Long time no see!!

Hi all,

It seems ages since I posted something here. Well today I saw a very interessting session from SPC2014 about SharePoint Online, best SharePoint in the world! ;-)

Secure, Reliable and Evergreen Service at Massive Scale: Lessons learned from Running SharePoint Online

Talks about some internal stuff like for example MinRole topology on SPO, the presentor calls it the secret session!! Really cool stuff, hope you enjoy!

The detection failed, this can be due to a corrupted installation database (Sharepoint 2007)

If for some reason, you get this error, be afraid, very afraid :-)

In my case it was installing SP3 for Sharepoint 2007.

It means, probably that someone deleted files from C:\windows\Installer to save some space. Some places will tell you that you need to remove the server from the farm and reinstall the OS, or some other way to solve this, well the following is a much better solution, that at least for me it worked fine.

The post isn't avaliable in the blog already, but way back machine was able to find it, and you can download the VBS, etc.

http://web.archive.org/web/20111010084932/http://moss2007.kbnk.info/Patching/solved-the-detection-failed-this-can-be-due-to-a-corrupted-installation-database.html

Basically you will get all packages from c:\windows\Installer folder from another server, and copy them to a repository. After that, you will run a script that will get all missing packages from that repository and put them back on the \Installer  folder.

All script files and info on the link above.

1st Iberian SharePoint Conference

Just came from the first Iberian SharePoint Conference and I'm really happy to say that it was a great conference, with a lot of very good sessions. Met a lot of new people, everyone with a deep knowledge on Sharepoint in common and it was really good to exchange ideas and experience on Sharepoint. All this geekness talk makes me want to put my hands on and start doing more stuff! Everyone should do this once in a while to get them motivated. See you all next time hopefully :)

These were the sessions I enjoyed the most:

• Gustavo Velez​ - OAuth y OData para valientes (Spanish session)
• A good simplification of OAuth in order to understand the core concepts mixed with more advanced stuff on tokens etc.
• Andre Lage - What should be aware with upgrade migration to SharePoint 2013 (English session)
• Great stuff, you can see it all comes from someone who is in deep on massive SP deployments.
• David Martos - DEV - ALM y SharePoint´- BEEZY session(Spanish session)
• Very entertaining and informative talk, not in detail but still a lot of insight.
• Jose Quinto - Búsqueda empresarial en detalle con SharePoint 2013 (Spanish session)
• Probably one of the most useful talks, with a lot of hand's on Search.
• ​Rodrigo Pinto - SharePoint Development Toolbelt Session (English session)
• Great talk, serious tools showed up here, really helpful gems when working on SP.

Check it all out @ http://www.iberiansharepointconference.com/en and wait for the slides and videos.

The Cloud & Sharepoint

Wow,

Realized recently that you can run Sharepoint on AWS (Amazon Web Services), Amazon Cloud Services, and also in your own and free cloud solution, OpenStack.

This can be very interesting news for someone looking for cutting back on costs... And OpenStack should grow for a finner product, since ebay and paypal have decided to move from VMware to OpenStack!!

If this is news to you, just check out amazon page, or this post about a SharePoint Eng. talking on how to setup a Windows Server on OpenStack. If you already knew about this please tell me what you think about it and if you have tried any of these services.

I'm still alive!

It's been a while since my last post, I just looked and it's from September 2011, wow, that's along time...

Hopefully that's going to change, let's see ;-)

For now, I just want to highlight this great service from the guys at CloudShare, I just found out that they are offering a trial of a full Sharepoint 2013 environment, with 3 machines, AD+SQL+MOSS2013. And also 2010 if you want a quick access to a 2010 server.

The remote access is done via java applet, it's a bit slow and weird but it does the job, and if you don't have access to a 2013 RTM ISO, this is a nice way to get to know the platform.

I found about CloudShare, by the great SP guru Andrew Connell, and Critical Path Training. The post is from March 2012 so this isn't fresh news, but the 2013 part should be 'kinda' fresh :)

I haven't seen this type of service, at least for free (even for this small amount of time, 14 days for 2010 and 2 days for 2013) anywhere, and if there are more around, please do share!

If you do not care for the 2010 trial, just go to CloudShare site and create a trial account and fire up Sharepoint 2013, have fun!

WSS User Info data not in sync with MOSS User Profile

If your WSS User Info data not in sync with MOSS User Profile and you have two or more frontends, please read on...

After trying everything on the books (http://blogs.technet.com/b/nishants/archive/2010/08/23/troubleshooting-user-profile-sync-issues-in-office-sharepoint-server-2007.aspx) I wasnt able to solve it, including with the stsadm commands:


stsadm -o sync -ignoreisactive 1
stsadm -o sync -deleteolddatabases 0
stsadm -o sync


Then, after browsing the ULS I found the following error:



User Profile Import: Error while querying for whether the import is in progress: 
    System.Net.WebException: The underlying connection was closed: 
        An unexpected error occurred on a send. ---> System.IO.IOException: Authentication failed because the remote party has closed the transport stream.

and a quick browse @ google this post appeared (http://mrvsharepoint.blogspot.com/2009/02/when-you-to-search-settings-you-get.html)

After that it was a question of replacing the SSL Certificates for the Office Server Web Services web site using selfssl from IIS 6.0 Resouces kit and the problem was solved.

Hope you find this information usefull.

Log Parser

Just found out about Log Parser 2.2 from Microsoft, and while I was at it, i grabbed Visual Log Parser from CodePlex for a nice GUI (who likes cl right?)

This is simple app that I found out while trying to understand by IIS was recycling too many times and browsing this post.

It looks like you can query your EventViewer and a ton of other Log repositories just like a regular SQL database:

Select top 100 *

from \\server\System where SourceName = 'W3SVC'

and EventID in (1009;1010;1011;1074;1077;1078;1079;1080;1117)

order by timegenerated desc

Better than scrolling up and down right? You can even build up some VBS or something else to have some real time data from your logging. And this will work for different log platforms.

Remote Log4Net

You probably know this already, or this might not come as a surprise but enabling log4net to log to a remote place is really simple.

We had a scenario of only one front end with custom systems using log4net, but we needed to add a second front end, and with that the question about what to do about logging.

I wasn't aware how simple is to enable remote logging on log4net. So, heads up if you were like me:

Get log4net Remove Logging Service at CodePlex (you can get the source and change at your will), after install this will create a listener service where you want to store your remote log repository.

Then, at your local clients just change the appender to something like this

<appender name="remotAppend" type="log4net.Appender.RemotingAppender" >

<sink value="tcp://remoteserver:port/Log4netRemotingServerService" />

<lossy value="false" />

<bufferSize value="10" />

<onlyFixPartialEventData value="true" />

</appender>

At your Remote repository use your favorite appender, RollingLogFileAppender or whatever.

Remember to add the hostname property to your layout type: (%-10property{log4net:HostName}).

Something like this:

<appender name="RollLogAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">

<file value="C:\LOGS\MYAPP.log.txt" />

<appendToFile value="true" />

<rollingStyle value="Date" />

<encoding value="UTF-8" />

<datePattern value="'.'yyyy'.'MM'.'dd'.'HH'.log.txt'" />

<lockingModel type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender+MinimalLock" />

<layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">

<conversionPattern value="%date (%-10property{log4net:HostName}) [%thread] %-5level %logger - %message%newline" />

</layout>

</appender>

Maybe you could do without this Codeplex service, but since it was so simple and the component is working fine I didnt waste any time looking for alternatives.

If you dont agree, please comment, shed some light :) Thank you.

Full documentation on:

http://log4netremotelogging.codeplex.com/

http://logging.apache.org/log4net/index.html

IE8 Life Saver Tip

If you usually access say SharePoint (or any other site) with several users at the same time, for testing, admin, regular user, etc., you may found that IE8 doesnt allow you since every Window will share only one credential. With IE7 everything worked fine, it seems its a new 'feature'.

Well, the solution is pretty simple, File -> New Session, or else you can add "-nomerge" in your local IE shortcut.

Everything on http://www.walkernews.net/2009/03/26/use-ie8-nomerge-option-to-login-multiple-accounts-of-same-site/

Files missing in SharePoint? Even from RecycleBin and (god forbids) AllUserData?

If files are disappearing from your SharePoint Document Library and you are (probably) using some custom code on SharePoint Doc Libs then check if you have any SPFile.Delete() call because if so, that row will disappear from SharePoint for ever...Unless you have you Backup/Restore working on.

Developers should be aware that there is another method, .Recycle() that will send the file to the RecycleBin, and this is safer in most cases. Of couse if RecycleBin is disabled this method doesn't add any value i guess...

There are other cases that will delete the file for ever like sp workflow deletions but im not aware of more...probably those that internally use Delete().

There are some nice posts with more info on this @ sharemypoint, and its also good to read the SPFile documentation ;)

A new challenge(company) for 2010!

Thats right, I'm starting 2010 at a new company, ANCP. I have great memories from my former company, DevScope, and i will always remeber it has a great place to work, always at the tip of the edge adopting new technologies, young and smart people working on new stuff that most people on the country haven't heard about, even those working on IT.

I just want to say thanks to everyone at DevScope, specially Luis Martins for the opportunity and Marco Silva with who i have been working more regularly in the past year ;)

Now I will be focusing on SharePoint, and start to learn a BPM tool for SharePoint, but because i have moved to a non-IT company i will be giving support to other stuff as well. It's a different point of view that, I hope, will give me a different perspective to my work and insight to the business. Also because it's a government agency i might not be exposing everything i will be doing, still, expect some more SharePoint stuff, and more. Wish me luck @ ANCP.

Language "pt-PT" does not exist in this MessageManager instance

Hi,

We were having some problems with the Variation site of a Commerce 2009 Contemporary Site. It seems when errors happen the message doesnt get translated. These things happen for example when searching and presenting orders in Order History. In the root or en-US site they work ok. In MOSS logs we didnt find much information.

We have most of the functionality working on the pt variation but these 'errors' were stoping us from advancing.

We get something like this in event log:

Pipeline Error: Component Execution failed for component[0x9] hr: 0x1B5AA390 ProgID: Commerce.OrderDiscount.1 Language "pt-PT" does not exist in this MessageManager instance. And something like this: An exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred and was caught.

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

12/02/2009 15:19:14 Type : System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089 Message : Component Execution failed for component[0x9] hr: 0x1B5AA390 ProgID: Commerce.OrderDiscount.1 Language "pt-PT" does not exist in this MessageManager instance. Source : Commerce.MtsPipeline

We solved it by creating a MessageManager Resource dll, all info here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms964360(CS.70).aspx

You can find rc.xml in commerce sdk, RCxml2resx in commerce tools, resgen and al in visual studio command prompt.

We lost some time with this, and this solved almost all our problems, it should be documented in the variations paper ;)

Commerce Server 2009 + Windows 2008 R2 + Alias

If you get a strange error running Sharepoint Comerce Server Wizard at unpacking or having problems running PUP.exe and have an ALIAS configured for Sql, try adding the alias to the hosts file. This solved some problems. It seems PUP.exe uses named pipes to access Sql, go figure..

An error has occurred (80004005): [DBNETLIB][ConnectionOpen (Connect()).]SQL Server does not exist or access denied.

More detail on the MSDN Forum: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/pt-BR/commserver2009/thread/2b2cce1e-189b-42ff-ad4a-1282552e69f8

.NET 3.5 SP1 missing when installing Commerce Server 2009 on Win 2008 R2

When you try to install Commerce Server 2009 (after the 2007 install) on a Windows Server 2008 R2 you will get an error saying to install .NET 3.5 SP1.

You may try to install it, but you cant, when you try to install it extracts and the installer vanishes...you know why? R2 already comes with 3.5 SP1 (a warning on the installer saying its already installed would give us a better clue)

After some poking around we found a MS hot fix...a reg key is missing on the 3.5 SP1 of the R2.

Request the fix to support: http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;975567&x=14&y=13

Please stay around for more CS2009 info and also check my colleague Marco's Silva blog, for it will have soon more CS2009 goddies ;)

Annoying error Saving Page Content, and Compatibility View

There are some annoying things while we work, Saving Page Content is one of them:

Its easy to get rid of: Advanced Settings, disable "Enable native XMLHTTP support".

Original Source: http://www.chakkaradeep.com/post/2009/07/11/IE8-to-SharePoint-e28098Are-you-sure-you-want-to-navigate-away-from-this-pagee28099.aspx

Another thing i didnt understand was i didnt had compability view enabled in IE8 and i didnt understand why, here are the reasons:

Sometimes the Compatibility View button isn’t displayed. The button is located on the address bar next to the ‘stop’ and ‘refresh’ buttons. There are a few cases where there’s no action for a user take and, thus, the Compatibility View button will not show:

• If you're viewing an internal-to-Internet Explorer page (such as about:InPrivate)
• If you're viewing a page that has declared it's "ready" for Internet Explorer 8 through use of the versioning tag / HTTP header (it doesn’t matter if this tag triggers Quirks, IE7 Standards, or IE8 Standards, the button won’t be displayed)
• If you're viewing an intranet page and you have the ‘Display intranet sites in Compatibility View’ checkbox selected
• If you're viewing any webpage and you have the ‘Display all websites in Compatibility View’ checkbox selected
• If you're viewing a webpage that is included on the Microsoft-supplied compatibility view updates list and you have the ‘Include updated website lists from Microsoft’ checkbox selected
• If you've toggled either the ‘Document Mode’ or ‘Browser Mode’ settings via the Developer Toolbar

Original Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2009/02/16/just-the-facts-recap-of-compatibility-view.aspx

Extensions

Just found out about a nice feature unknowed by me atleast...Extensions!

Just create something like:

public static class Extensions
{
bool MYMETHOD(this int value)
{
return whatever;
}

This will cause an extension to the int32 class, so in every int you will be able to call MYMETHOD, like this:

int n = 4;
if(n.MYMETHOD())
do something;

Maybe alot of you already know this but i didnt...pretty usefull.

Another tool for BDC

Just found out about a new tool from Simego for BDC Application Definition Files, MOSS BDC Design Studio($200) is cheaper than Metaman($1200) and it seems that it does some things Metaman doesnt.

More reviews here and here.

PS: I'm on a small project working with BI, SSAS and SRS with SharePoint, mostly setting up the envorinment and found out the value of SQL Profiler ;)

Oh and its nice to work with Reports inside Sharepoint, real fun.

Also designing some simpler than Visual Studio Workflows on SPD, a bit weird at first but after you get it its pretty straight forward.

Sharepoint & Reporting Services

When installing and configuring Sharepoint with Reporting Services please refer to this fine link: http://blah.winsmarts.com/2007-12-SharePoint_and_SQL_Server_Reporting_Services.aspx

Over and out

Unattended Quiet SQL Express Installation

It might be a little bit difficult to find the right params to install SQLEXPR32.exe in unattended mode so here it, if i need it again:

SQLEXPR32.EXE /Q /qb ADDLOCAL=SQL_Engine,SQL_Data_Files,Client_Components,Connectivity SQLAUTOSTART=1 INSTANCENAME=WHATSUP SQLACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" COLLATION="SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS" INSTALLSQLDIR="%Install_Dir%" INSTALLSQLDATADIR="%Install_Data_Dir%"

GOT IT AT : http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/sqlsetupandupgrade/thread/87a3bd56-7269-4d0f-8f29-1090edb6b8d5/

FBA Management in SP

If you have FBA in your Farm, with data on SQL it can be a pain to manage the users, and the client will want a nice way to manage them.

Well, this guy did it :)