SharePoint Diary

Quick Launch (left navigation) Missing in Web Part Pages - Solutions

January 26, 2011 Customizations, Navigation, SharePoint, SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010, SharePoint Designer

In SharePoint 2007, When we create web part page, it doesn't come up with left navigation! SharePoint quick launch missing in web part pages!! Well, There are 3 approaches to resolve this issue. Editing the Site definition Template files - Farm level (NOT RECOMMENDED!) Editing the Master page - Site level Editing the individual page - Page level Editing the Site definition Template files - Farm level in the WFE(s), Navigate to : " C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\1033\STS\DOCTEMP\SMARTPGS" Open the files spstd X .aspx and comment out these lines: <asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderPageImage" runat="server"></asp:Content> <asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" runat="server"></asp:Content> <asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderNavSpacer" runat="server"></asp:Content> In ca

Quick Launch (left navigation) Missing in Web Part Pages - Solutions

Reviewed by Unknown on January 26, 2011 Rating: 5

DisableLoopbackCheck - 401 Unauthorized / Repeated Login Prompts and Resulted Blank Page - Host Header Issue

January 24, 2011 Configuration, Errors, Known Issues, SharePoint, SharePoint 2010, Troubleshooting

Problem: Couldn't Access a local SharePoint site from the server! Today, I setup my new SharePoint 2010 development box. I made the machine as domain controller: "Crescent.com". Machine name was: SharePoint. After I installed SharePoint in port 80 I was accessing the SharePoint site at URL: http://sharepoint. Then I wanted to access the SharePoint as: http://teamsites.crescent.com. So I created a Host record in DNS. Once I get the URL in the browser, it was asking me the password again and again. Finally it gave the 401 unauthorized error. (In an another case, SharePoint prompted for login credentials for three times and gave blank page!) hmm.. what's wrong with SharePoint? Also found, SharePoint sites are not opening when you login to SharePoint server(WFE, typically) but opening elsewhere! Solution: Here the problem was: we need to disable the LoopBackCheck. Here is what I did. To set the DisableLoopbackCheck registry key, follow these steps: Click S

DisableLoopbackCheck - 401 Unauthorized / Repeated Login Prompts and Resulted Blank Page - Host Header Issue

Reviewed by Unknown on January 24, 2011 Rating: 5

SharePoint Error: "Access to this Web site has been blocked. Please contact the administrator to resolve this problem."

January 23, 2011 Administration, Known Issues, Quotas and Locks, SharePoint, Troubleshooting

While trying to get a site collection in browser, It gave me this error: "Access to this Web site has been blocked. Please contact the administrator to resolve this problem." Root cause: I understand, the site collection is being locked out! wanted to unlock by going to Central Admin web site. Central Administration > Application Management > Site Collection Quotas and Locks and select Not locked . but that also resulted an error. hmm.. SharePoint doesn't allowed me to unlock the site via Central Admin. Solution: Unlock the site collection using STSADM stsadm -o setsitelock -url <site-collection-url> -lock none Yeah, This resolved my issue and got the site back.

SharePoint Error: "Access to this Web site has been blocked. Please contact the administrator to resolve this problem."

Reviewed by Unknown on January 23, 2011 Rating: 5

"This report failed to load because session state is not turned on" - Access Services issue in SharePoint 2010

January 23, 2011 Service Application, SharePoint, SharePoint 2010, Troubleshooting

When I configured my first SharePoint 2010 sandbox, I tried creating access services and received below error: So, its telling us to enable Session state. isn't it? How to Enable Session State for SharePoint 2010: Open SharePoint 2010 Management Shell Type in the following cmdlet: Enable-SPSessionStateService Provide values for the following parameters: Type in the Database Name as "SP2010_Farm_Access_Service" ( DatabaseName: SP2010_Farm_Access_Service ) – This will create a new database in SQL names SP2010_Farm_Access_Service Do an IISReset Now, the Access reports should work! KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2419469/ Verify the following thing if you still get errors in access services in sharepoint 2010: Access Services is installed part of the SharePoint 2010 Enterprise CAL Make sure Service Infrastructure is enabled Manage Services on Server - Access Database Service is started Manage Services Applications - Review the Settings, No need

"This report failed to load because session state is not turned on" - Access Services issue in SharePoint 2010

Reviewed by Unknown on January 23, 2011 Rating: 5

MOSS 2007 Style Breadcrumb for SharePoint 2010

January 21, 2011 Branding, Navigation, SharePoint, SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010

SharePoint 2010 provided a new breadcrumb feature... But for the consistency sake on internet sites we may need to go for MOSS 2007 style breadcrumb. so here I'm explaining How to get MOSS 2007 style breadcrumb on SharePoint 2010. So, Here are the steps: Open your Master page in SharePoint designer. Search for "PlaceHolderGlobalNavigation" 2. Select the complete tag and delete! ( just place your cursor either in beginning or end of the tag <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderGlobalNavigation" runat="server"> and then choose " Select tag " from the context menu.) 3. Now search for " <div id="s4-mainarea" class="s4-pr s4-widecontentarea"> " and then paste the below code just above the <div id="s4-mainarea" class="s4-pr s4-widecontentarea"> <div class="MOSS-Style-breadcrumb"> <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTitleBreadcrumb

MOSS 2007 Style Breadcrumb for SharePoint 2010

Reviewed by Unknown on January 21, 2011 Rating: 5

SharePoint 2007 Search Issues

January 21, 2011 Search, SharePoint, SharePoint 2007, Troubleshooting

Error: "The search service is currently offline. Visit the services on server page in sharepoint central administration to verify whether the service is enabled. This might also be because an indexer move is in progress" Here is the Fix: Open central admin >> Operations Go to Services on server and located your index server On "Office SharePoint Server Search" click "Stop". This reconfigures it. Now click "start" Then click "Shared Services Administration", hover over the failing SSP and select edit. You will notice now the indexer is not selected. Select it from the drop down. The server you have selected is probably the same server as you used before. If it is, go to that server and locate the indexer files. It is in the text box right below the drop down you just used.For me it was "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\12.0\Data\Office Server\Applications". There you will find a folder with GUID,

SharePoint 2007 Search Issues

Reviewed by Unknown on January 21, 2011 Rating: 5

Move Site Collection to Another Content Databases in SharePoint 2007

January 17, 2011 Administration, SharePoint, SharePoint 2007, SharePoint Database, Tips and Tricks

In SharePoint 2007 content databases can grow till 100 GB. What if you want to move your existing sites to a new content db? Well, Here is the manual way to move site collection to a different database in SharePoint 2007: Backup and Delete the Site Collection Set all your Content Databases' maximum allowed sites to the number of current sites. Set the Content Database you want the Site Collection to go into to allow one more Site Collection. Restore the Site Collection Adjust your Content Database maximums to allow new sites to be created. SharePoint 2007 move site collection to another content database - STSADM way: You need to know your source DB, where your site resides first. How do we know what is the content db for a particular site collection? well, you can retrieve that information by running the stsadm command. Here is the command: stsadm -o enumsites -url http://webapp_host_header > c:\sites.xml Now, we've got and decided our source and destination D

Move Site Collection to Another Content Databases in SharePoint 2007

Reviewed by Unknown on January 17, 2011 Rating: 5

Error when trying to export a Sharepoint list to Ms-Access Table

January 16, 2011 Errors, Known Issues, SharePoint, SharePoint 2007

When I tried to export a SharePoint list to Access table: I got the below error message. "You do not have the necessary permissions to use the ' {GUID}' object. Have your system administrator or the person who created this object establish the appropriate permissions for you". This is because: List contains a column name that has more than 64 characters. Access 2007 database engine disallows columns that have names that contain more than 64 characters. Solution: use only column names that contain less than 64 characters in SharePoint lists. KB Article addressing this issue: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924739

Error when trying to export a Sharepoint list to Ms-Access Table

Reviewed by Unknown on January 16, 2011 Rating: 5

SharePoint WSP Solutions and Features Deployment using STSADM, PowerShell

January 16, 2011 Administration, Deployment Guides, PowerShell, SharePoint, SharePoint 2010, Solutions and Features, STSADM

In this article I'm documenting the Deployment of WSP files using STSADM and with the PowerShell. Before we begin, Its a good idea to add STSADM's path ("C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN\") to the environment variable "Path". It saves the typing :-) and of course, its a good idea to have a Batch file for these activities. It includes following steps: Step 1: Add Solution to SharePoint Farm Step 2: Deploy Solution Step 3: Activate Solution features Add the solution: stsadm -o addsolution -filename <Path to the WSP file> say for eg. "C:\Deployment\myWSP.wsp" Deploy the solution: stsadm -o deploysolution -name <Path to the WSP file> -immediate -allowgacdeployment -url <URL> say for e.g. "C:\Deployment\myWSP.wsp" On installing/Activating/De-Activating/Uninstalling the Features, following command shall be used: stsadm -o installfeature -filename <FeatureFold

SharePoint WSP Solutions and Features Deployment using STSADM, PowerShell

Reviewed by Unknown on January 16, 2011 Rating: 5

Insert a custom webpart in Master page

January 15, 2011 Master Page, SharePoint, UI Enhancement, Web Parts

For a Intranet SharePoint site, I had a requirement to insert a custom Search we bpart in Master page, just below Quick launch section. But we can’t add a webpart zone into Master page, So I used this trick. In master page, there is a content place holder: <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id=" PlaceHolderLeftActions " runat="server"></asp:ContentPlaceHolder> , So I placed the SAME ID for my web part zone in the Page layout/Page, So that in run time, The Master Page's content on PlaceHolderLeftActions will be replaced by the content page. <asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId=" PlaceHolderLeftActions " runat="server"> <WebPartPages:WebPartZone id="g_A66B59618EF44FE89FCE36DA164B9CC5" runat="server" title="Zone 1"> </WebPartPages:WebPartZone> </asp:Content> In simple steps: 1. Create a Blank .Aspx page with SPD 2. Just insert the code as per the below screenshot <asp:C

Insert a custom webpart in Master page

Reviewed by Unknown on January 15, 2011 Rating: 5

Limit Versioning and Delete Old Versions in SharePoint

January 15, 2011 PowerShell, SharePoint, SharePoint 2013, SharePoint 2016, Version History

In one of my SharePoint implementation, Defined the governance policy for versioning as: "Only 5 Major and 5 Minor versions should be kept.". So placed that in End user self service Portal site. But who cares? users setup up their document libraries/Lists to unlimited number of versions, and asking for Increasing the Site quota quite often. On analyzing the site space figured out: For a 1GB site, versions are occupying nearly 300MB!!! So, wanted to clean-up the versions except last 5 minor/Last 5 Major. Oh, Yeah, to set versioning limit in SharePoint, Just get into the List/Library settings > Versioning settings then setup the versioning limits. Quite simple, Isn't it? Ah, but user has 100+ libraries where unlimited number of versions enabled! OMG!!! Limit number of versions in SharePoint with PowerShell PowerShell comes to rescue again! Here is the code to delete the older versions, except last 5 major and minor. $SPsiteCollection = Get-SPSite "http://

Limit Versioning and Delete Old Versions in SharePoint

Reviewed by Unknown on January 15, 2011 Rating: 5

E-Mail a Link issue in SharePoint 2007

January 14, 2011 Known Issues, SharePoint, SharePoint 2007, Troubleshooting

When I use the "Send to >> E-Mail a Link" in SharePoint 2007, it gave me the wrong link!!! It created a link like this one: http://mysite%2Ecom/test/agenda.doc But it should be: http://mysite.com/test/agenda.doc. Notice how the server name is URL encoded too. The %2E's should be periods. To fix this: we need to edit the core.js file located at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033 (Make a backup copy of this file before you make changes) Find this line: fileUrl=escapeProperly(httpRootWithSlash.substr(0, slashLoc))+currentItemUrl; and replace it with this: fileUrl=httpRootWithSlash.substr(0, slashLoc)+currentItemUrl; we need to do the same on all the SharePoint WFE and Application servers. once done we will need to do IISRESET on all the above servers. Microsoft KB solves this issue : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938241

E-Mail a Link issue in SharePoint 2007

Reviewed by Unknown on January 14, 2011 Rating: 5

SharePoint Solutions - Building & Deployment Best Practices

January 13, 2011 Best Practices, Presentations, Reference, SharePoint, web.config

SharePoint solution best practices: Based on my experience here are the best practices w.r.t solutions management in SharePoint . 1. Every customization must be Feature based solution . Doesn't matter if it’s a Webpart/Event Handler/InfoPath/Content Types or file system change. You can group the features together as solutions. Solution should have event handlers for "Feature activating" and "Feature Deactivated" events wherever applicable. Place the appropriate code in respective blocks. It’s a best practice to have un-installation module in place. 2. Be Descriptive: Ensure that all the features has a appropriate name, description, updated version number, optionally icons. 3. Follow the Four part naming or at-least Three part naming in Name Spaces, Solution names, and in the Target location of the solutions. Don’t just place them inside features folder, But create a four/three part naming folder for each feature and plac

SharePoint Solutions - Building & Deployment Best Practices

Reviewed by Unknown on January 13, 2011 Rating: 5

SharePoint vs Network File Share - Which is best?

January 08, 2011 Reference, SharePoint

Often, I get questions from end users on deciding which one would serve best: Network File share or SharePoint? My Answer to them: Definitely SharePoint offers much more collaborative features compared with Network File Shares. Such as: Versioning Control - adds the ability to see older versions of documents Meta Data (like When & who updated the documents and the ability to add and manage additional file properties, columns, metadata) User security management / permissions/ Item visibility - Users do not have the ability to see information that they do not have permission to see. Views (or Filters) If its a Published site, You can access it from anywhere Check-in / Check-out Workflows - such as approval procedure, help automating simple or complex tasks Recycle bins Encryption - When SharePoint sites are SSL Enabled Search, Alerts, RSS, etc. Taking all the above information in consideration, I would recommend data to be placed in SharePoint when it needs some

SharePoint vs Network File Share - Which is best?

Reviewed by Unknown on January 08, 2011 Rating: 5

Change SharePoint 2010 User Interface to MOSS 2007 Look and Feel

January 07, 2011 SharePoint, SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010, UI Enhancement

Yes, Its possible to provide MOSS 2007 User interface to the SharePoint 2010. There are two ways: If you have upgraded from MOSS 2007 to SharePoint 2010 using In-Place upgrade, then you will be able to do it by GUI. Here is where: Site Actions >> Site Settings >> site collection administration >> Visual Upgrade You can do the same with PowerShell. Of course if you have new installation or DB attach method used, you can do this ONLY with PowerShell. $web = Get-SPWeb <sharepoint-url> $web.UIVersion = 3 //set it to 4 if you want SharePoint 2010 look and feel $web.Update() So here is the result, With UIVersion 3: With UIVersion 4:

Change SharePoint 2010 User Interface to MOSS 2007 Look and Feel

Reviewed by Unknown on January 07, 2011 Rating: 5

Cascading Drop down In SharePoint Lists using jQuery

January 04, 2011 jQuery, List Forms, SharePoint, SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010

Out-of-the-box SharePoint doesn't provide a way to cascade drop downs in list forms. Luckily, jQuery provides a way to implement cascading drop downs in SharePoint list forms. Here is the step by step implementation guide: We need to have two more lists to implement this. Let's say: List 1: Parent list, say: Country List 2: Child list, say: Cities List 3: Our target list, where we are going to implement the Cascading drop down. So, Now: 1. Download the jquery-1.3.2.min.js by Jquery.com, from the below link http://code.google.com/p/jqueryjs/downloads/detail?name=jquery-1.3.2.min.js 2. Download spservices (jquery.SPServices-0.5.6.min.js) from the codeplex link http://spservices.codeplex.com/ 3. After downloading upload these two files in a document library 4. In SharePoint Designer, create your own NewForm.aspx (and EditForm.aspx) Search for this line in source code <asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderMain" runat="

Cascading Drop down In SharePoint Lists using jQuery