My SharePoint Space [MVP SharePoint]

Visual Studio 2011 beta and Windows 8 Consumer Preview

2012-03-01T04:48:00.001+05:30

Microsoft has announced Visual Studio 2011 beta and Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Visual Studio 11 Beta
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/11/en-us

Windows 8 Consumer Preview
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2012/feb12/02-29Windows8CPPR.mspx

Check it out!!

PDF Files in SharePoint Online – Improved Access

2012-02-29T23:53:00.001+05:30

Recently Office 365 received an SharePoint Online: Service Update which comprised of the below mentioned feature support

Enterprise Readiness
Recycle Bin Enhancements
External Content Sharing
PDF Support Enhancements

However, out of the above the one which I really liked was extending the support for PDF files.

Now with this update you can open PDF files directly in Adobe Reader – and the PDF file will remain connected to SharePoint Online. You can also edit and save your changes to SharePoint Online from the desktop. And further, you can now use versioning (check-in and check-out) with PDF files for better management and review.

Note: you should have pdf version 10.1.2 client

More details:
http://community.office365.com/en-us/b/office_365_technical_blog/archive/2012/02/21/sharepoint-online-service-update.aspx

SharePoint Summit 2012

2012-02-19T14:49:00.001+05:30

SharePoint Summit is going to be held in Toronto from May 14-16th

More information and registration

http://www.sharepointsummit.org/Toronto/registration.htm

Windows Azure Trial for 3 months

2012-02-04T20:16:00.001+05:30

Microsoft is offering windows azure free trial for three months

More Details:
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/?WT.mc_id=MSCOM_EN_US_HP_MODULE_123LMUS014358

Farm Solution Deployment Lock and Removal

2012-02-01T17:08:00.001+05:30

Farm Solution Deployment Lock may occur when a solution (.wsp) deployment fails unexpectedly.
Solution Deployment in SharePoint happens through the timer jobs. When you deploy a solution along with the deployment job a timer job named "Solution Deployment Job Lock" is created which store the deployment job's id and the lifetime of the job is till the deployment job is completed. With this SharePoint ensures that no two deployments conflict with each other.

From the above we can conclude that in SharePoint one deployment job happens at a given time courtesy the solution deployment lock. Hence using this feature SharePoint ensures that no more than one deployment or retraction can happen at a given time.

So, why are we discussing this here. Ideally the lock is released once a deployment or retraction has been released, but there might be some cases when this lock doesn't get released i.e. for some reason the timer job responsible for the lock does not get deleted. For instance as mentioned earlier that the solution deployment/retraction is done by a timer job and for some reason the timer service gets terminated leaving the lock unreleased.

To recover from this lock you need to use the following PowerShell command which releases the solution deployment lock.

Remove-SPSolutionDeploymentLock

Stsadm to Windows PowerShell mapping

2012-02-01T16:56:00.001+05:30

For the ones who are well versed with stsadm and switching to PowerShell, the following table provides a mapping of stsadm commands to their PowerShell counterparts

Stsadm operation	Windows PowerShell cmdlet
Activatefeature	Enable-SPFeature
Addalternatedomain	New-SPAlternateUrl
Addcontentdb	Mount-SPContentDatabase New-SPContentDatabase
Addpath	New-SPManagedPath
Addpermissionpolicy	None
Addsolution	Add-SPSolution
Addtemplate	Install-SPWebTemplate
Adduser	New-SPUser
Addwppack	Install-SPWebPartPack
Addzoneurl	New-SPAlternateUrl
Authentication	Set-SPWebApplication Use the AuthenticationMethod or AuthenticationProvider parameters.
Backup	Backup-SPConfigurationDatabase Backup-SPFarm Backup-SPSite
Backuphistory	Get-SPBackupHistory
Binddrservice	None
Blockedfilelist	None
Canceldeployment	None
Changepermissionpolicy	None
Copyappbincontent	None
Createadminvs	New-SPCentralAdministration
Creategroup	None
Createsite	New-SPSite
Createsiteinnewdb	New-SPSite Use the ContentDatabase parameter. New-SPContentDatabase
Createweb	New-SPWeb
Databaserepair	None
Deactivatefeature	Disable-SPFeature
Deleteadminvs	None
Deletealternatedomain	Remove-SPAlternateUrl
Deleteconfigdb	Remove-SPConfigurationDatabase
Deletecontentdb	Dismount-SPContentDatabase
Deletegroup	None
Deletepath	Remove-SPManagedPath
Deletepermissionpolicy	None
Deletesite	Remove-SPSite
Deletesolution	Remove-SPSolution
Deletetemplate	Uninstall-SPWebTemplate
Deleteuser	Remove-SPUser
Deleteweb	Remove-SPWeb
Deletewppack	Uninstall-SPWebPartPack
Deletezoneurl	Remove-SPAlternateUrl
Deploysolution	Install-SPSolution
Deploywppack	Install-SPWebPartPack
Disablessc	None
Displaysolution	Get-SPSolution
Email	None
Enablessc	None
Enumalternatedomains	Get-SPAlternateURL
Enumcontentdbs	Get-SPContentDatabase
Enumdeployments	None
Enumgroups	None
Enumroles	None
Enumservices	Get-SPServiceInstance
Enumsites	Get-SPSiteAdministration (To run this cmdlet, you must be a member of the Farm Administrators group.) Get-SPSite (To run this cmdlet, you must be a local administrator on the computer where SharePoint 2010 Products is installed.)
Enumsolutions	Get-SPSolution
Enumsubwebs	Get-SPWeb
Enumtemplates	Get-SPWebTemplate
Enumusers	Get-SPUser
Enumwppacks	Get-SPWebPartPack
Enumzoneurls	Get-SPAlternateURL
Execadmsvcjobs	Start-SPAdminJob
Export	Export-SPWeb
Extendvs	New-SPWebApplication
Extendvsinwebfarm	New-SPWebApplicationExtension
Forcedeletelist	None
Getadminport	Get-SPWebApplication Use the following syntax: Get-SPWebApplication -IncludeCentralAdministration \| ? {$_.IsAdministrationWebApplication -eq $true}
Getproperty	Get-SPFarmConfig Get-SPTimerJob Disable-SPTimerJob Enable-SPTimerJob Set-SPTimerJob Start-SPTimerJob
Getsitelock	Get-SPSiteAdministration
Geturlzone	Get-SPAlternateURL
Import	Import-SPWeb
Installfeature	Install-SPFeature
Listlogginglevels	Get-SPLogLevel
Localupgradestatus	None
Managepermissionpolicylevel	None
Mergecontentdbs	Move-SPSite
Migrateuser	Move-SPUser
Provisionservice	Start-SPServiceInstance
Refreshdms	None
Refreshsitedms	None
Registerwsswriter	None
Removedrservice	None
Removesolutiondeploymentlock	None
Renameserver	Rename-SPServer
Renamesite	Set-SPSite Use the Url parameter.
Renameweb	Set-SPWeb Use the RelativeUrl parameter.
Restore	Restore-SPFarm Restore-SPSite
Retractsolution	Uninstall-SPSolution
Retractwppack	None
Scanforfeatures	Install-SPFeature Use the Scanforfeatures parameter.
Setadminport	Set-SPCentralAdministration
Setapppassword	None
Setconfigdb	Connect-SPConfigurationDatabase
Setlogginglevel	Set-SPLogLevel
Setproperty	Set-SPFarmConfig Get-SPTimerJob Disable-SPTimerJob Enable-SPTimerJob Set-SPTimerJob Start-SPTimerJob
Setsitelock	Set-SPSiteAdministration Use the LockState parameter.
Setworkflowconfig	Set-SPWorkflowConfig
Siteowner	Set-SPSiteAdministration
Spsearch	Get-SPSearchService Set-SPSearchService Get-SPSearchServiceInstance Set-SPSearchServiceInstance
Spsearchdiacriticsensitive	None
Syncsolution	Install-SPSolution Use the Synchronize parameter.
Unextendvs	Remove-SPWebApplication
Uninstallfeature	Uninstall-SPFeature
Unregisterwsswriter	None
Updateaccountpassword	Set-SPManagedAccount
Updatealerttemplates	None
Updatefarmcredentials	None
Upgrade	None
Upgradesolution	Update-SPSolution
Upgradetargetwebapplication	None
Userrole	Get-SPUser Move-SPUser New-SPUser Remove-SPUser Set-SPUser

Hiding SharePoint Lists

2012-02-01T16:55:00.001+05:30

Sometimes we do feel a need to hide SharePoint Lists. Following are few ways which could some in handy while trying to achieve this objective.

Using SharePoint Designer:

Start SharePoint Designer and open your site.
Click on the “Lists and Libraries” in the Navigation pane
Select the list/library which you need to hide
On the details page check the “Hide from browser” checkbox and save
To unhide the list un-check the checkbox and save

Using Code:

The other way is to obviously do this through code. SPList has a property as Hidden which can be set to true or false

using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://YourSiteUrl"))
                {
                    using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())
                    {
                        SPList list = web.Lists["Announcements"];
                        //Set this property to true or false accordingly
                        list.Hidden = false;
                        list.Update();
                    }
                }

Are you ready for the Microsoft Private Cloud?

2012-01-25T20:20:00.001+05:30

On February 21 & 22 there is a 2-day virtual training event to learn about the upcoming enhancements with the Creating & Managing a Private Cloud

Event Agenda

Day 1: Deployment & Configuration (Feb. 21)
•Part 1: Understanding the Microsoft Private Cloud
•Part 2: Deploying the Infrastructure Components
•Part 3: Deploying the Private Cloud Infrastructure
•Part 4: Deploying the Service Layer
•Part 5: Deploying the Applications & VMs

Day 2: Management & Operations (Feb. 22)
•Part 6: Managing the Infrastructure Components
•Part 7: Managing the Private Cloud Infrastructure
•Part 8: Managing the Service Layer
•Part 9: Managing the Applications & VMs

SharePoint database is currently running in backwards compatible mode

2012-01-22T23:36:00.001+05:30

The other day I saw an error on my SharePoint environment stating the following error
"SharePoint object [SPContentDatabase Name=SharePoint_AdminContent_c8de0fec-7405-48f2-9fef-ed15ae4b1125] is currently running in backwards compatible mode. Please fully upgrade it to ensure optimal performance from this object"

So, what exactly is the message all about, let us understand.

The "Backward compatibility Mode" has been newly introduced in SharePoint 2010.This is a new feature in SharePoint 2010 which allows you to defer the database upgrade even though the binaries on your server are upgraded. So what does that mean

Following scenario depicts how you could enter a "Backward compatibility Mode" (either planned or accidental as in my case)

You install a service pack in your SharePoint environment successfully
But you do not run the "SharePoint Configuration Wizard" which is responsible to update the database or do not run psconfig (for advanced users)

The above steps leave your databases in a "backward compatibility mode". i.e. When the database upgrade is deferred, the databases enter the “backwards compatibility mode”

Pros:

Defer update of database to later date/time to avoid immediate downtime and support high availability for users (The accepted duration of running in this mode would be few days or maybe a week but not more than that)

Cons:

Running for long durations in this mode could lead to undesired results

Catch:

This mode works on a baseline as to what should be the minimum version of database you should be running (if you choose to upgrade the database at a later date). The backward compatibility mode is supposed to be re-based lined with each Service Pack releases, i.e. Service Packs should introduce a compatibility boundary. A compatibly boundary would mean that after a particular Service Pack deployment, we would not be able to upgrade binaries on the server and defer database upgrade. The supported baseline is N-1 range of binaries on servers to database backwards compatibility where N equals to Service Pack build.

Example:

You install SP1 for SharePoint but do not run “SharePoint Configuration Wizard” and hence you enter “backward compatibility mode”
Should you need to install future SP (e.g. SP2) (N) then you must be at least running the database version SP1(N-1)

SharePoint Client Object Model: Read MultiLineText as Plain Text

2012-01-16T21:39:00.001+05:30

While working with SharePoint Client Object Model there might be a need to retrieve value of a multiline rich text as “plain text. Let’s show you how


static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string siteUrl = "http://yoursiteUrl";

            ClientContext clientContext = new ClientContext(siteUrl);
            var web = clientContext.Web;
            var list = web.Lists.GetByTitle("MyList");

            var itemId = "1";
            var listItem = list.GetItemById(itemId);

            //load listitem values as text
            var itemFieldValues = listItem.FieldValuesAsText;

            clientContext.Load(itemFieldValues);
            clientContext.ExecuteQuery();
            
            //retrieve the multiline field value as text
            string multitextValue = itemFieldValues["MyMultiLineTextField"];
            
        }

Azure Pricing Calculator

2012-01-15T22:35:00.001+05:30

The other day while searching around for some information related to Windows Azure I came across the Azure pricing calculator.Very helpful!!

Azure Pricing Calculator:

https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/calculator/

Azure Pricing Calculator (Advanced):

https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/calculator/advanced/

“Cannot generate SSPI context" error message when you access SharePoint

2012-01-14T21:15:00.001+05:30

If you try to Google for this issue you will get various resolutions including a Microsoft support article as well (which are valid for the issue resolution)

However, when I received the same error the source of the error in my case was different.

In my case the domain controller was not running and was the cause of the issue (I use virtual machine for my domain controller which stopped due to some error)

So, next time if you get this error than one of the check points should be if the domain controller is up and running.

You get an error while adding a trusted location in Word 2007 (The path you have entered is not a valid location or cannot be used as a Trusted Location for Security reasons)

2012-01-14T20:57:00.001+05:30

Previous day while adding a trusted location in Word and was presented with this message for no reason…as the path I was entering was a valid path (At least I thought so..)

“The path you have entered is not a valid location or cannot be used as a Trusted Location for Security reasons”

The issue was that Word was not accepting a root web site path as trusted location

http://mysite.mydomain.com –> Did not work

http://mysite.mydomain.com/sites/subsite –> Worked

After some research I figured out that actually I was missing an hotfix mentioned below

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981041/

Microsoft TechEd India 2012 (March 21-23)

2012-01-14T20:30:00.001+05:30

Microsoft TechEd India is back!!! The event will be held between March 21 and 23, 2012 in Bengaluru.

Following are the details:

Event: Microsoft TechEd India 2012

Venue: Bengaluru

Dates: March 21-23

Website: http://india.msteched.com/

Windows PowerShell Command Builder Silverlight Application

2012-01-14T14:45:00.001+05:30

The Windows PowerShell Command Builder for Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products and Microsoft Office 365 is a Silverlight4 application that is designed to help IT professionals and power users learn how to use Windows PowerShell for administrative tasks. The Windows PowerShell Command Builder enables IT professionals and power users to visually assemble commands related to SharePoint 2010 Products and Office 365 in the browser and take those commands to their respective products.

URL:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/TechNet/en-us/Office/media/WindowsPowerShell/WindowsPowerShellCommandBuilder.html

While it is recommend that you run the application online, the Windows PowerShell Command Builder can be optionally used in an offline mode to take advantage of Silverlight 4 Outside the Browser. To use the Windows PowerShell Command Builder in offline mode, right-click anywhere in the application and select Install Windows PowerShell Command Builder.

Happy New Year!!!

2012-01-01T19:22:00.001+05:30

2011 had been a terrific year for me in many ways and will be cherished for long long time to come. I would like to thank each one who played a part in my life during the year gone by. But as they say life goes on & every year teaches us some of life's most important lessons, and with that learning we put our step forward into the new year.

With the advent of new year, a new era begins and with it comes new hopes and new possibilities. We also need to move forward towards new goals, new horizons and newer heights.

With all your help and support I might be able to repeat the year gone by or on an optimistic note even better it in 2012.

Let’s kick the ball rolling…

Wishing a Very Happy New Year to all the readers and their loved ones!!!

Internet Explorer to start getting automatic updates

2011-12-15T23:47:00.001+05:30

In January 2012, Microsoft will begin installing the latest version of Internet Explorer on Windows PCs automatically, via Windows Update. Automatic browser updates will begin rolling out worldwide in Australia and Brazil and will gradually scale up to additional countries and continents over time. Customers running Windows 7 and Windows Vista will be updated to Internet Explorer 9. Those who are using Windows XP will get Internet Explorer 8—the highest version available for that platform.

Visual Studio 2011 and .NET Framework 4.5 developer preview

2011-09-19T00:52:00.001+05:30

The BUILD conference has concluded in Anaheim, California. During the conference Visual Studio 2011 and .NET Framework 4.5 developer preview were announced.

Following are some details on it.

Visual Studio 2011 developer preview

Features

- Develop Metro style Apps for Windows 8
- Enhancements for Game Development
- Code Clone Analysis
- Code Review Workflow

Download and more information

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/hh127353

.NET Framework 4.5 developer preview

Features

- State machine support in Windows Workflow
- Improved support for SQL Server and Windows Azure in ADO.NET
- ASP.NET has increased investments in HTML5, CSS3, device detection, page optimization, as well as new functionality with MVC4

Download and more information

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/hh403373

MSDN Forum Assistant – Assistance at your desktop

2011-09-16T01:26:00.001+05:30

As a developer, are you continuously looking for technical support resources? Frustrated with program crashes? Or struggling to meet your customers expectation? The new MSDN Forum Assistant reduces your efforts of logging in and directs you to the MSDN forum with instant updates, forum FAQs, MSDN priority support queues, and much more! It is like having an expert right on your desktop.

Download link: http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=822a3787-89e8-4c6d-8fc4-a413437d86e9

The MSDN Forum Assistant features the function of directly asking questions in the forum. The MSDN Forum Assistant delivers post updates directly to your desktop; no need to refresh IE. “Thread updates” is definitely the right place to keep on track. You can type your key words in MSDN assistant to search MSDN official Forum directly for related posts. No matter if you are a beginner trying to master basic knowledge, or an experienced developer who still wants to learn more , “Forum Q & A” can get you the hottest questions by Microsoft engineers.

Developers' frequently asked programming tasks in the MSDN forums are the source of Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework sample topics.

Windows 8 – Developer Preview

2011-09-13T23:53:00.001+05:30

Microsoft has unveiled the “Windows 8 – Developer Preview” today at the BUILD conference at Anaheim, California.

The best thing is that Microsoft will be making the the Windows 8 developer preview available later today.

Note:

This is a developer preview, not a beta, and will require a clean install.
The downloads will come in both 32bit(x86) 64 bit(x64) versions without developer tools and also a 64bit version with developer tools.

Mask SharePoint User Details inside a SharePoint list/library

2011-09-10T23:08:00.001+05:30

Working for a recent client there was a need to “mask” user information from a Sharepoint list. The list was intended to store user grievances and complaints and the client did not want to store the information of the user entering the information. It was required to keep the information completely anonymous.

So, I found that the following property of a SPList could be the right thing to do in this case

SPList.ShowUser

The default behaviour of SharePoint is to store the user information like shown below

So, now run the following PowerShell command and see the difference

$web=Get-SPWeb "http://sharepointurl"
$list=$web.Lists["Employee Grievances"]
$list.ShowUser=$false
$list.Update()

So, there you go. Happy SharePoint”ing”

Installing SharePoint 2010 SP1 and June CU

2011-09-04T15:22:00.001+05:30

It is recommend to first apply SP1 to your SharePoint environment because it resets the baseline for your entire SharePoint environment, and prepares your environment for future releases such as the June CU.

The recommended order in which you should apply SharePoint Foundation vs. SharePoint Server Updates. As Per the guidance from the SharePoint team, when applying SP1 or the CU it is recommended to apply the Foundation packages before applying the Server packages.

SharePoint Foundation 2010:

Download SharePoint Foundation 2010 SP1
Download June 2011 CU for SharePoint Foundation 2010
Install SharePoint Foundation 2010 SP1
Reboot Server
Once the server has rebooted, start SharePoint Configuration Wizard and complete the process.
Upon completion you should be able to open Central Administration window.
Verify Upgrade Success: After installing SP1, the version of the content databases will be 14.0.6029.1000

You’ve got a new baseline for future CU's

Install June 2011 CU for SharePoint Foundation 2010
Reboot Server
Once the server has rebooted, start SharePoint Configuration Wizard and complete the process.
Upon completion you should be able to open Central Administration window.
Verify Upgrade Success: After installing the June 2011 CU, the version of the content databases will be 14.0.6106.5000 / 14.0.6106.5002

SharePoint Server Standard/Enterprise 2010:

Download SharePoint Foundation 2010 SP1
Download SharePoint Server SP1
Download June 2011 CU for SharePoint Foundation 2010
Download June 2011 CU for SharePoint Server 2010
Install SharePoint Foundation 2010 SP1
Install SharePoint Server SP1.
Reboot Server
Once the server has rebooted, start SharePoint Configuration Wizard and complete the process.
Upon completion you should be able to open Central Administration window.
Verify Upgrade Success: After installing SP1, the version of the content databases will be 14.0.6029.1000

You’ve got a new baseline for future CU's

Install June 2011 CU for SharePoint Foundation 2010
Install June 2011 CU for SharePoint Server 2010
Reboot Server
Once the server has rebooted, start SharePoint Configuration Wizard and complete the process.
Upon completion you should be able to open Central Administration window.
Verify Upgrade Success: After installing the June 2011 CU, the version of the content databases will be 14.0.6106.5000 / 14.0.6106.5002

SharePoint 2010 “wildcard” search

2011-09-03T18:29:00.000+05:30

Wildcard search was one thing which was very dearly missed in MOSS 2007 and WSS 3.0. SharePoint 2010 has introduced this functionality which is quite helpful. However, though with some caveats

So you perform a search and you do not get any results and you keep wondering what have you done wrong

You have to search for “Brian” and you enter the following to search and do not get any results

e.g. Bria (this will not return you results starting with “Bria”)

That is correct behaviour as Sharepoint supports wildcard search only if you append “ * ”at the end of your keyword

e.g. Bria* (this will return you all the results starting with “Bria”)

Wildcard searches can be used in property searches as well

e.g. Author:Bria* (this will return all results where Author starts with “Bria”)

Also, wildcards only work at the end of a search string,

A wildcard at the beginning of a string will not be recognized, so searching for

e.g. "*rian" (this will not return you any results)

Checking if a site is a publishing site programmatically

2011-09-03T18:25:00.000+05:30

There are time when you need to check if a site is a “Publishing Site”. Use the following code snippet to check if a site is a publishing site or not

SPSite site = SPContext.Current.Site;

if (PublishingSite.IsPublishingSite(site))
{
    //it is a publishing site
}
else
{
    throw new System.ArgumentException("The SPSite is not a Publishing Site", "site");
}

Similarly, if you want to check for the Publishing Web the use the following snippet

SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Web;

PublishingWeb publishingWeb = null;
if (PublishingWeb.IsPublishingWeb(web))
{
    publishingWeb = PublishingWeb.GetPublishingWeb(web);
}
else
{
    throw new System.ArgumentException("The SPWeb is not a PublishingWeb", "web");
}

Till then happy coding!!

Minimize a SharePoint web part programmatically

2011-09-03T17:44:00.001+05:30

We have lot of times minimized a web part on a SharePoint page. That day there was a requirement to minimize the web part programmatically. It’s simple, see it how


this.ChromeState = PartChromeState.Minimized;

ChromeState options are Minimized or Normal, with Normal being the default. Normal will display your Web Part on the site in its entirety, whereas Minimized will display only the Web Part's title bar

SharePoint Web Application virtual directory folders and files significance

2011-09-03T17:10:00.001+05:30

Whenever we create a new “Web Application” in SharePoint few things are created in background. What I mean to say that creation/provisioning of a web application leads to creation of a few things in background

An IIS Site
A content database
A virtual directory

Today, I am going to focus on the “virtual directory” and it’s significance.

“Virtual Directory” is just a container of files. It's just a logical way to organize your web-site and physical directories . Typically the virtual directory for SharePoint web application is created at the following location

e.g. C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\80

If you have a look at this directory it typically has the following files and folders. Let’s have a look at each of them and their significance

_app_bin	The _app_bin folder was designed to hold application assemblies which were previously installed in _layouts/bin. Web Part assemblies are not supposed to be installed in this folder. Put your assemblies in GAC or the bin, but not the _app_bin.
_vti_pvt	This folder is used by FrontPage Extensions/SharePoint Designer. It contains Legacy FrontPage Server Extensions files/folders. The reason for having these folders is that they provide the underlying infrastructure files for the many features SharePoint Designer provides.
Bin	Contains compiled assemblies (.dll files) for controls, components, or other code that you want to reference in your application. Any classes represented by code in the Bin folder are automatically referenced in your application.
App_Browsers	Contains browser definitions (.browser files) that ASP.NET uses to identify individual browsers and determine their capabilities.
App_GlobalResources	Contains resources (.resx and .resources files) that are compiled into assemblies with global scope. Resources in the App_GlobalResources folder are strongly typed and can be accessed programmatically.
wpresources	Contains configuration file for Web Parts
aspnet_client	This directory contains JavaScript files that are used by the ASP.NET runtime for client-side validation functionality This directory is created automatically when ASP.NET is enabled on your site. This directory is not required for ASP.NET applications to run. It is only required if you are using client-side validation with ASP.NET server validation controls.
Global.asax	The Global.asax file, also known as the ASP.NET application file, is an optional file that contains code for responding to application-level events raised by ASP.NET or by HttpModules.
Web.config	The Web.config file is the primary configuration file having all the configuration details for the web application (IIS site)

SharePoint 2010 Tips and Tricks with CSS

2011-08-28T15:09:00.001+05:30

While working with SharePoint projects I am sure you all would have been asked by the customers for implementing something which you would at the first place say “no” or “not possible”. But as they say the customer is always right and you need to give in to customers demand. Following are few things which I needed to implementation while working on a recent intranet portal which I would like to share with you so that it helps somebody out there.

Edit the Page where you need to apply the styles
Add a “Content Editor Web part” on the page and make it hidden
Add the following to the content editor web part if you need to apply all the four customizations mentioned below OR pick and choose according to your requirement

<style>
/*--------Hide the columns--------*/
.ms-viewheadertr { 
    display: none;
}
/*---------Hide the Add Document option-------*/
.ms-addnew { 
    display: none;
}
/*---------Remove the new image icon on newly added documents-------*/
IMG.ms-newgif {
    display:none;
}
/*---------Hide the web part selection checkbox------*/
.ms-WPHeaderTdSelection
{
display: none;
}
</style>

Note: If you need to apply these settings to complete site then you should add it to a css document and reference that document in your master page

Hide the “New” icon on newly added documents in document library

Before:

After:

Hide the “Add document” link on a SharePoint document library

Before:

After:

Hide the “Columns” in SharePoint document library

Before:

After:

Hide the “selection” checkbox

Before:

After:

Show custom error message instead of Web part access denied – SharePoint 2010

2011-08-27T15:33:00.001+05:30

Many times while using “ListViewWebPart” you get the following error if the user does not have access to the list/library
“Error “Web Part Error: Access denied. You do not have permission to perform this action or access this resource”

Though the error is kind of explanatory but is not very user friendly. I have getting demands from lot of customers to replace this error with a custom error message. Let us see how we can achieve this using Jquery
1. Download latest version of Jquery
2. Edit Page where you have added you ListViewWebPart and add a “Content Editor Web part” at the end of the page. Make the web part hidden
3. Add the following JavaScript to the “Content Editor Web Part”

<script type="text/javascript" src="/Shared%20Document/jquery.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(
function() {
$('div[errorwebpart="1"]').text('The content of this section is restricted to authorized users only.');
$('div[errorwebpart="1"]').addClass("ms-vb2");
}
);
</script>

Note: the path for the Jquery should be your path for the Jquery file
Once done you will be able to see the custom message instead of generic Sharepoint message

How to get Site Column Id in SharePoint without writing code (using UI)

2011-08-17T23:38:00.001+05:30

Many a times we need site column id to be used somewhere or the other and for that we might require to get it reasonably quickly and moreover without having to write any code to fetch it.

I am going to show you how you can do that, let’s begin

Step1: Navigate to Site Settings of your SharePoint Site

Step2: Select “Site Content Types” from the Galleries group. It will show you list of content types as below

Step3: Select the content type which contains your site column. It will display the settings page for the content type as below

Step4: Select the column for which you need to get the ID. It will take you to the column settings page as shown below

Step5: While on this page notice the URL in your browser, which will be similar to below

http://yoursiteurl/_layouts/ManageContentTypeField.aspx?ctype=0x010105&Field=UIVersion&Fid={8e334549-c2bd-4110-9f61-672971be6504}

Notice that the Fid at the end of the URL is your site column Id

Important note:
In your browser URL, this string may be encoded, so what you see is this:
Fid=%7B8e334549%2Dc2bd%2D4110%2D9f61%2D672971be6504%7D

Explanation of the encoding:

%7B = “{“

%2D = “-“

%7D = “}”

Hope this helps somebody out there

Extending the SharePoint Security Trimmed Control to support SharePoint Groups

2011-08-14T21:22:00.000+05:30

We all know that (SPSecurityTrimmedControl) SharePoint Security Trimmed Control comes to our rescue when we need to show role/permission based data in SharePoint. It helps you Conditionally renders the contents of the control to the current user only if the current user has permissions defined in the PermissionString.

<Sharepoint:SPSecurityTrimmedControl runat=”server” Permissions=”ManageLists”>
Place your control(s) here
</SharePoint:SPSecurityTrimmedControl>

All this is good and works fine for most of the scenarios, however you may seldom find a need to be able to add a “SharePoint Group” instead of a “PermissionString”

So, let’s tell you how…

The idea is to create your wrapper control to support this feature. Let’s get started

Create a custom Web Control and write down the required logic based on your requirements. This should inherit from SPSecurityTrimmedControl

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;

namespace SPSecurityTrimmedControlExtender
{
    public class SPUserGroupTrimmedControl : SPSecurityTrimmedControl
     {
         private List groups = new List();

         public string GroupsString
         {
             get
             {
                 return string.Join(",", groups.ToArray());
             }
             set
             {
                 groups.AddRange(
                     value.Split(new char[] { ',' },
                    System.StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
                     );
             }
         }

         protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter output)
         {
             if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(GroupsString) && IsMember())
             {
                 base.Render(output);
             }
         }

       private bool IsMember()
       {           
           using (SPWeb web = new SPSite(SPContext.Current.Web.Url).OpenWeb())
           {
               bool isMember = false;
               foreach (string group in groups)
               {
                   isMember = web.IsCurrentUserMemberOfGroup(web.Groups[group].ID);
               }
               return isMember;
           }           
       }   
   }
}

Now, put this assembly in GAC and add a safe control entry in the web.config of you web application.

You are now ready to use this in your web page or master page by registering it.

<%@ Register TagPrefix="MyUserGroupExtender" Assembly="SPSecurityTrimmedControlExtender, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=121fae78165ba3d4" %>


    //your control to show to the specified group only

And you are done!!!

Error: Trying to use an SPWeb object that has been closed or disposed and is no longer valid.

2011-08-14T20:41:00.001+05:30

You may have noticed this error while doing SharePoint development. I also faced it the other day hence thought of penning it down so that someone else could benefit from this
You typically get this error when you unknowingly try to dispose the SharePoint Objects. We try to perform the SharePoint best practices and this sometime may lead to few nervy moments during development.
For e.g.
The following code will give you the above mentioned error “Trying to use an SPWeb object that has been closed or disposed and is no longer valid”

using(SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Web)
{
   //your code
}

At the first look nothing seems wrong with the above code, but the real culprit is the using statement above as it automatically disposes the SPWeb object. SPContext allows you to reference to the object SharePoint has created and hence should not be disposed as it will destabilize SharePoint operations.

So the moral of the story is to do not dispose the SPContext objects in your code.

SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Web

Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games (PREVIEW)

2011-08-07T23:21:00.001+05:30

Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games (PREVIEW)!

This toolkit allows you to quickly get started building new social games in Windows Azure. It includes accelerators, libraries, developer tools, and samples; it also has specific services and code to handle capabilities unique to games, such as storing user profiles, maintaining leader boards, in-app purchasing, and so forth.

In addition to releasing the toolkit, we have also teamed with industry innovator Grant Skinner and his team to create a game called Tankster.

Tankster is built with HTML5 and comes complete with reusable service-side code and documentation. It also supports a variety of social interactions including messaging, wall posts, and comments while player achievements and game stats are presented on a live leader board so gamers can interact with each other—what’s a social game without being able to talk trash?

To learn more about the toolkit, take a look at the following resources:

Windows Azure Team Blog: Build Your Next Game with the Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games
WA.com: Social Gaming on Windows Azure
Channel 9: Social Gaming on Windows Azure
Venture Beat: Microsoft Tailors [Windows] Azure Cloud Services to Social Game Developers
Mary Jo: Microsoft delivers early build of Windows Azure toolkit for social-game developers
CodePlex: Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Gaming
Tankster: http://www.tankster.net/

MVP Award Kit 2011 Unboxing

2011-07-26T00:11:00.001+05:30

Finally I received my MVP Award Kit and felt really happy while unboxing the same. Following are some snaps of the award and certificate.

The kit contains:

Glass-made award
Certificate
Plastic card w/ MVP ID
MVP Pin
NDA agreement

I’m very excited and honoured by having this reward as it shows recognition from Microsoft towards my continuous contribution to the community.

Again, thanks to all of my readers, followers and supporters. And Microsoft as well!!!

Windows Azure Accelerator for Web Roles

2011-07-21T23:53:00.001+05:30

I am excited to share the release of the Windows Azure Accelerator for Web Roles. This accelerator makes it quick and easy for you to deploy one or more websites across multiple Web Role instances using Web Deploy. While the Windows Azure Tools & SDK provide support for Web Deploy it is limited to a single instance, does not preserve state on role lifecycle events, and can only be used for development and testing purposes. This accelerator expands on the capabilities of the Windows Azure Tools & SDK to enable Web Deploy in production scenarios.

The Windows Azure Accelerator for Web Roles contains the following features:

· Deploy sites to Windows Azure in less than 30 seconds

· Enables deployments to multiple Web Role instances using Web Deploy

· Saves Web Deploy packages & IIS configuration in Windows Azure storage to provide durability

· A web administrator portal for managing web sites deployed to the role

· The ability to upload and manage SSL certificates

· Simple logging and diagnostics tools

Call To Action

· Try the Accelerator. It is easy to download, install, and deploy. You can download the bits here: http://waawebroles.codeplex.com/releases/

· Watch the Screen cast. The screen cast explains exactly how to use the accelerator in under 6 minutes. Watch it here: http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Getting-Started-with-the-Windows-Azure-Accelerator-for-Web-Roles

Resources

Channel 9 Video: Getting Started with the Windows Azure Accelerator for Web Roles

Intro Blog Post: Introducing the Windows Azure Accelerator for Web Roles

Full details, instructions, and documentation are available on CodePlex

Home Page
Setup and Configuration
Deploying the Web Host to Windows Azure
- Add or Modify Service Endpoints
- Administrator Portal Credentials
Creating and Deploying a Website using Web Deploy
- Creating the Application
- Setting up Bindings
- Configuring SSL Certificates
- Deploying from Visual Studio
- Deploying from Web Matrix
- Setting the Machine Key
Troubleshooting
Change Log

Clean Project - Cleans Visual Studio Solutions For Uploading or Email

2011-07-21T23:42:00.001+05:30

How many times have you wanted to send a project to a friend or upload it to a web site like MSDN Code Gallery only to find that your zip file has lots of stuff that you don't need to send in it making the file larger than it needs to be.

bin folder
obj folder
TestResults folder
Resharper folders

And then if you forget about removing Source Control bindings whoever gets your project will be prompted about that. As someone who does this process a great deal I decided to share with you my code for cleaning a project.

Learn More:

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Clean-Cleans-Visual-Studio-a05bca4f

Technorati Tags: visual studio

Change workflow start settings of VS 2010 sequential workflow

2011-07-10T13:26:00.000+05:30

While trying to develop a VS 2010 sequential workflow at the start you get a nice wizard which allows you to provide all the necessary details like association information, initiation information etc...

But, once you are done with the wizard and felt the need to change some setting afterwards?? I can see that curiosity..

For Example: While using the wizard you specified the workflow to start manually as well as on item created as below

But, afterwards you feel the need to start the workflow on item changed as well, then how do you do that

If you want to modify the settings provided by the Visual Studio 2010 wizard, you can select the workflow Sharepoint project item in the VS 2010 project/solution, this will display its property page and then you can change the settings and set the following to "True" from "False"

Start at Item Change - "True"

Following are the other start settings also available which you can set as per your requirement.

Allow Manual Start
Start at Item Change
Start at Item Creation

Hope this help someone save some time.

Set a Default View for a document library using Powershell

2011-07-04T21:26:00.001+05:30

I have tried to elude myself from Powershell till now (really not sure why). However, finally the trend broke few days back when someone needed my help to do the following and I had o dive in

$site= New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite ("http://siteUrl")
$web=$site.OpenWeb()
$list=$web.Lists["MyList"]
$view=$list.Views["MyView"]
$view.DefaultView = $true
$view.Update()
$list.Update()

Do you use SharePoint?? - I Use SharePoint (IUseSharePoint)

2011-07-03T19:10:00.000+05:30

So, yes the question is do you use SharePoint??

If the answer is "Yes", then you should visit the following site to know what can "you" do and moreover what other are doing with SharePoint.

Even if your answer is "No" the too I will recommend you visiting the site to know if you can start using SharePoint now on-wards :-)

Microsoft has launched a site www.IUseSharePoint.com a one stop place to get quick tips on various common SharePoint functions as well as stories of people already using Share Point in their organization

Do pay a visit:
www.IUseSharePoint.com

I am Microsoft SharePoint Server MVP - 2011

2011-07-03T18:21:00.001+05:30

Hello Everybody,

Friday, 1st July had a sweet surprise in store for me. I received an email from Microsoft stating that I have been awarded as the SharePoint Server MVP for 2011. Frankly speaking I couldn't believe that I was the intended recipient of the email. But, after going through the email compltely (more than couple of times) I confirmed that it indeed was targeted for me.

I would admit that I did dream of becoming an MVP and this was very much like a dream come true. I really feel very honored and humbled on being part of the elite group of expert people around the world.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have directly or indirectly contributed in this achievement.

Finally,

Thank You Microsoft!!!

Thanks,
Dhirendra Yadav

Add link to Top Link bar or Quick launch programmatically

2011-07-02T20:22:00.000+05:30

using (var site = new SPSite(webUrl))
   {
    var rootPubweb = PublishingWeb.GetPublishingWeb(site.RootWeb);
     var subwebs = rootPubweb.GetPublishingWebs();
    
     SPNavigationNodeCollection nodes = site.RootWeb.Navigation.TopNavigationBar;
                                  //OR
     SPNavigationNodeCollection nodes = Navigation.QuickLaunch;
    SPNavigationNode navNode = new SPNavigationNode(“New Link”, “/Pages/mylib/Allitems.aspx”, false);
    nodes.AddAsFirst(navNode);
  
}

Set User Profile properties programmatically

2011-07-02T20:20:00.000+05:30

using Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;

SPSite site = new SPSite("http://siteUrl");
SPServiceContext context = SPServiceContext.GetContext(site);
UserProfileManager uprofileManager = new UserProfileManager(context);

if (uprofileManager.UserExists(sAccount))
      {
        UserProfile up = uprofileManager.GetUserProfile(sAccount);
        up[PropertyConstants.Department].Value = "";
        up[PropertyConstants.JobTitle].Value = "";
        up.Commit();
       }
site.Dispose();

How to check permissions for SPUser to read SPFile

2011-07-02T20:18:00.000+05:30

SPFile file = SPContext.Current.Web.GetFile(relativeUrl);

    if (file != null)
    {
     file.Item.DoesUserHavePermissions(SPContext.Current.Web.CurrentUser, SPBasePermissions.OpenItems);
    }

SharePoint Server 2010 SP1 Released

2011-06-30T23:08:00.000+05:30

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) provides the latest updates for SharePoint Server 2010.

Overview of SharePoint Server 2010 SP1 improvements

Specifically, these are the key areas of improvement in SP1:

Improved support for Internet Explorer 9.
Recycle bin: Lets you restore a site collection or a web that was deleted.
Remote Backup Systems (RBS) and shallow copy can decrease downtime and increase efficiency by moving pointers to databases instead of moving databases.
You can see which folders are taking up valuable space with the improved Storage Management feature in site settings.
Support for Microsoft SQL Server 2011.
A more robust Search Host Distribution service that improves error recovery and performance during the search crawl.
Adds backup and restore functionality to recover deleted site collections and webs.

Download:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26623

Microsoft Launches Office 365 Globally

2011-06-28T22:09:00.000+05:30

Today, at media events around the world, Microsoft Corp. announced the availability of Microsoft Office 365, the company’s newest cloud service. Office 365 is now available in 40 markets, and it brings together Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Lync Online in an always-up-to-date cloud service, at a predictable monthly subscription.

Office 365 offers a range of service plans for a predictable monthly price from $2 to $27 per user per month. With Office 365 for small businesses, customers can be up and running with Office Web Apps, Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online and an external website in minutes, for $6 (U.S.) per user, per month. These tools put enterprise-grade email, shared documents, instant messaging, video and Web conferencing, portals, and more at everyone’s fingertips.

Office 365 for enterprises has an array of choices, from simple email to comprehensive suites to meet the needs of midsize and large businesses, as well as government organizations. Customers can now get Microsoft Office Professional Plus on a pay-as-you-go basis with cloud-based versions of the industry’s leading business communications and collaboration services. Each of these plans comes with the advanced IT controls, innovative security technologies, 24/7 IT support and reliability customers expect from Microsoft.

Visit for more information
http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/office365/online-software.aspx

Microsoft Office Division to Make Announcement: Office 365

2011-06-27T23:25:00.000+05:30

Microsoft Corp. will announce news from its Office Division live from New York via webcast on June 28 from 10 to 11 a.m. EDT

When: Tuesday, June 28, 10–11 a.m. EDT

What: News from the Microsoft Office Division detailing the latest on Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft’s next-generation cloud service.

Who: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will share the news.

Where: Live via webcast at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/office/online/Default.aspx

Register a PDF IFilter for SharePoint 2010 (Foundation and Other Versions)

2011-06-19T20:54:00.000+05:30

To Install an configure PDF Ifilter on SharePoint Foundation Installation follow the below steps

Install PDF iFilter 9.0 (64 bit) from http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4025

Download PDF icon picture from Adobe web site http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html and copy to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\IMAGES\

Add the following entry in docIcon.xml file, which can be found at: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\XML

Add the new entry (value is the name of image for pdf in Images directory of sharepoint in step 2)

<Mapping Key="pdf" Value="pdf.gif"/>

Copy the below content to a VBS file and save it (I.E save file name as AddExtension.vbs)

-----------------

Sub Usage

    WScript.Echo "Usage:    AddExtension.vbs extension"
    WScript.Echo

end Sub

Sub Main

    if WScript.Arguments.Count < 1 then
                Usage
                wscript.Quit(1)
   end if

    dim extension
    extension = wscript.arguments(0)

    Set gadmin = WScript.CreateObject("SPSearch4.GatherMgr.1", "")

    For Each application in gadmin.GatherApplications
        For Each project in application.GatherProjects
                    project.Gather.Extensions.Add(extension)
                Next
    Next

End Sub

call Main

-----------------------

Copy the above script file to Sharepoint Foundation 2010 Server

Run it from Command Prompt
> WScript AddExtension.vbs pdf

Register PDF ifilter as below:
4-1.       Find regkey "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\14.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\"
4-2.       Right-Click – [New]-[Key]. Then specify key name ".pdf"
4-3.       Right-Click (Default) of above ".pdf" key then click "Modify"
4-5.       Specify value "{E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}"
4-6.       Restart SPSearch4

Run crawl as below
>stsadm –o spsearch –action fullcrawlstart

Confirm the pdf files can be found in search results

To Install an configure PDF Ifilter on SharePoint Standard OR Enterprise

1.Install PDF iFilter 9.0 (64 bit) from http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4025

Download PDF icon picture from Adobe web site http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html and copy to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\IMAGES\

Add the following entry in docIcon.xml file, which can be found at: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\XML

Add the new entry (value is the name of image for pdf in Images directory of sharepoint in step 2)

<Mapping Key="pdf" Value="pdf.gif"/>

Add pdf file type on the File Type page under Search Service Application

Open regedit

Navigate to the following location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\14.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension

Right-click > Click New > Key to create a new key for .pdf

Add the following GUID in the default value

{E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}

Restart the SharePoint Server Search 14

Reboot the SharePoint servers in Farm

Create a Test site (with any out-of-box site template) and create a document library upload any sample PDF document(s).

Perform FULL Crawl to get search result.

Once the crawl is completed we will get search results.

Microsoft Theme Builder

2011-06-05T21:29:00.000+05:30

Great tool to create SharePoint 2010 themes

Download:
http://connect.microsoft.com/themebuilder

Office 365: What you should know??

2011-05-03T10:08:00.000+05:30

The topic of cloud computing continues to dominate the IT landscape. Cloud computing allows organizations to get fast access to computing resources, without constantly having to invest in new infrastructure, train new personnel or license new software. With the benefits of cloud in mind, many IT and business leaders no longer ask themselves whether to move to the cloud, but rather ‘how’ and ‘when’, and are looking for answers. So, let’s explore Microsoft’s new Cloud offering “Office 365”

What is Office 365??

“Microsoft Office 365 is a subscription service that combines the familiar Microsoft Office Web Apps with a set of web-enabled tools that are easy to learn and use, that work with your existing hardware, and that come backed by the robust security, reliability, and control you need to run your business.”

In simple terms it is set of services hosted online (or as they say today “in the cloud”) and you can subscribe for them based on your needs.

The Microsoft Office 365 service offering combines the familiar Office desktop suite with the latest, cloud-based versions of our next-generation communications and collaboration services: Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, and Microsoft Lync Online. These services work together seamlessly to provide the best productivity experience on PCs, phones, and browsers*. Office 365 is powered by the same Microsoft email and collaboration products that businesses have been using for decades

What is included in Office 365??

The following are part of Office 365

- Microsoft Office Professional Plus

- Microsoft Exchange Online

- Microsoft SharePoint Online

- Microsoft Lync Online

Why Office 365?

Microsoft Office 365 takes the industry’s most recognized set of productivity and collaboration tools and delivers them as a subscription service. With our cloud services, your organization can lower overall costs and deliver the right set of tools for the right users, all with appropriate layers of security and compliance. Microsoft is a trusted provider—millions of customers use the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Services suite today. And, Office 365 includes a financially-backed service level agreement, allowing you to feel confident that you chose the best cloud solution.

Cost savings.

In these difficult economic times, many customers look at online services as a way to shift from the large, ‘lumpy’ capital expenditures associated with upgrading every few years to a more predictable monthly operating expense. In case studies of Microsoft Online Services customers, companies have claimed between 30-50% cost savings.

Focus resources on high value-add projects.

The simplified administration and offloaded operational maintenance of the cloud services enable you to make the most of your IT people resources, to focus on projects that are core to your business and drive competitive differentiation.

Gain greater efficiency in your processes.

More efficient processes can be enabled through the elimination of multiple infrastructure platforms, by moving to one cloud solution. Or being able to execute business processes more effectively by being able to reach all parts of the organization, enabling better collaboration between teams who are distributed throughout the world.

Drive greater value from IT investments with latest technology.

Provide your employees with access to the latest technology making them more productive, and quickly leveraging your IT investments. It not only makes your employees more productive, it maximizes the value you get for your investment. Online services can greatly accelerate this process. And the ability to purchase exactly what you need now and expand later if necessary enables you to ‘right size’ those investments.

How Office 365 works??

The Microsoft Online Subscription Program allows you to quickly subscribe to Office 365, deploy services, and manage your user licenses through a simple online management tool.

Various plans offer different combinations of services and products to meet the needs of your organization.

• Microsoft Office 365 is licensed on a flexible, per-user per-month subscription plan with predictable annual costs and without a contract, enabling you to scale the services when it makes sense.

• Microsoft manages the IT infrastructure and activates the software so that you can very quickly deploy Office 365 services. Only a PC, Internet connection, and browser are required for activation.

There are three versions for Office365;

1. Small Business,

2. Enterprise

3. Education

Small Business Definition: Organizations with 1–25 users (max 50) and virtually no IT department

Enterprise Definition: Organizations with more than 50 users (bigger companies)

The Enterprise edition comes in 4 flavours (E1 - E4), while there's only 1 Small Business plan (P1).

How to check the SharePoint Installation Type

2011-05-02T23:41:00.000+05:30

Ever felt a need to find out what type of SharePoint Installation are you running???

Here is how, you can find out the type of SharePoint Installation that was done on the machine\box

Open Up Registry Editor on the server and navigate to the following path

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\14.0\WSS

There will be an entry for "ServerRole" which will tell you the installation type

Stand Alone - SINGLESERVER

Web Front End - WFE

Farm Complete - APPLICATION

April 2011 CU for SharePoint 2007 and 2010 has been released today - Stefan Goßner - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

2011-04-30T00:52:00.000+05:30

April 2011 CU for SharePoint 2007 and 2010 has been released today - Stefan Goßner - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Demystifying SharePoint 2010 Licensing – Part 1

2011-04-24T15:08:00.000+05:30

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is an enterprise collaboration tool from Microsoft which comes with lot of features like document management, collaboration, business intelligence, enterprise search and many more. SharePoint was initially released 10 years ago and since then has underwent lot of modifications and changes,The popularity and adoption of SharePoint among the enterprises also has risen meteorically during this period of time. However, the licensing for this product still remains a mystery for lot of people, time and again there are queries from customers and partners about how exactly the licensing works for SharePoint.

So let's try and demystify the various facets of the SharePoint Licensing. It's gonna be a long journey so it's advisable to grab a cup of coffee to keep you hooked on to this till the very end (:-) just kidding!!!)

So, before we start to understand SharePoint Licensing let's understand what are the various types/editions of SharePoint available

SharePoint Foundation
SharePoint Server 2010 – Standard
SharePoint Server 2010 – Enterprise
SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites – Standard
SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites – Enterprise

Before we dig more deep into other facets of SharePoint Licensing facets let's understand some key concepts which will help us understand the licensing in a better way

External Connector Licensing:
An external user is a person who is not an employee or similar personnel of the company or its affiliates, and is not someone to whom you provide hosted services. Each physical server that external users access requires only one EC license regardless of the number of software instances running.

CAL:
If the workstations in your organization are networked, you likely depend on network server software to perform certain functions, such as file and print sharing. To legally access this server software, a Client Access License, or CAL, may be required. A CAL is not a software product; rather, it is a license that gives a user the right to access the services of the server

User CAL:
With the User CAL, you purchase a CAL for every user who accesses the server to use services such as file storage or printing, regardless of the number of devices they use for that access. Purchasing a User CAL might make more sense if your company employees need to have roaming access to the corporate network using multiple devices, or from unknown devices, or simply have more devices than users in your organization.

E.g. An employee in your organization will be able to access the SharePoint site from multiple devices since the CAL is associated to an user. The user is free to connect from any supported devices Desktop, Laptop, Mobile Devices, etc

Device CAL:
With a Device CAL, you purchase a CAL for every device that accesses your server, regardless of the number of users who use that device to access the server. Device CALs may make more economic and administrative sense if your company has workers who share devices, for example, on different work shifts.

E.g. The best example of a device CAL which comes to my mind is any device placed in a cyber cafe or a library where user change but the device remains the same. Any number of users can connect to a SharePoint site using the same device

Per Processor Licensing:
Under the Per Processor model, you acquire a Processor License for each processor in the server on which the software is running. A Processor License includes access for an unlimited number of users to connect from either inside the local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), or outside the firewall (via the Internet). You do not need to purchase additional server licenses, CALs, or Internet Connector Licenses.

So, with the background set let's understand this step by step.

SharePoint Foundation:
SharePoint Foundation is the free version of SharePoint. Did I say “free”- Yes I did and it is no hangover from the late Friday night :-). SharePoint Foundation comes free with Windows Server 2008 License. So if you buy a Windows Server 2008 License you get SharePoint Foundation free with it. However to run SharePoint Foundation on Windows Server 2008 you need to have proper Windows Server 2008 licenses.

SharePoint Server 2010:
SharePoint Server is the enhanced counterpart of the Foundation version and it is not free. You need to buy licenses for SharePoint Server 2010 if you need to use it. SharePoint Server 2010 is offered in two flavors viz. Standard and Enterprise

SharePoint Server 2010 Standard = SharePoint Foundation + Additional Features
SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise = SharePoint Standard + Additional Features

In SharePoint Server 2010 there exists three different types of deployment “internal” “external” and “mixed”

Internal	External	Mixed Deployment
Content available for the Internal Employees	Content available for Non-Employees/External Employees	Content available to both Employees and Non-Employees
Internal Deployment of SharePoint is the deployment which is accessed by internal employees, typically an intranet.	External Deployment of SharePoint is the deployment which is accessed by the users who are employees, typically a public facing website or extranet	Mixed Deployment is the deployment where the content is available to internal as well as external employees
Licensing: SharePoint Server 2010 License (Standard or Enterprise) + Appropriate Client Licenses (CAL's)	Licensing: SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites (Standard or Enterprise) + Appropriate Client Licenses (CAL's)	Licensing: Appropriate internal as well as external license required if content is both internal and external

Some Points to remember

SharePoint follows the traditional client/server model
SharePoint Server license is required on every server in the SharePoint Farm
No CALs are required for SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites

Let’s move forward…and discuss about some other Licenses which you need (typically not accounted for) in case of SharePoint Licensing. I do not blame those guys on missing out these because getting hold of SharePoint Licensing is a challenge!!

I am talking about the OS and DATABASE Licensing here. Yes, to run SharePoint you require a machine with OS as well as DATABASE to store the SharePoint Content. So Let’s have a look at these

OS:
SharePoint 2010 requires (or for that matter supports) the following Operating Systems

64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise, Data Center, or Web Server with SP2
64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, Data Center, or Web Server
64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Standard, Enterprise, Data Center, or Web Server

Windows also follows the client/server CAL model and use require appropriate User or Device CAL’s very similar to SharePoint. If you will be using the server for external users then you need to procure additional External Connector License as well (it is required per server)

Note: SharePoint 2010 also supports Client OS like Windows 7, VISTA but only for development environments. You cannot use them for production use fro obvious reasons.

DATABASE:
SharePoint supports SQL Server as it’s backend database and the following versions are supported with SharePoint 2010

The 64-bit edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
The 64-bit edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Cumulative Update 2
The 64-bit edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 with Service Pack 3 (SP3)
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express (only supported in stand alone server configuration)

Some server products are available to be licensed on a "per processor" or "per instance" basis and SQL Server is also one such product. SQL Server follows both Client/Server as well as the Per Processor Model of licensing.

In the next part we will dive into more practical and real time licensing scenarios to understand this more better…stay tuned

Password Checker: Using Strong Passwords | Microsoft Security

2011-04-08T23:31:00.000+05:30

Your online accounts, computer files, and personal information are more secure when you use strong passwords to help protect them.

Check this out from Microsoft!!!

Password Checker: Using Strong Passwords | Microsoft Security

SharePoint Completes 10 years - Happy Birthday!!!

2011-04-07T09:47:00.000+05:30

SharePoint has completed 10 years now and kind of seems unbelievable. Since it's inception in 2001 a lot has changed about SharePoint, starting with a mere document sharing tool to becoming the enterprise collaboration framework (and much more...) SharePoint has come a long way...

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blog/Pages/default.aspx

Quest Offers Lotus Notes to Office 365 Migration

2011-04-01T10:38:00.001+05:30

With the release of SharePoint 2010, SharePoint Online and the upcoming release of Office 365, for many companies the need to migrate content is going to be one of the big IT tasks this year. To make it easier — at least to make it easier to migrate Lotus Notes to SharePoint

Quest Offers Lotus Notes to Office 365 Migration

Welcome to IE9 & Farewell for IE6

2011-03-15T19:01:00.000+05:30

IE9 was released today for public
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2011/03/14/ie9-release-globally-available-for-consumers-and-businesses.aspx

Also, The death countdown for IE6 has begun
http://ie6countdown.com/

SharePoint Application Page - Anonymous Access

2011-03-04T23:47:00.000+05:30

Ever felt the need of having an anonymous application page in SharePoint??

I guess everybody will agree that at some point or the other they all have felt the need for the same...

So here how we go about it

Use the UnsecuredLayoutsPageBase as a base class for the application pages to which even unauthenticated users must have access, such as a login page.

Additionally you need to override one more method AllowAnonymousAccess to return true and you are all set

Following is a code snippet for the implementation

public class MyApplicationPage :  Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.UnsecuredLayoutsPageBase
{

  protected override bool AllowAnonymousAccess 
  { 
       get 
       { 
          return true; 
       }
  }

}

How to get list of sub sites using SharePoint client object model

2011-02-09T16:03:00.000+05:30

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Utilities;

private static void GetAllSubSites()
{
ClientContext clientContext = new ClientContext(“http://{yoursiteurl}/“);
Web oWebsite = clientContext.Web;
clientContext.Load(oWebsite,
website => website.Webs,
website => website.Title
);
clientContext.ExecuteQuery();
Console.WriteLine(“Available sites Count: ” + oWebsite.Webs.Count);
for (int i = 0; i != oWebsite.Webs.Count; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine(“Site Title: “+ oWebsite.Webs[i].Title);
}
}

Microsoft Tech-Ed India 2011 (March 23-25)

2011-02-02T14:41:00.000+05:30

More Information:Microsoft Tech-Ed India 2011
http://www.microsoft.com/india/teched2011/

Microsoft SharePoint Foundation & SharePoint Server 2010 Technical Library in Compiled Help format

2011-02-02T10:33:00.000+05:30

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Technical Library in Compiled Help format
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=3629425d-1505-456e-89e2-ede95f75ffe5

Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Technical Library in Compiled Help format
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=c8cf1631-0f48-4a02-a18d-54b04eb7f0a7

Align Views Drop down to the left in Sharepoint Document Libraries and Lists

2011-02-01T00:57:00.000+05:30

Many times we have very long document libraries with lots of columns and the Views Drop down gets hidden to the extreme right of the page and people need to scroll to get to the the view.

Before:

After:

I have written the following JavaScript which aligns the view drop down to the left of the page and makes it always visible.

Follow the steps below to implement it on your SharePoint site

1. Edit AllItemsPage.aspx using Site Actions menu. which opens your page in Edit mode

2. Add a CEWP (Content Editor Web part to the page) using the add web part link

3. Add the following javascript to your CEWP and the view Toolbar will get aligned left

However please note that since every view is an independent aspx page. If you want to have the same alignment on all the views then you will need to repeat the above steps on all the view pages.

December 2010 CU for SharePoint 2007 and 2010 has been released

2011-01-04T15:43:00.000+05:30

December 2010 CU for SharePoint 2007 and 2010 has been released

More details:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/stefan_gossner/archive/2011/01/03/december-2010-cu-for-sharepoint-2007-and-2010-has-been-released-on-friday.aspx

Windows 8 - Preview

2011-01-03T10:57:00.000+05:30

Copenhagen User Experience from Copenhagen Concept on Vimeo.

Important Microsoft Events (Tech-Ed and Conferences) in 2011

2010-12-28T12:38:00.000+05:30

Tech·Ed Middle East 2011
March 8-10 - Dubai (UAE)
http://www.teched.ae/

Tech·Ed North America 2011
May 16-19 - Atlanta
http://northamerica.msteched.com/default.aspx?fbid=WJ4xtgpyy2J

SharePoint Conference 2011
October 3-6 - Anaheim, California
http://www.mssharepointconference.com/Pages/default.aspx

European SharePoint Best Practices conference 2011
April 11-13 - Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London
http://www.sharepointbestpractices.co.uk/index.html

Office 2010 – Co-Authoring 21st century documents

2010-12-27T10:32:00.000+05:30

Every small business owner has his or her eye trained on the economy. Amid positive signs that the Great Recession has ended, entrepreneurs everywhere are watching for optimistic indications that consumer spending has increased and that business is rebounding. Yet people are hesitant to invest in software's and tools to ensure smooth functioning of their businesses. There is a new term doing the rounds in the IT space and that is the "21st Century Documents". So what are these documents?? 21st Century Documents are simply documents that look professional, i.e. they look like someone with design skill created them, i.e. they have more formatting applied to them than just bold, italics, and underlines. Office 2010 brings the ease of authoring 21st Century Documents with a great amount of ease and co-authoring is just one of them.

In the newly launched Office 2010 software and its online counterpart, Office Web Apps, there's a feature called "co-authoring" which lets multiple people edit the same file at the same time. This feature in true sense defines 21st century document collaboration.

In traditional collaboration, documents were shared via e-mail attachments. Tracking versions and edits from multiple authors is difficult and time-consuming for users. E-mail systems have to contend with storing multiple copies of the same document, not to mention increased network traffic as documents are sent repeatedly. Co-authoring addresses these issues by making it possible for multiple users to work on a document, at any time, without interfering with each other's changes. This approach streamlines many common document-collaboration scenarios.

Co-authoring is currently available for the following:

Word 2010
PowerPoint 2010
OneNote 2010

Co-authoring is easy to use from the end user's point of view. When a user wants to work on a document in he or she merely opens it, as usual. If another user already has the document open, both users are able to edit the document at the same time; access to the document is not blocked and no error appears

For example:

Two or more authors are working on different parts of a composite document. While one author works on his section of the document, another author can work on hers, without either interrupting their work.
Several authors are working on a composite slide show. Each author can add slides to the presentation and edit them, instead of working in isolation and trying to merge several documents and make them consistent all at the same time.
A document is sent out to several experts and stakeholders, each of whom has some edits or additions. No user's edits are lost, because they are all working on a central, server-stored document.

In Word 2010 and PowerPoint 2010, saving to a document notifies other users viewing the document that there are new edits. Those users can refresh their view immediately to see those changes or continue their work and refresh later to see the latest edits. The authors can also see one another's work, and everyone knows who is working on the document. With OneNote 2010, shared notebooks enable users to share notes seamlessly. When a user edits a page of the notebook, those edits are automatically synchronized with other users of that notebook to ensure everybody has a complete set of notes. Edits made by multiple users on the same page appear automatically, enabling near real-time collaboration. Versioning and other shared features in OneNote make it possible for users to roll back edits, show what edits are new, and determine who made a specific edit.

So why wait switch to Office 2010 and start authoring "21^st century documents" J

Safeguarded Application Pages

2010-12-20T14:02:00.000+05:30

Following is the list of Safe Guarded application pages in SharePoint 2010. These application pages are special in the sense if the custom master page applied to these pages gets broken then they resort to the application master page in the _layouts directory...pretty cool haa...

AccessDenied.aspx
MngSiteAdmin.aspx
People.aspx
RecycleBin.aspx
ReGhost.aspx
ReqAcc.aspx
Settings.aspx
UserDisp.aspx
ViewLsts.aspx

SharePoint Client Object Model Redistributable Released

2010-11-29T23:43:00.001+05:30

Microsoft has released the SharePoint Foundation 2010 Client Object Model Redistributable. The assemblies for the .NET and Silverlight versions of the SharePoint client object model are included.

Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll
Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll
Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Silverlight.dll
Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Silverlight.Runtime.dll

The assemblies for the .NET version must be included when you distribute solutions that target them. SharePoint client assemblies obtained in other ways cannot be legally redistributed.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sharepointdeveloperdocs/archive/2010/11/18/sharepoint-client-object-model-redistributable-released.aspx

SharePoint 2010 October Cumulative Update Issue: Details and Workaround

2010-11-08T17:21:00.000+05:30

Below are further details and a workaround for theSharePoint 2010 October Cumulative Update issue discovered yesterday.

Packages Impacted

The Cumulative Update packages affected are the ServerPackages for SharePoint Foundation, SharePoint Server and Project Server 2010,specifically;

SharePoint Server Package 2394320
Project Server Package 2394322

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sharepoint/archive/2010/11/06/details-and-workaround.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sharepointteamblog+%28Microsoft+SharePoint+Products+and+Technologies+Team+Blog%29

Critical Information about the SharePoint Server 2010 October Cumulative Update

2010-11-08T17:19:00.000+05:30

Microsoft has discovered a critical issue in the recently released October CumulativeUpdates for SharePoint Server 2010 and Project Server 2010, and we have removedthe files from download availability. If you have already downloaded theCU, donot install it. If you have installed the CU, please contact Microsoft Support forassistance. We will be posting additional information about the issuehere as soon as we have it, and will make the Cumulative Update available fordownload again as soon as the issue has been fully resolved.

Microsoft takes one more step towards cloud launches Office 365

2010-10-28T17:58:00.000+05:30

Microsoft has announced launch of Office 365, a service that combines Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online with the cloud.

There are two editions of Office 365. Office 365 for Small Businesses is designed for organizations of one to 25 people. It’s a pre-built package that includes Office Web Apps, Lync, e-mail sync and more. It doesn’t require IT support on the user’s end and will cost $6 per user per month.

The second version is Office 365 for Enterprises. Unlike the small business version, the enterprise edition can be customized based on an organization’s needs. It can be customized so different teams have different access levels to Office 365’s features. The enterprise edition comes with everything in the small business version, plus single sign-in, Office Pro Plus (via subscription), internal social networking tools, voicemail in the inbox, and more. It costs anywhere between $2 to $27 per user per month, depending on which features the company chooses to utilize.

http://office365.microsoft.com/en-US/online-services.aspx

BizTalk Server 2010 available

2010-09-29T12:09:00.000+05:30

BizTalk Server is Microsoft’s enterprise integration offering, designed to maximize the value of Line of Business (LOB) systems by integrating and automating your business processes and reducing operational costs. It enables enterprises to gain strategic efficiency and agility by unifying solutions to address B2B and RFID integration needs. BizTalk Server 2010 offers significant enhancements to help integrate LOB systems with Windows .NET and SharePoint based applications to optimize user productivity, gain business efficiency and increase agility.

http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/en/us/2010launch.aspx

Live SharePoint MVP chat on September 29th

2010-09-29T12:03:00.000+05:30

Q&A with the SharePoint MVP Experts

Do you have tough technical questions regarding SharePoint for which you're seeking answers? Do you want to tap into the deep knowledge of the talented Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals? The SharePoint MVPs are the same people you see in the technical community as authors, speakers, user group leaders and answerers in the MSDN forums. By popular demand, we have brought these experts together as a collective group to answer your questions live. So please join us and bring on the questions! This chat will cover WSS, MOSS and the SharePoint 2010. Topics include setup and administration, design, development and general questions.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

9:00 – 10:00 A.M. Pacific Time

12:00 - 1:00 P.M. Eastern Time

16:00 - 17:00 GMT

Join the chat room on the day of the chat:

MSDN: www.microsoft.com/communities/chats/chatrooms/msdn.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/communities/chats/default.mspx

IIS 6 does not download .exe files & gives file not found error

2010-09-27T16:03:00.002+05:30

There is a setting in IIS that prevents .exe files from being downloaded in browser.

To enable the download of .exe files in IIS 6.0 follow the below steps

1.Navigate to the Website in IIS
2.Right Click and Select Properties
3.Select the Home Directory
4.Look out for Execute Permissions drop down
5.Change it from "Scripts and Executables" to "Scripts Only"

WSS and MOSS version numbers

2010-09-22T00:48:00.000+05:30

12.0.0.6545 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 SP2 + Aug 10 cumulative Update (KB2276474 + KB2276472)
12.0.0.6539 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 SP2 + June 10 cumulative Update (KB983311 + KB983310)
12.0.0.6535 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 SP2 + April 10 cumulative Update (KB981043 + KB981042)
12.0.0.6529 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 SP2 + February 10 cumulative Update (KB978396 + KB978395)
12.0.0.6524 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 SP2 + December 09 cumulative Update (KB977027 + KB977026)
12.0.0.6520 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 SP2 + October 09 cumulative Update (KB974989 + KB974988)
12.0.0.6514 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 SP2 + August 09 cumulative Update (KB973400 + KB973399)
12.0.0.6510 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 SP2 + June 09 cumulative Update (KB971538 + KB971537)
12.0.0.6504 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 SP2 + April 09 cumulative Update (KB968850 + KB968851)
12.0.0.6421 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 SP2 (KB953338 + KB953334)
12.0.0.6341 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 February 09 cumulative Update (KB961755 + KB961756)
12.0.0.6335 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 December 08 cumulative Update (KB960010 + KB960011)
12.0.0.6331 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 October 08 cumulative Update (KB957691 + KB957693,KB958567 and KB958569)
12.0.0.6327 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 August 08 cumulative update (KB956056 & KB956057)
12.0.0.6318 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 Infrastructure Update (KB951695 & KB951297)
12.0.0.6303 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 post-SP1 hotfix (KB948945)
12.0.0.6301 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 post-SP1 hotfix (KB941274)
12.0.0.6300 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 post-SP1 hotfix (KB941422)
12.0.0.6219 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 SP1
12.0.0.6039 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 October public update
12.0.0.6036 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 August 24, 07 hotfix package
12.0.0.4518 WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 RTM

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Technical Library in Compiled Help format

2010-09-20T10:17:00.000+05:30

Download details
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=3629425d-1505-456e-89e2-ede95f75ffe5

Internet Explorer 9 Beta is available for download

2010-09-16T10:30:00.000+05:30

IE 9 beta is available for download. Some of the top features include

Hardware accelerated graphics and text
Clean browser interface
Pinnable sites
Jump Lists
New javascript Engine - Chakra
HTML5 support
Developer Tools

So why wait, grab a copy and start exploring.You can get it here
http://www.beautyoftheweb.com

Free Visual Studio 2010 Ebook

2010-09-15T11:15:00.000+05:30

Planning to move to Visual Studio 2010 for development. Here is an good eBook to get you started.

Download:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/0/B/90B96800-6765-4AC2-A79F-A2E9116F2157/Moving%20to%20Microsoft%20Visual%20Studio%202010%20ebook.pdf

How to check for attachments in ItemAdding() event

2010-09-14T10:53:00.000+05:30

Item adding being a synchronous event nor the list item and attachments are committed in database. Hence if you need to get the attachments in ItemAdding() event then you could do so by ASP.NET request object

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using System.Web;

namespace MyProject.Features
{
    public class MyEventReceiver : SPItemEventReceiver
    {
        HttpContext currentContext;

        public MyEventReceiver()
        {
            currentContext = HttpContext.Current;
        }
       
        public override void ItemAdding(SPItemEventProperties properties)
        {            
  if (currentContext != null)
        {
          if (currentContext.Request.Files.Count > 0)
          {

            // there are attachments

          }
   else
   {

            // there are no attachments

   }
        }                           
        }
     }
}

Create listview webpart to show items inside folders

2010-09-13T21:30:00.000+05:30

When you navigate inside a folder inside a document library you will notice that the URL changes. SharePoint makes use of URL Querystring to display data inside folders.

Assume you have document library as "Shared Documents" and you create a folder called as "mydocument" inside it. when you navigate inside the folder the url in your browser should look something like this

http://{yoursite}/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx?RootFolder=/Shared%20Documents/mydocument&FolderCTID=&View={A4A4A2E6-AE49-4173-B738-A14A4A1A49A0}

As you may see that the SharePoint OOTB list view webpart uses these three parameters (RootFolder,FolderCTID,View) to render the folder contents to you

RootFolder - Root Folder URL
FolderCTID - Folder Content Type ID (optional)
View - Specified View Guid for the Document library

So you need to create a custom list view web part and then set the following three properties to show data inside a specific folder

But there is a catch here. You can set the View for a listview web part but not the "RootFolder" and "FolderCTID" as they are managed internally by sharepoint.Here we will use refelection to set these values and achieve desired results

Code Sample

protected override void CreateChildControls()
    {
      base.CreateChildControls();
      try
      {
        SPSite site = new SPSite("http://{yoursite}");
        SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb();
        SPList list = web.Lists["Shared Documents"];

        // Instantiate the web part
        ListViewWebPart lvwp = new ListViewWebPart();
        lvwp.ListName = list.ID.ToString("B").ToUpper();
        lvwp.ViewGuid = list.Views["SomeView"].ID.ToString("B").ToUpper();
              
        //Get the rootfolder url here and content type id of folder e.g. "0x012000C5E1253B0EF534479884B846FA62FCFC"
      
       SPFolder folder = web.GetFolder("/Shared Documents/mydocument");

       SPContentTypeId folderctid = folder.Item.ContentType.Id;

        //set the folder url
        SetPrivateFieldValue(lwwp,"rootFolder",folder.Url);
        
       // set the folder content type id ----- Note this is optional and can be skipped :) 
       SetPrivateFieldValue(lwwp,"folderCtId",folderctid.ToString());

        lvwp.GetDesignTimeHtml();
        this.Controls.Add(lvwp);
      }
      catch (Exception ex)
      {
        Label lbl = new Label();
        lbl.Text = "Error occured: ";
        lbl.Text += ex.Message;
        this.Controls.Add(lbl);
      }
    }

private static void SetPrivateFieldValue(object obj, string fieldName,string val)
{
  FieldInfo fi = obj.GetType().GetField(fieldName,System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Instance | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic);
  fi.SetValue(obj, val);
}

SharePoint 2010 Training

2010-09-13T10:56:00.000+05:30

Want to get started with SharePoint 2010. Here is what I would recommend

Mark Harrison has compiled links that are very useful to get you started for different roles. Have a look

http://blog.markharrison.co.uk/post/SharePoint-2010-Training.aspx

Microsoft Lync 2010 Attendee (RC)

2010-09-13T10:44:00.000+05:30

Microsoft Lync 2010 Attendee is a conferencing client that allows users without Microsoft Lync 2010 installed, to participate in online meetings. A user with an administrator account on the computer can install Lync 2010 Attendee so that users of the computer can join Microsoft Lync Server 2010-hosted meetings.

Download:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=1772a5ad-9688-4861-8387-ec30411bf455

Updated SharePoint 2010 SDK Now Available for Download

2010-09-10T16:07:00.000+05:30

The SharePoint 2010 Software Development Kit (SDK) has been updated!

Get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=f0c9daf3-4c54-45ed-9bde-7b4d83a8f26f

Migrate from SharePoint 32-bit environment to 64-bit environment

2010-09-10T15:20:00.000+05:30

While migrating from a 32-bit environment to 64-bit environment, a common issue arises as to custom and third party assemblies start giving BadImageFileFormat error

The best approach to solve this issue is to

Get 64-bit version of the third party assemblies
Complile custom assemblies to run on any platform "ANY CPU"

An alternate (not recommended) approach would be to

Run the IIS of the 64-bit server to run as 32-bit

Refer the below link for more information

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/WindowsServer2003/Library/IIS/405f5bb5-87a3-43d2-8138-54b75db73aa1.mspx?mfr=true

Associate Event Handlers in SharePoint to specific list

2010-09-10T15:09:00.000+05:30

In Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, there are three fundamental ways to register an event handler:

Through the object model, as the SPWeb and SPList classes now each provide an EventReceivers property through which to access the collection of event receiver definitions for the Web site or list. You can add new event receivers by calling the Add method.
Declaratively by list type, for example, to register an event handler for all announcements lists. In a Feature.xml file, you can register an event handler by list template ID. When the containing feature is activated per SPWeb object, you can register the event handler for any list of the specified type.
Declaratively by content type, for example, to register an event handler for all documents of a specific type. Within the XML for a content type definition, you can register event receivers.

So if you need to make your list event handler specific to list then,

Create a custom list type using a list definition and then attach the event handler to it
Create a custom content type for your list and attach the event handler to the content type, this will make the event handler specific to list
Register the event handler using object model to the list you desire. You can us e this free tool which facilitates this (http://www.u2u.info/SharePoint/U2U%20Community%20Tools/EventHandlerExplorer.zip)
Check for the list in the event handler code before executing the code.

Site Template vs Site Definition

2010-09-10T15:02:00.000+05:30

Site Definitions

A site definition is the core definition of what a site is in SharePoint.
A site definition is installed on file system of web front ends, located at ..\12\Template\SiteTemplates. This directory is language-neutral.
A site definition consists of .aspx pages and .xml files with Collaborative Application Mark-up Language (CAML).
A major benefit is that the Page and List definition is read locally from the file system, not from Content Database.

Site Template

A site template (*.stp file) is created through the user interface or through implementation of the object model.
The site template package is a package containing a set of differences and changes from a base site definition.
The site template package is stored as a CAB-based file that can be downloaded or uploaded to site collections by users with the appropriate rights.

When choosing whether to create a site template or a site definition, first consider the following issues:
Are the changes you need to make simple or complex? If, for example, you need to make only minor changes in the look of certain pages and add a few fields in particular lists, you should create a custom site template.
However, if you need to create new content types, add new Web Part definitions, and significantly restructure sites, you should create a custom site definition.
Can you deploy changes to the front-end Web server? If you do not have access to the file system of the computers running Windows SharePoint Services, you have no choice but to create a custom site template.

Site definition (Advantages):

Data is stored directly on the Web servers, so performance is typically better.
A higher level of list customization is possible through direct editing of a Schema.xml file.
Certain kinds of customization to sites or lists require use of site definitions, such as introducing new file types, defining view styles, or modifying the Edit menu.

Site definition (Disadvantages):

Customization of site definition requires more effort than creating custom templates.
Editing a site definition after it has been deployed is difficult.
Doing anything other than adding code can break existing sites.
Users cannot apply a SharePoint theme through a site definition.
Users cannot create two lists of the same type with different default content.
Customizing site definitions requires access to the file system of the front-end Web server.

Site Templates (Advantages):

Custom templates are easy to create.
Almost anything that can be done in the user interface can be preserved in the template.
Custom templates can be modified without affecting existing sites that have been created from the templates.
Custom templates are easy to deploy.

Site Templates (Disadvantages):

Custom templates are not created in a development environment.
Custom templates are less efficient in large-scale environments.
If the site definition on which the custom template is based does not exist on the front-end server or servers, the custom template does not work.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brianwilson/archive/2008/07/13/site-definitions-versus-site-templates-and-deciding-on-the-correct-customization-approach.aspx

SharePoint 2007 vs SharePoint 2010

2010-09-08T11:18:00.000+05:30

Richard Harbridge has put a great post listing the differences between SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010 in a very detailed way. Pretty nice and helpful

Recommended read:
http://www.rharbridge.com/?page_id=103

SmartTools for SharePoint 2010

2010-09-08T11:15:00.000+05:30

The SmartTools for SharePoint 2010 project is a collection of SharePoint 2010 extensions to make your life as a SharePoint user, developer or administrator a little bit easier!

This will help you integrate the jQuery JavaScript library with your SharePoint 2010 sites

More:
http://smarttools2010.codeplex.com/

Step-by-Step Guide to Migrating from Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010

2010-09-08T11:00:00.000+05:30

Follow the steps in this article to migrate your SharePoint websites from Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 on a server running Windows Small Business Server 2008.

Download:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=2dc66a0f-f840-4b29-93d3-13db70c85cba

Enable/Disable Client Integration in SharePoint Programmatically

2010-09-07T22:42:00.000+05:30

If ever you need to enable/disable client integration in sharepoint via code

 using (SPSite siteCollection = new SPSite("http://{your site url}"))
            {
   
                //enable client integration 
                siteCollection.WebApplication.IisSettings[SPUrlZone.Default].EnableClientIntegration = true;
   
                //disable client integration 
                siteCollection.WebApplication.IisSettings[SPUrlZone.Default].EnableClientIntegration = false;

                siteCollection.WebApplication.Update();

            }

Creating or Editing Office Application From SharePoint using Javascript

2010-09-03T23:31:00.002+05:30

Have you ever felt the need to open office documents while working with SharePoint ??

The answer should definitely be yes...

As always let's do it the sharepoint way...

SharePoint interanlly uses javascript functions to do this...these are

Open Document:

Edit Document:

Full reference can be found here
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms454230(v=office.12).aspx

Complete reference of stsadm Commands

2010-09-03T11:06:00.002+05:30

While searching over the net I came across a very useful post which lists all stsadm commands at one place. A handy link to have while working with stsadm commands

have a look here
http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2007/03/22/complete-reference-of-all-stsadm-commands-with-options-in-moss-2007.aspx

August 2010 Cumulative Update for SharePoint (2007 and 2010) has been released

2010-09-02T21:19:00.001+05:30

The Sharepoint product group released the August 2010 Cumulative Update for the SharePoint 2007 and 2010 product family.

More details:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/stefan_gossner/archive/2010/09/02/august-2010-cumulative-update-for-sharepoint-has-been-released.aspx

Add Source parameter to SharePoint links

2010-09-01T21:28:00.001+05:30

Normally while working with SharePoint you notice that while clicking on any link takes you to the default view or to the home page...how good it had been that you could redirect back to the previous page.

Let us first know how SharePoint does it. SharePoint adds a "Source" parameter to the querystring and uses that to return back to the previous page.

So how do we do that??

There are lot of ways to do this, why not use us the ways sharepoint does it.. (the standard way as they say)

Sharepoint uses a javascript function "GoToLink" to achieve this i.e. add a "Source paarameter to the query string"

Call this function "onclick" of your hyperlink and it will automatically append previous page as source parameter

Example

edit  item

Plan incoming e-mail worksheet for SharePoint 2010 Products

2010-08-30T23:09:00.001+05:30

Worksheet that helps you plan how to implement incoming e-mail for SharePoint 2010 Products. This worksheet should be used to record decisions made regarding the implementation of incoming e-mail for SharePoint 2010 Products.

Download it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0ecde018-d263-40ca-8edc-4dc54b5605fd

Microsoft Office 2003 or a 2007 Microsoft Office document open with read only permissions

2010-08-27T23:46:00.001+05:30

How many time have you tried to open an Office document from SharePoint/WSS and the document opens as read-only, irrespective of rights you have??

This is an known issue and Microsoft has a support article for the same. Hopefully this saves some people time.

Resolution and More Information:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/870853
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bmatusz/archive/2008/12/10/office-2003-documents-opening-as-read-only-from-moss-2007-document-libraries.aspx

Support for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 SP1 retired

2010-08-26T21:05:00.002+05:30

Just to let all of you know that official support for WSS 3.0 SP1 and MOSS 2007 SP2 has been retired on 13th July 2010.

Hence make sure that all your environments are upgraded to SP2 to be eligible for support.

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-gb&p1=12200&x=12&y=12

SharePoint Solution Installer

2010-08-25T21:56:00.000+05:30

How do you deploy your SharePoint wsp files??

The common answers we get is

using stsadm commands
using a combination of stsadm and Central Administration site

But, there is a tool which allows you to deploy your wsp files in a wizard kind of interface and easily configurable.
This tool is a Windows application for an eased and more user friendly installation and deployment of SharePoint solution files to a SharePoint server farm. Distribute your SharePoint solution files with this installation program instead of a raw script using STSADM.EXE to install and deploy the solution.

Download:
http://sharepointinstaller.codeplex.com/releases/view/29075

MOSS Faceted Search

2010-08-25T21:51:00.000+05:30

MOSS Faceted Search is a set of web parts that provide intuitive way to refine search results by category (facet).

The facets are implemented using SharePoint API and stored within native SharePoint METADATA store. The solution demonstrates following key features:
Grouping search results by facet
Displaying a total number of hits per facet value
Refining search results by facet value
Update of the facet menu based on refined search criteria
Displaying of the search criteria in a Bread Crumbs
Ability to exclude the chosen facet from the search criteria
Flexibility of the Faceted search configuration and its consistency with MOSS administration

Download:

http://facetedsearch.codeplex.com/releases/view/11723

Updates resource center for SharePoint 2010 Products

2010-08-25T12:35:00.000+05:30

In addition to posting the lastest information about cumulative updates and service packs, the updates resource center links to up-to-date articles about the nature of software updates and our recommended approaches for mitigating downtime when you install an update on farm servers.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff800847.aspx

Silverlight development in SharePoint 2010

2010-08-25T12:33:00.000+05:30

Following is a great staring point to start developing with Silverlight and SharePoint 2010

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff728647.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff938870.aspx

SharePoint Server 2010 groups and permissions reference chart

2010-08-25T12:31:00.000+05:30

This reference chart shows default SharePoint groups and their associated permission levels in one place.

Download:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/results.aspx?qu=SharePoint&origin=FX101741961#ai:TC101977256|