Saturday, October 25, 2014

Installing Microsoft Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2012

While trying to set up My Development machine, i have finished installing Visual Studio 2012. For development in SharePoint 2013 we need to have Microsoft Office Developer Tools installed. Microsoft has web installer version for this which can be downloaded from

http://aka.ms/OfficeDevToolsForVS2012

The download file name is OfficeToolsForVS2012RTW

Unfortunately, due to closed environments, Firewall rules, this installer cannot run. It might give the following error

'Unable to Download the product list from, check your network connection and try again. If the problem persists, report the issue on the Web Platform Installer 5.0 forum at:

The following link helped me:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/timquin/archive/2013/01/22/setting-up-visual-studio-2012-for-sharepoint-2013-development-offline.aspx

Thank you so much Tim!!!

Happy SharePointing !

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Extending SharePoint WSS Search

Introduction:

Windows SharePoint Services initially comes with very minimal search capabilities. It do not have advanced search capabilities like MOSS have. The Search Server Express 2008 is an Add on to WSS to avail the advanced search capabilities to WSS such as

- Search by Metadata

- Search by File Type

- Defining Best Bets

- Creating Search Scopes

Installation:

- Download Search Server 2008 Express from the Microsoft Office Enterprise Search Web site. For 32 bit go to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17911

For 64 bit go to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=6666

- Navigate to and run the downloaded file, SearchServerExpress.exe, which is a self-extracting file. The file automatically uncompressed and the Search Server Express installation start screen appears.

- On the Search Server installation Start screen, under Install, click Install Search Server

- On the Read the Microsoft Software License Terms screen, review the terms, select the I accept terms of agreement check box, and then click continue.

- Continue the installation by using one of the following procedures to install Search Server over Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1

- To upgrade an Advanced installation of Windows SharePoint Services SP1

- On the server type screen, click one of the following:

· Complete Installs the application server role and the Web front-end (WFE) server role. We recommend choosing this option under either of the following conditions:

a) This is the first server in your Search Server deployment

b) You want to configure this computer as an application server for the Search Server 2008 farm that you are creating with this upgrade.

· Web Front End Installs only the WFE server role.

- On the Server Type screen:

Optional: in the File Location tab, change the installation path or the location for content index files.

Optional: In the Feedback tab, specify whether you want to participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program.

- On the Server Type screen, change the installation folder if required, and then click Install Now..(For example if the installation folder shows c:\Program files\Microsoft office server then change to d:\Program files\Microsoft office server. The Installation Progress screen appears. This phase of the installation takes several minutes to complete.

- On the next screen, which prompts you to complete the configuration:

a) Ensue that the Run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard now check box is selected.

b) Click Close to start the Configuration Wizard.

- On the Welcome to SharePoint Products and Technologies screen, click Next

- In the dialog box that notifies you that some services might be restarted or reset during configuration, click Yes.

- On the Completing the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard screen, click Next.

- On the Configuration Successful screen, click finish.

- If this is first server in your Windows SharePoint Services farm that you are upgrading to Search Server, a Web browser opens the Search Server Configuration page. You complete this page only once for any Search Server farm.

To complete Search Server Configuration page required settings

1) In the Default Account For Services section, type the user name and password for the default services account.

2) In the Search Center Account section, type the user name and password for the account for the application pool identity of the default Search Center site.

3) In the Search Contact E-mail section, type the e-mail address of a person in your organization.

4) If you do not need to configure any of the settings in the Optional section of the Search

Refer to the below screen captures for reference

Server Configuration page:

a) Click OK.

b) The Operation in Progress page displays the progress of starting services, creating

shared services provider, and creating the Web applications and sites for Central

administration, Search Administration, and the default Search Center site.

c) This configuration takes several minutes. Your Advanced installation and configuration is now complete.

d) On the Search Server Configuration is Complete screen, click OK. A Web browser opens the Welcome to Microsoft Search Server 2008 page, which provides guidance for configuring your Search Server installation.

On the Welcome to Microsoft Search Server 2008 page, follow the instructions to do the following:

i. Open the Search Administration Web site to configure and monitor Search Server.

ii. Begin crawling content to build a content index.

iii. Open the Search Center site to try a search.

Post Installation Steps:

- Create a root site for the newly created web application for search center. It should be of type “Search Center”.

- After this installation is complete in the web.config files check for the “Report Viewer Web part” entries at the Safe Control List and try commenting those. Since this report Viewer web part is not a part of the installer but logging those entries which is not required at all. In fact, these entries cause the error while opening the Central Administration page.

- Check the feature for the web applications and there, the Office Server Enterprise Search and Office Server Site Search must be activated.

Check:

- Open the Central Administration page from the server and on the quick launch there is a SSP created only for the search service. Once clicked on the SSP link it opens the Search Administration Page.

- Try opening simple site and try for simple search. The results should be successful.

- The above steps confirm that the Installation of Search Server Express is successful.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The site collection could not be restored. Please make sure the content databases are available and have sufficient free space

When the restore process ends unexpectedly in middle and when you are trying to do the same restore again this is the error message you would be getting eventhough it had enough space in content DB. This is due to the Orphaned items that are created by previous restore process. We can get the list of orphaned objects by using the STSADM databaserepair command
Syntax:
stsadm -o databaserepair -url -databasename [-deletecorruption]

WEBAPP URL: URL of the web application
CONTETNDBNAME: Name of the content database
-deletecorruption: This parameter is optional. On giving this parameter it deletes Orphaned objects.

Getting List of Orphaned Objects:
stsadm -o databaserepair -url -databasename
Ex: stsadm -o databaserepair -url http://mywebappurl/ -databasename
Below is the screen capture of the list of orphaned objects

Deleting the Orphaned Objects:
stsadm -o databaserepair -url -databasename -deletecorruption
Ex: stsadm -o databaserepair -url http://mywebappurl/ -databasename -deletecorruption
Once this is entered it displays the Orphaned Object ID and the status of it(Deleted). Below is the screen capture for reference

After these two operations you should be able to run the stsadm restore operation. Hope this helps.

Cheers.

Vinay.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

A runtime exception was detected. Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))

Interestingly one fine day, I created a new site collection with me as site collection Administrator in one of the Web Application in Production environment, and tried to access the site from my local machine. I was navigated to "Access Denied" page.

Well I am the site collection administrator. Not sure why this is happening all of sudden, I did the IISRESET on both the WFEs thinking that may be this is causing due to some cache from the IIS. Well again tried my luck here still having the same message. Then i checked the event viewer. Below is the event viewer message
Event Type: Error

Event Source: Office SharePoint Server

Event Category: Office Server General

Event ID: 7888

Date: 1/27/2011

Time: 10:15:07 AM

User: N/A

Computer: ITECOMP
Description:

A runtime exception was detected. Details follow.

Message: Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))

Techinal Details:

System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUtility.HandleAccessDenied(Exception ex)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPGlobal.HandleUnauthorizedAccessException(UnauthorizedAccessException ex)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.AddOrUpdateItem(String bstrUrl, String bstrListName, Boolean bAdd, Boolean bSystemUpdate, Boolean bPreserveItemVersion, Boolean bUpdateNoVersion, Int32& plID, String& pbstrGuid, Guid pbstrNewDocId, Boolean bHasNewDocId, String bstrVersion, Object& pvarAttachmentNames, Object& pvarAttachmentContents, Object& pvarProperties, Boolean bCheckOut, Boolean bCheckin, Boolean bMigration, Boolean bPublish)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListItem.AddOrUpdateItem(Boolean bAdd, Boolean bSystem, Boolean bPreserveItemVersion, Boolean bNoVersion, Boolean bMigration, Boolean bPublish, Boolean bCheckOut, Boolean bCheckin, Guid newGuidOnAdd, Int32& ulID, Object& objAttachmentNames, Object& objAttachmentContents, Boolean suppressAfterEvents)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListItem.UpdateInternal(Boolean bSystem, Boolean bPreserveItemVersion, Guid newGuidOnAdd, Boolean bMigration, Boolean bPublish, Boolean bNoVersion, Boolean bCheckOut, Boolean bCheckin, Boolean suppressAfterEvents)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListItem.Update()

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Internal.LongRunningOperationJob.<>c__DisplayClassb.b__1()

at Microsoft.Office.Server.Diagnostics.FirstChanceHandler.ExceptionFilter(Boolean fRethrowException, TryBlock tryBlock, FilterBlock filter, CatchBlock catchBlock, FinallyBlock finallyBlock)

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Then i tried accessing the existing sites. I can access those but there are issue in the existing sites
- Unable to activate / deactivate any of the features. When trying to Activate / De-activate it was navigating to the "Access Denied" page.
- Unable to run the OOTB SharePoint workflows.
- Unable to change the master pages. When trying to change the master pages from the Site Actions --> Modify all site settings, it was navigating to "Access Denied" page.

Then from the threads i even tried following things
dcomconfg settings and the "Disable Loop back check" options. Well that still didn't resolve this issue. One of the thread suggested to give the content access account full control access at the web application level. I applied that setting by following steps
a) Go to SharePoint Central Administration
b) Under the "Application Security" section click on "Policy for web application".
c) Make sure right web application is selected from the drop down at the right side of Menu bar
d) Click on the service account that is used for content access and make sure that account has "Full Control" permissions. Click Ok.

After these operations
- No Access Denied message while accessing newly created site collections
- No Access Denied message while changing the Master pages.
- No Access Denied message while activating /deactivating any of the features.

Hence we applied this as temporary fix. But this is the typical scenario, since all the other web applications have content access account "Full Read" permissions at the web application level. Something tells me this is not right fix and there should be some permanent fix or somethings that needs to be rechecked.

After some days we installed Nintex on the Production environment. In all sites in other web applications users are able to use the Nintex except for this web application where i applied this Temporary fix for Access Denied Issue. And even users complained that they are unable to use Simple OOTB Approval Workflow in the SharePoint. I checked the logs while running the workflows at that instance(Nintex). The status of the workflow sayd "Failed On Start" and the detailed message says "Workflow Cancelled by service SharePoint SSP account". Below is the log information from the SharePoint logs.

01/28/2011 00:07:22.16 w3wp.exe (0x1B50) 0x1458 Windows SharePoint Services Workflow Infrastructure 72fs Unexpected RunWorkflow: System.ArgumentException: Value does not fall within the expected range. at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowActivationProperties..ctor(SPWorkflow workflow, Int32 runAsUserId, String associationData, String initiationData) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOEWSSService.MakeActivation(SPWorkflow workflow, SPWorkflowEvent e) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOeEngine.RunWorkflow(Guid trackingId, SPWorkflowHostService host, SPWorkflow workflow, Collection`1 events, TimeSpan timeOut) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowManager.RunWorkflowElev(SPWorkflow originalWorkflow, SPWorkflow workflow, Collection`1 events, SPRunWorkflowOptions runOptions)

01/28/2011 00:07:22.16 w3wp.exe (0x1B50) 0x1458 Windows SharePoint Services Workflow Infrastructure 98d7 Unexpected System.ArgumentException: Value does not fall within the expected range. at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowActivationProperties..ctor(SPWorkflow workflow, Int32 runAsUserId, String associationData, String initiationData) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOEWSSService.MakeActivation(SPWorkflow workflow, SPWorkflowEvent e) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOeEngine.RunWorkflow(Guid trackingId, SPWorkflowHostService host, SPWorkflow workflow, Collection`1 events, TimeSpan timeOut) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowManager.RunWorkflowElev(SPWorkflow originalWorkflow, SPWorkflow workflow, Collection`1 events, SPRunWorkflowOptions runOptions)

01/28/2011 00:07:22.24 w3wp.exe (0x1B50) 0x1458 Windows SharePoint Services Database 880l Verbose ConnectionString: 'Data Source=flnshp2p-sqls.corp.pep.pvt\sqlflnshp2p,60020;Initial Catalog=FLNA_Sales_Content;Integrated Security=True;Enlist=False;Connect Timeout=15' ConnectionState: Closed ConnectionTimeout: 15

Note: Nintex was built on top of the SharePoint designer. Hence if Nintex Works SharePoint workflows works and vice-versa)/.

And below is the event viewer log information

Event Type: Error

Event Source: Windows SharePoint Services 3

Event Category: General

Event ID: 6875

Date: 1/18/2011

Time: 8:46:19 PM

User: N/A

Computer: PRODCOMPWFE1
Description:

Error loading and running event receiver Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.Internal.AuditHandler in Microsoft.Office.Policy, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c. Additional information is below.

: Transaction (Process ID 250) was deadlocked on lock resources with another process and has been chosen as the deadlock victim. Rerun the transaction.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Windows SharePoint Services 3

Event Category: None

Event ID: 0

Date: 1/18/2011

Time: 8:46:58 PM

User: N/A

Computer: PRODCOMPWFE1

Description:

Nintex Workflow; Build: 11100 (http://ProdHostSite/_layouts/NintexWorkflow/preview.aspx?ListId=4aa6b188-b2c2-487b-9995-fff1a99ecc06&ItemId=2&WorkflowId=f3bace1e-d33b-4e78-87e3-040a00528ba2&mode=Runtime&InstanceId=fad57eac-e70b-4ab5-9ec3-9238ad028027)

Cannot find history for workflow with instanceId fad57eac-e70b-4ab5-9ec3-9238ad028027. It may have been removed from the database.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Problems after problems. One fix leading to another issue. Not sure what is going on this environment. I thought this is Nintex issue and contacted them with the above information to look for any suggestions from them. Finally they responded and said that this is not the Nintex issue, moreover this is environment issue and posted the following link
http://blog.ozippy.com/2008/02/sharepoint-2007-workflow-on-start.html. Thanks a Lot to Jeremy and Rodney.

After going through this blog, i finally found the root cause for this error or issue. BINGOOOOOOOOOO.................

The issue here is the IIS App pool account and the SharePoint App pool account are not running under same identity. Hence refreshed the app pool identity of the central admin by following steps
- Check the Application pool identity of the web application from the Internet Information Services   Manager .
    a) Log in to the WFE and then click on "Start" --> "Run", then in the window type inetmgr
    b) Expand the "Application pools" then select the application pool that has the issue right click on it and click on "Identity" tab.
    c) Check the "Application Pool" Identity. Below is the screen capture for reference

- Go to SharePoint central Administration and click on the “Operations” tab. Under the “Security configuration” section click on “Service Accounts”.

- In the “Credential Management” section select “Web Application Pool” then select “Windows SharePoint Services Web application”.
- Select “Application Pool” from drop down.
- Select the account as “Configurable” give the service account and respective password.

- Click Ok! these steps refresh the Application Pool Identity.

After I applying these steps there is

- No “Access Denied” message when changing the master pages (Which used to have before)
- No “Access Denied” message while activating and deactivating any feature
- No “Access Denied” message while accessing the newly created sites (for members, owners also for the Site Collection Administrators)
- SharePoint OOTB workflows are running without issues
- Able to Activate Nintex and use it as well

Finally the above steps get rid off this "Access Denied" issue that i have seen so far. This had made my day. In the end i would like to say Happy SharePointing.

Cheers,

Vinay.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

The form has been closed

This is the most common error that occurs while designing the Info-Path form. It also says the form template that is published in the Form library location is invalid. I had this issue a lot of times and most of the times the common thing i was missing while designing the New form is, i am not checking the option "Enable browser-compatible features only" while opening a "Blank" form. Once i am able to check that option while designing the form, then it was working fine for me. below is the screen capture for reference.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of operation or the server is not responding

Last weekend our SQL servers are rebooted. This had the instance of NW2007 configuration DB. on mondya morning the Pending Tasks and the New Tasks are not able to be viewed by the concerned approvers. When approvers clicking on the Tasks they are getting unexpected error. In the event viewer it says "Cannot find a corresponding human workflow task id for this task".

Event Type: Error

Event Source: Windows SharePoint Services 3

Event Category: None
Event ID: 0
Date: 11/22/2010
Time: 9:41:40 AM
User: N/A

Computer: COMPUTERNAME

Description:
Nintex Workflow; Build: 11100 (http://DOMAINNAME/_layouts/NintexWorkflow/ApproveReject.aspx?List=27d20a40-c30f-4a8c-978d-f9a1d772f02f&ID=937&Source=http://DOMAINNAME/AllItems.aspx)

Cannot find a corresponding human workflow task id for this task.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Then we disabled custom error mode to get the detailed error message. Below is the error page information.

It seems like the connection between the Web front ends and the Databases of the Nintex workflow DB is missing.

Nintex suggested to check the connection settings between Web Front End and the server runnning the Nintex Workflow DB. We did the following things to get the issue reolved.

a) Go to SharePoint Central Administratioin --> Application Management
b) Under the Nintex Workflow Management click on "Database setup".
c) EDIT the Configuration Database that is already setup.
d) Following are the settings that has already setup
Database Server, Database Name, ("Connect to an exisiting Database" checked)Database Authentication
is "Windows Authentication".
e) Clicked on "Ok" at the end of the page.

That's it. The magic is it reset the connection between the Web Front End and the Server connecting the Nintex Worklfow database.
Everything is working fine now.
Thanks to the Nintex support for asking to check the connectivity.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

How do i change the Host File Information

In Windows XP the host file information is setup in the following path by default
c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\host

You can edit this file using the note pad and can give the IP names and the host header information there so that it redirects you to the remote sites that are hosted by the servers.

for instance i had the following requirement
156.81.248.28 http://testwip.mycompany.pvt/

If you add this host information in your host file it will redirect you to that location.

SharePoint Stop