work. After some research, I found that I initially created it using the system account. So I then tried to use my own user account that was site collection admin on the site, to re-create the workflow, published it, and it now worked. Am still yet to understand why this is so.

A quick ROI on SharePoint Intranet

2010-01-21T08:12:00.000+02:00

To Start Year 2010, I thought I could come up with a list of a few simple things you can do with SharePoint Intranet to quickly start getting your ROI:

1. You can use your SharePoint lists to organize and track your organizations travel schedules.

2. You can create a web based company notice board.

3. You can set up departmental sites for your organization.

4. On your departmental sites, you can use the shared calendars to schedule meetings, display when key staff would be away from office, as well as show company recognized public holidays.

5. With company naming standards in place, you can upload your standard operating procedures (SOPs) to designations Document libraries.

6. Using lists, you can track your company’s invoices from the point of receipt to the point of paying it off.

7. You can set up a news site that has RSS feeds from other external news websites.

8. You can set up a helpdesk system that would allow your organizations users to log in calls online and be able to track them, with the ability of email notification.

9. You can set up an online leave application process, where users can request to go on leave by doing an online application.

10. In monthly/daily company production/sales/financial budgets reporting, you can upload the spreadsheets (Excel 2007/10) that are used to generate the graphs from, and publish them, to maintain one version of the truth and with controlled access.

11. You can create a company internal training site.

12. You can set up a company internal adverts site for items that are on sale.

13. You can set up a company assets allocation list, specifying who, when and where the asset has been allocated to.

14. You can create a simple site to manage your organizations change management.

15. And you can quickly take a walk around your organization, identify the manual processes that require automation onto SharePoint, and then contact me.

16. etc

Unable to complete this operation. Please contact your administrator; When trying to upload a file in SharePoint.

2009-11-17T12:28:00.000+02:00

When trying to upload file, then boom!!! you come across error: "Unable to complete this operation. Please contact your administrator", chances are that the partition drive on the machine where your Content database is sitting has run out of space. Therefore, you will have to look for alternatives of increasing the free space otherwise relocate your SharePoint databases.

By default, SharePoint view wont group by column of type 'multiple lines of text'

2009-10-28T06:23:00.000+02:00

Just thought I could save someone some time....

Imagine you are trying to create a SharePoint view, were you want to group by a specific column, but when you go to group-by drop down list, your column does not show up. Chances are that the column you are trying to group by is of type 'multiple lines of text'. Unless you can do some custom dev on this, a quick and simple solution will be to just change its type to 'single line of text', and your column will now appear in the group-by drop down.

Zambia's first K2 BlackPoint roll-out

2009-07-03T06:26:00.001+02:00

Reporting to you live from Code|Influence...

My colleague and I have been managing our organization's SharePoint infrastructure for some time now and we have just rolled out the first K2 BlackPoint in the country, intended mostly for SharePoint workflow developments.

Zambia's first 4 SharePoint Certified (MCTS)

2009-06-08T08:21:00.000+02:00

Zambia so far only has 4 Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist in SharePoint, and they are:

1. Liness Zulu - MCTS:SharePoint. She is only 14 Years Old and doing her 10th grade at High School.

2. Masialeti Masialeti - BSc Comp. Sci, MCTS:SharePoint. Information Systems Specialist for Lumwana Mining Company.

3. Christopher Simusokwe (thats me) - BSc Comp. Sci, MCTS:SharePoint. Information Systems Specialist for Lumwana Mining Company.

4. Albert Zulu - BSc Comp. Sci, MCP, MCSE, MCDBA, MCT, MCBMS, MCBMSP, MCSA, MCTS, MCITP. Network Administrator for Zamnet.

Some SharePoint facts

2009-05-27T07:30:00.001+02:00

• SharePoint is the fastest-growing product in the history of Microsoft.

• Over 75 million licenses of SharePoint have been sold worldwide.

• SharePoint is listed, by Forrester, as the number 1 portal product.

• SharePoint is positioned as a leader within the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Horizontal Portals products.

• Over 400 case studies have been published on SharePoint.

Why should you use SharePoint?

2009-05-27T07:21:00.000+02:00

SharePoint solves four main problems:

• As companies grow so does the amount of their files. It soon becomes difficult to keep track of the multiplying documents and their locations. SharePoint overcomes this by allowing you to store and locate your files in a central site. Files can also be located through company wide searches of your SharePoint enterprise portal.

• Sharing work files through email is a cumbersome process. SharePoint eliminates this by allowing files to be stored in one location, allowing easy access to all team members.

• Today’s work occurs over multiple locations, whether it is in different countries, office locations, separate departments or at your home office. SharePoint enables teams and individuals to connect and collaborate together regardless of where they are located.

• It’s difficult and time consuming to create and maintain sites. SharePoint allows anyone to create sites for use within their company’s Intranet, as they are needed, whether they are departmental sites, document libraries, meetings sites, survey sites, or discussion boards

Detour: Wolfram|Alpha goes Live

2009-05-19T11:58:00.000+02:00

Yesterday 18th May, Wolfram|Alpha went Live! This computational engine will prove to be a serious Google competitor. To me, its like the best thing since the invention of Google. Kudos to Stephen Wolfram for his 20 years work.

Change your AD or Local Machine password using a SharePoint webpart

2009-04-27T13:50:00.000+02:00

I had always wondered how to make it easy for users that bug you on how to change their passwords (believe me, these users exist). Then as I was doing my CodePlex expedition, I bumped into this nice solution, simple to install, and it activates right upon installation. Enjoy it: http://changepassword.codeplex.com/

SharePoint PowerShell Console

2009-04-27T10:06:00.000+02:00

For the code/script lovers, i know that SharePoint was beginning to take away that sweet thing from you, well now at least you get to run your scripts in powershell. Check out this one on codeplex (I think am in love with codeplex!!!)
http://sppowershellconsole.codeplex.com/

Just Got Certified

2009-03-17T17:59:00.000+02:00

Today I sat for my exam 70-630 SharePoint, scored 964/1000 in 20 minutes, and got certified. Am happy to say that am now MCTS - SharePoint.

Zambia's first Helpdesk System on SharePoint

2009-03-03T06:54:00.000+02:00

For my 25th birthday today 3rd March, 2009, allow me to present to you another first of its kind in Zambia. Yes we have done it again, having been Project manager, I present to you Zambia's first Helpdesk System which Masialeti and I have developed on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. The system also implements SharePoint designer workflows, Infopath forms, SharePoint document library and sends email notifications to the relevant personnel. When a user logs in a call, the user automatically receives a mail from the system, telling them that their call has been received and is being attended to, IT section will also receive a notification and the helpdesk manager will assign the call to the right IT guy who will also automatically receive a mail notification from the system. When the call is resolved, the user again automatically gets notified by the system with a mail giving them description of the problem they logged and also how it has been resolved. The user also has an option of re-activating the call if they are not happy with the resolution and the loop is started all over again. A knowledge base is also eventually built for the user who can always look at all the calls that they have ever logged before.

Oh and there is something am doing on the 16th March, 2009, Watch This Space....

Error "403 Forbidden" on Sharepoint Search Settings Page

2009-02-20T17:37:00.000+02:00

Ok so I had to struggle with this error for like 48 hours, busy googling for a solution. This error came up at the same time on both our live and test environment after we were hit by the worm Microsoft reported a few days ago.

So here is how I went about sorting it out:

Using STSADMIN commands

1. I first ran stsadm -o osearch -action stop –f
2. Then stsadm -o osearch -action start -role indexquery
3. And stsadm -o execadmsvcjobs

So now I tried to access the search site and it told me that I had to assign an index server, of which I did, then I again from the index server had to run stsadm -o execadmsvcjobs.

At this point, I had to provide access to c:\windows\tasks, from the command line, on our index server for the local group WSS_WPG as follows
1. By running attrib -s c:\windows\tasks on the index server so as to be able to change the tasks system folder attributes.
2. Then I added the local group WSS_WPG with read and write access
3. And now take back the attributes of the tasks system folder to the way they were by running attrib +s c:\windows\tasks
4. Then restart the search service on the index server
5. And perform a full crawl

Depending on how big your databases are, will determine how long the crawling and computing ranking will take, ours took about 5 hours and after which, the search site for the live environment came up.

Am still struggling with the test environment search site as the tasks folder keeps on denying access when I try to ran attrib -s c:\windows\tasks

Later mates….will tell you more soon.

Report Server in SharePoint Integrated Mode Error: Cannot create a connection to data source 'DatasSource1'

2009-02-11T13:33:00.000+02:00

So having made my report using Business Intelligence Development studio, i successfully deployed it to my Sharepoint Reports Library.

When i tried to access the report from SharePoint, BOMB!!!

An error has occurred during report processing. (rsProcessingAborted)
Cannot create a connection to data source 'DatasSource1'. (rsErrorOpeningConnection)
For more information about this error navigate to the report server on the local server machine, or enable remote errors

So after 24 hours of hitting my head against the wall, i got it right.

Try this:
1. open your http://sharepointserver/reports/data connections/
2. click to open the data connection
3. On the credentials section, click the "stored credentials" radio button, type in a domain account in the format 'MYDOMAIN\Accountname' and it password. Note that this account can be the service account of your farm, assuming that its also the account that the report server is using when connecting to the report server database (well at least that's how my farm is)
4. Check the two boxes for "Use as windows credentials" and for "Set execution context to account"
5. click ok and you should be good to go

Zambia's first Copper Concentrate Logistics System on SharePoint 2007

2008-12-22T17:21:00.000+02:00

Ok so my workmate Charles and I just finished developing a Copper Concentrate Logistics System on SharePoint 2007. Again we do something that has never been done before in Zambia, on SharePoint!!! So here is how it works: First of all, it’s mainly using SharePoint Lists, Views dependent on your log in credentials, InfoPath Forms that pull their data from the SharePoint list based on specific selection criteria. The marketing dept captures the details of the trucks expected to arrive, only after which, the Security personnel will be able to see the details of the expected trucks and authorize entry. This then allows the truck details on empty weight and on loaded weight to be captured to the same system from the Weighbridge and sealing details confirmed. Only when the weighbridge process has been confirmed, the Security to authorize exit would be able to view the truck details, which they will use for their exit authorization. This piece of a SharePoint system generates various reports by date, by amounts of load, by end users…guys I could go on!!!!

Enabling Publishing Feature disables "Save Site as Template link"

2008-12-13T11:31:00.000+02:00

SharePoint Server 2007 with Office SharePoint Server Publishing Feature activated on farm/site collection, but not on every site within the site collection. Those sites without the Publishing Feature activated include the Save Site as Template link under the Look and Feel section on the Site Settings page of the site.

Those sites with the Publishing Feature activated do not include the Save Site as Template link. But, if you hard code the Save Site as Template URL parameter into the browser address line, appended to the current site address, that is, http://server_name/sitedirectory/sitename/(underscore)layouts/savetmpl.aspx , you can still save those sites as templates. Sites created from those templates then include the Publishing Feature activated by default.

From the place of Gold trip

2008-12-09T19:39:00.000+02:00

Ok so i just came back from Johannesburg, where i had been for a week attending training in Advanced Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2007 from iSolve business solutions in sunninghill. During my stay, i had a opportunity of meeting Robert MacLean and oh my Goodness he gave them to me, the webcasts from the PDC2008!!! they are movies for Christmas indeed!!! ROBERT FOR PRESIDENT!!!

Then i linked up with Tebatso from AccTech Consultants, am like these guys just wanna finish up my portable hard drive right!!! but i made Tebatso happy by giving him the PDC2008 webcasts too, guys am enjoying the webcasts, making me feel like i was actually in attendance. Then the pass4sure SharePoint questions i picked up from Tebatso are making me think "What am i still waiting for...why not take the MCTS - MOSS exams end of December..." Now thats the way to start a new year Yeahh!!!

So, while at iSolve, what did we do? MOSS Site definations, site templates, masterpages, CSS, XML, Pagelayouts, creating datasources, site permissions....guys i could go on....but what was funny was that out of a class of 6, i had the longest experience in MOSS 2007, wasn't i chaft!!! (not mentioning that my company is the only one using MOSS in Zambia)

For now, am going back to watch the PDC2008 webcasts while i prepare for my MOSS 2007 exams!!!

PS. On my way back home, i had to connect on 3 flights. Missed 1 while two other flights got delayed, the rest is a long story...but it all wasn't my fault, but the airlines.

25 MCTS SAMPLE QUESTIONS FOR MOSS

2008-11-09T17:54:00.001+02:00

25 MCTS SAMPLE QUESTIONS FOR MOSS, I came across these and just couldn't resist to share, i hope they will give you a jump start to prepare for those certifications.

1) You deploy the English language version of Moss you install French, German and Japanese language packs. You need to ensure that users do not create a personal sites in any other language other than English. what should you do.

ANS: Configure My site Settings to disable the language option

2) You need to place a link on top navigation bar of your company’s corporate web site. You need to ensure that the link appears on all the pages within the root site collection. What should you do??

ANS: Configure the site Navigation settings for the root site collection.

3) You create a site collection for each dept in your company. You need to schedule the deployment of content from the sales site collection to the Marketing site collection. Which two actions should you perform?

ANS: Configure the content deployment settings for the marketing site to accept the incoming content deployment jobs and create a new content deployment path and job.

4) You create a content type named sales report and associate it with a document library for the sales department. you need to ensure that the metadata for all the sales report appears when the document is opened in Microsoft office word 2007...what should you do??

ANS: Modify the document information panel settings for the sales report content type.

5) You need to create a SharePoint usage logs in a flat text file. What should you do?

ANS: In SharePoint central administration, enable logging in usage analysis processing.

6) You need to automatically create a new announcements list item when new documents are added to the communications document library. What should you do..

ANS: Create a new workflow by using Microsoft office SharePoint designer 2007.Associate the workflow with the communications document library. Also associate the disposition approval workflow with the communication document library.

7) You create a new site that uses the records repository template. With in the records repository, you create a document library named contracts. You need to ensure that all contracts that are sent to the records repository are automatically placed in the contracts document library...What should you do?

ANS: Add a new entry to the record routing type table.

8) You need to prevent users from printing confidential documents that are stored in the document library. Which two actions should you perform?

ANS: Enable the Information rights management on the document library and configure the server farm to use IRM.

9) A site based on the Records Center template is used to store records of customer service level agreements (SLAs) in the Customers document library. Other records related to customer transactions are also stored in the Customers document library.

You need to track any modifications or deletions of an SLA.

What should you do?

ANS: Create an information management policy and associate it with the SLA content type.

10) Business data is stored on a server running SQL Server 2005. You need to create a SharePoint site that shows key performance indicators for the business data and allows users to view the most up-to-date version of the reports created by SQL Server Reporting Service.

You need to select the appropriate site template.

What template should you use?

ANS: Report Center

11) You are upgrading a server running SharePoint Services 2.0 to SharePoint Server 2007 as the first server in an in-place upgrade. The server contains a number of lists, form libraries, and site collections. You have performed the upgrade and run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard.

You need to ensure that all content is available to users.

What should you do?

ANS: Create forms document libraries and add updated forms to them.

12) You add a partner's Web site as a content source using the following uniform resource locator URL:
http://www.stayandsleep.com

Users report that content from the following URLs do not appear in the results:

www.stayandsleep.com?location=chi
www.stayandsleep.com?month=2

You need to ensure that the entire Web site is indexed.

What should you do?

ANS: Add a crawl rule and enable complex URLs.

13) You are a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 administrator. You need to enable users who log on to SharePoint to use the single sign-on feature to access other resources. You create a domain user account named SSO and configure the Single Sign-On service to use the account as its service account.

You need to ensure that the account has the necessary permissions. Your solution should not grant more than the necessary permissions.

What should you do? (Each correct answer presents part of the solution. Choose two.)

ANS: Add SSO to the Log on as a service user right on the SharePoint server & Grant SSO the Create and Modify permission on the single sign-on database

14) You manage a SharePoint farm that has two Shared Service Providers (SSPs) to allow the MySites sites for users to be hosted on two different servers. You want to consolidate the MySites sites and deleted the additional SSP.

You need to prepare to delete additional SSP.

What should you do?

ANS: Associate all Web applications with the other SSP.

15) An InfoPath form named Supply Request is added to a Web application. The form needs to access a Web service named Stock Checker on a different Web server than the one running SharePoint. Stock Checker must be accessed using different credentials than those used to access SharePoint.

You need to ensure that users are not prompted for the Stock Checker credentials.

What should you do?

ANS: Enable the Web service proxy on the SharePoint server

16) Users report that new content is not returned in search results when they
perform searches from the root SharePoint site. You need to ensure that
search results display all relevant content for the queries.
What should you do?

A. Restart the Office SharePoint Server Search service.
B. Perform an IIS reset.
C. Restart the Windows Search Service service.
D. Reset all crawled content. Start a full crawl.

Answer: D

17) You need to extend user profiles to include the employee ID property from
Active Directory.
What should you do?

A. Create a new connection to an Active Directory directory service domain
controller.
B. In the root SharePoint site, add an employeelD column to the Contacts list.
C. Create a new user profile property that has import mapping.
D. Create a new profile properties section named employeelD.

Answer: C

18) You access content in a SharePoint Portal Server 2003 area by using a
desktop icon to the following URL:
http://www.contoso.com/c1/technology.
You upgrade the server that runs SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to Microsoft
Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007.
You need to access the migrated content after the upgrade.
What should you do?

A. Run the stsadm command with the syncsolution operator.
B. Run Scan for Broken Links in the site directory.
C. From the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 installation CD,
run the prescan.exe command.
D. Edit the shortcut to reference the new URL.

Answer: D

19) You are planning the migration of a Microsoft Content Management Server
(MCMS) 2002 server to your Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS)
2007 environment. You need to identify the migration tasks that need to be
completed. What should you do on the MOSS server?

A. Run the prescan.exe command from the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
2007 installation CD.
B. Run the stsadm command with the upgradesolution operator.
C. Run the stsadm command with the createcmsprofile operator.
D. Run the CMS Assessment tool.

Answer: D

20) The development team creates a sales application that uses a Microsoft SQL
Server 2005 database. The database contains information that you want to
expose through a Business Data List Web part. You need to configure your
server to support this configuration. What should you do?

A. Request a signed assembly from the development team. Upload the assembly
to the global assembly cache.
B. Create a new content source for the URL of the Microsoft SQL Server
database.
C. Request an application definition file from the development team. Install the
file.
D. Add the URL of the sales application to the trusted file locations list.

Answer: C

21) You store a Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet on an external Web site. You
configure the external Web site to allow anonymous authentication. When
users attempt to open the spreadsheet through Excel Services, they receive an
access denied error. You need to configure your SharePoint server to
ensure that the external Excel spreadsheet is available through Excel
Services.
What should you do?
A. Add a new Excel Services trusted data provider
B. Configure the External Data Unattended Access account for Excel Services.
C. Add a new Excel Services trusted file location.
D. Add a new Excel Services trusted data connection library.
Answer: C

22) A list view Web part named Products displays product names. You need to add another Web part to ensure
that users are able to manually enter filter values on the Products Web part. Which Web part should you add?

A. Search Box
B. Reusable Content
C. Text Filter
D. Business Data List

Answer: C

23) You create a new SharePoint site that uses the Report Center template.
You need to create a new page in the Report Center that contains the following default Web parts:
Excel Web Access
Key Performance Indicators
KPI Details
What should you do?

A. Create a new page in the Report Center that uses the Article page layout.
B. Create a new page in the Report Center that uses the News Home page layout.
C. Create a new site that uses the Document Center template.
D. Create a new dashboard page in the Report Center.

Answer: D

24) You create a Business Data Catalog (BDC) application that queries a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 database. The
content that is exposed through the BDC is not available in search results. You need to make the data available
to searches. What should you do?

A. Assign the Selectable in Clients right to the Administrator account.
B. Add the Document Library Web part to the BDC profile page template.
C. Assign the Copy Selected Permissions to all the Applications and Entities in the Business Data Catalog right to
the Administrator account.
D. Configure a default access account for the BDC application.

Answer: D

25) You need to create a new site that will have
a built-in key performance indicators (KPI) list.
a built-in data connections library.
a built-in reference library.
Which site template should you use to create the new site?

A. Document Center
B. Records Repository
C. Publishing
D. Report Center

Answer: D

So, what do you think?

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 In Zambia

2008-10-02T16:36:00.000+02:00

I wanna kick off my blog with this post.

I would like to share that i have Implemented MOSS 2007 at the largest copper mine in Africa which i work for, with currently 9 collaboration portals being used by the end users. I have also developed some applications into it, some of them which are being used by the accounts dept, a travel system being used by the logistics section, and I just finished working on a help desk system that is also integrating into our MOSS 2007, using Infopath, and 5 workflows (developed in SharePoint Designer)...(thanks to Michael O'Donovan of Microsoft ZA - that meeting while i was at your SA Offices has really paid off mate)

You might wanna know that i first implemented all this on a VMWare infrastructure until a fews days ago when i performed a farm migration to Physical machines, to ease on the resources it was depending on...

Note that this is the first implementation of its kind not just in a mine in Zambia but to the nation as a whole, at such a scale...

So far its accessed by about 2000 users...

Am also developing its Report server, which will connect to MS SQL database. You can imagine how i feel being project manager of this whole project.

Parallel to this is its Governance Documentation and Disaster Recovery Plan that am also almost done with...phewww.....

During my Implementation, I also met Lynn Langit of Microsoft CA - That was a lovely chat we had Lynn, i loved the cake too, thanks for sharing the knowledge...can't wait for that HDD.

I will be telling you more about this along the way...

Welcome to my blog...stay tuned...