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Links List May 2009

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:02:06 GMT

I decided to share all my interesting reads and resources month by month with my blog readers. You can find these posts by searching on the label Links. I'll try to order the resources in logical categories. If you would like to see some interesting stuff added in the next month, don't hesitate to post a comment. So this is my Links post for May 2009.

Integration MOSS 2007 â?" Dynamics AX with BDC through a custom field

Sun, 17 May 2009 05:52:44 GMT

In this series of post, I'll show how you can integrate Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 with another line of business system, more specifically Dynamics AX. The purpose is to create a custom field type, which can be added as a column to a SharePoint list. This SharePoint column renders a dropdown box with values from a Microsoft SQL Server table's column. As such, in stead of duplicating the possible values on your SharePoint box each time new values are added in your line of business system, the available values for this SharePoint column are always in synch with your line of business system.

Links List April 2009

Sun, 03 May 2009 05:00:55 GMT

Add url to the Description of a SharePoint Column

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:38:13 GMT

If you want to add a url to the Description of a SharePoint Column, this cannot be done by adding HTML tags in the Description field of the Additional Column Settings of a SharePoint Column. HTML tags added in the Description of a column are rendered in plain text, so that is not an option. You could achieve this though by use of the Content Editor Web Part and some JavaScript. In next example, I have create an Issue Tracking SharePoint List. In this list, I have a Lookup column called Contact, which points to a Contacts SharePoint List, located in the same site, and at the same level as my Issue Tracking List. I want to add a hyperlink in the description of my Contact Lookup column of my Issue Tracking list to the NewForm.aspx page of my Contacts list to make it more user-friendly for end-users to find where they can add values for that Lookup column.

Problems after farm restore

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 23:11:18 GMT

I had to do a topology change for a Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 installation. The MOSS 2007 installation was currently on one physical server. The change implied splitting off the Database Server to another physical server, and keeping the original physical server as Web-Front End Server and Application Server. So I started a set of taks: I performed a farm level backup using the backup utility in SharePoint Central Administration. I ran the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard to disconnect the server from the configuration database. I ran the Wizard again to create a new SharePoint farm. I launched the Office SharePoint Services Search and Windows SharePoint Services Search services. I restored the farm backup. All of which went pretty well, till I started doing some test: I ran into several problems.

Links List March 2009

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:14:17 GMT

Tutorials

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:56:20 GMT

List of interesting, mainly SharePoint links.

Wrong urls in SharePoint alert messages

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:44:03 GMT

Recently I ran into a problem with the automatic generated urls in SharePoint alert messages. For some users logging in using the Web-based form (and hence entering the Forms Based authentication Web Application, http://extranet url), the hyperlinks in the generated alert messages started wrongly with http://intranet. This was not the case for all users entering the Forms Based Web Application: for some the hyperlinks in the alert messages started correctly with http://extranet.

Links List February 2009

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 02:26:01 GMT

SharePoint Services - Setting up a Website with Forms Authentication

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:49:20 GMT

How to create a website in SharePoint and enable Forms Authentication

SharePoint not reachable through IE, with Firefox no problem

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 03:06:21 GMT

Problem description: Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage At one of my customers, all of a sudden, the SharePoint website was not accessible anymore for some users. Those users were prompted for their credentials when trying to enter the SharePoint website, but then they got immediately a Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage error page. The SharePoint environment was a MOSS 2007 environment with Windows Authentication.

Create a Who is Who application on SharePoint

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 04:29:56 GMT

Most people having a SharePoint environment have already a lot of information about the users in another system stored, such as Active Directory. This article describes a step-by-step guide to promote this user information in Active Directory to the SharePoint environment, resulting in a Who is Who functionality on the SharePoint environment.

Links List January 2009

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 23:37:45 GMT

Invalid look-up value durig upload of a Word document in a SharePoint

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:38:01 GMT

During upload of a Word 2007 document in a SharePoint document library, you can run into following error: Invalid lookup-value. A look-up field contains invalid data. Please check the value and try again.

Search problems after Windows update

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:46:38 GMT

From one day on the other, no items got indexed anymore during the crawling process on our Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 installation. Looking in the Crawl logs, following error was found: Access is denied. Check that the Default Content Access Account has access to this content, or add a crawl rule to crawl this content. (The item was deleted because it was either not found or the crawler was denied access to it.)

Generating charts from SharePoint lists

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:11:17 GMT

Business requirement: Generating charts from SharePoint lists Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 doesn't have OOTB features to generate charts from SharePoint lists. This post describes a solution which can be found on CodePlex to make this possible with just a few clicks. Multiple graph types such as bars, columns and lines are possible.

Links List December 2008

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:23:43 GMT

Show ID field on the DispForm.aspx form page

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:25:05 GMT

Business requirement: Show ID field on the DispForm.aspx page The ID field of a SharePoint list is not shown by default on the DispForm.aspx form page. This can be very annoying, especially in cases where an Issue Tracking list is used: most of the time business users want to see the ID for an Issue Tracking list item.

Forms Based Authenticated users cannot open Microsoft Office documents

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 22:48:32 GMT

Problem Description: Forms Based Authenticated users cannot open Microsoft Office documents You have configured your Web Application to use Forms Based Authentication. Users cannot open Microsoft Office documents such as Microsoft Word or Excel files. Non-Office documents open without problem. When a user tries to open a Microsoft Office document, the Microsoft Office program is launched (such as Word), but the file, stored in a SharePoint document library, is not opened. In stead, the user sees something which is similar to the login page to which a user is redirected for a Web Application configured with Forms as Authentication Type. The document opened is also indicated as being the login.aspx page.

ChartPart for SharePoint - free chart web part

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:33:42 GMT

ChartPart for SharePoint is a web part for Microsoft SharePoint Services 3.0 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 which generates charts from SharePoint lists. The ChartPart is free to use for everyone, as long as you follow the License, who would like to "light" up their SharePoint installation with some nice graphs and charts.

Disable view duplicates search functionality

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:54:21 GMT

Business requirement: Disable view duplicates search functionality When performing a search query in SharePoint, the search results group duplicate search results by default. For me it is unclear which criteria make SharePoint think some search results are duplicates for each other, and hence make SharePoint group them together as one search result. This can be pretty confusing, as end-users not always are finding back everything because some stuff is hidden away in such a grouped search result. For example, ungrouping the above search result reveals following hidden search results: For me, these files shouldn't be grouped together as duplicates in the search results: these files are financial reports for different quarters. The filename as the title of these files are different, nevertheless SharePoint groups these files as duplicates in the search results. End-users not so familiar with SharePoint may overlook the View duplicates link in the search results: as such they may start complaining that they don't find some files they've uploaded before (f.e. here: they may complain they don't find the financial report for Q3-04). Solution: Disable view duplicates search functionality

Lookup user info in a Workflow

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:48:06 GMT

Business Requirement: Use the Name user property in an Email sent out by a Workflow Suppose following scenario: you have created a site based on the Help Desk template, one of the Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. With Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007, you have added a Workflow to the Service Requests list which sends out an email each time a service request is changed to the Service Representative. Problem is that the user information in the email will be the Account, though you would prefer to have the Name in the email.

Restoring configuration database

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 04:34:33 GMT

Problem Description: UpdatedConcurrencyException: The object MySiteCleanupJob Name=mysitecleanup Parent=SPWebService was updated by another user After restoring the configuration database of our SharePoint, we ran into problems: we were unable to change some settings on web application level in the SharePoint Central Administration. Investigating the SharePoint log files in the 12 hive revealed following error: UpdatedConcurrencyException: The object MySiteCleanupJob Name=mysitecleanup Parent=SPWebService was updated by another user. Determine if these changes will conflict, resolve any differences, and reapply the second change. This error may also indicate a programming error caused by obtaining two copies of the same object in a single thread. Previous update information: User: ********** Process:OWSTIMER Machine:********* Time:October 29, 2008 04:31:38.0000 Current update information: User: ********** Process:OWSTIMER Machine:********** Time:November 02, 2008 05:30:20.0593.

Data Refresh Failed

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:59:39 GMT

Problem Description: Data Refresh Failed You have configured Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to enable workbooks load in Excel Services. You have stored your data connection in a trusted data connection library and your Excel 2007 workbook in a trusted file location. You open the Excel 2007 workbook and you apply a filter or you choose to Refresh All Connections. Following error message is appearing: Unable to retrieve external data for the following connections: Connection_Name The data sources may be unreachable, may not be responding, or may have denied you access. Verify that data refresh is enabled for the trusted file location and that the workbook data authentication is correctly set. Refreshing all connections or filtering with an administrator account works without problem.

Customize SharePoint list form rendering in new, edit and display mode

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:48:44 GMT

Business requirement: Hide list fields upon creation / modification of a SharePoint list item with the SharePoint GUI In a previous blogpost Hide list fields upon creation of a SharePoint list item, I talked about how to hide a SharePoint list field upon creation of a list item and to show it upon modification of that same list item. Unfortunately, this is something which cannot be achieved by using merely the out-of-the-box administration tools of SharePoint, but the SharePoint Tips Utility Pack could help you out. This great tool has some disadvantages: You can only run it on the SharePoint server itself. If you are a SharePoint implementator, you can set the properties of each field with this tool. Unfortunately, if power users of the SharePoint environment afterwards want to change anything to a field, they are not able to do this anymore (whereas they are able to change views,add content types or add columns on a SharePoint list you have set up for them by going to the appropriate settings forms).