Is SharePoint 2007 really outdated?

If you are one amongst the people who joined this amazing product in 2007 when it was in full boom and were comfy working with the Central Admin and the SSP and then when you rubbed your soul into it you got the new ribbons and stuff around ...I know how it feels.


MOSS is classy, its seems like your working on something.. a website ... the ribbons in 2010 just makes everything look like Office but yes we do need then so the end users can explore all the functionality of options available.

But we have to move on as everyone does .. Still there are organizations stuck with 2007 because the cost of upgrade is something they need to think upon. For the 2007 Share pointers I have something here.



Here is downloadable content for 2007 that you can read and use as per your needs.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262788(v=office.12).aspx

How to change image library location in SharePoint Blog site?

First of all it depends on which method you are using to publish blog?

Is it using MS Word?

Or you are directly creating posts on blog site?

If you are using MS Word

If you are using MS Word to publish post to SharePoint Blog site then it will automatically publish images to "Photos" picture library.

Below are the steps to change the default location

• Open MS Word > New > Blog
• Manage Accounts > Select the account and click on change
• Click "Picture Option", this will give you 3 more option - SharePoint Blog, My Own Server and don't upload images
• Select the second option
• Provide URL of another picture library where you want to upload images into source and upload URL, click OK.
• It will give you pop up after successful registration

Or

Direct posting on SharePoint Blog site

If you are directly creating posts inside blog site then you have to first create another picture library and while you are inserting an image it will give an option where to save this image.

Error 503 and unable to access the MOSS site

Problem Description:
Gets error 503 and unable to access the MOSS site anymore after installing a German language pack

Error Message:

503, service is unavailable

Farm Configuration:

Product / Version / Bit: SP2010/14.0.6335.0000/X64
Operating System / Service Pack/Bit: Win 2k8 R2 /SP2/X64
Farm Configuration: 3 WFE
Hardware (Physical/virtual): Hyper-V
Database Used: SQL server 2008 R2

Troubleshooting Done:

1.   Tried accessing all the sites, just to make sure that the problem is restricted to one site or across the whole farm

2.   Reviewed SharePoint logs

3.   Checked event logs

4.   Checked the connectivity between SQL and SharePoint

5.   Checked the application pools are running or not

Cause:

Found out that the applications pools are all stopped and that’s why the sites not running.

It looks like when the language pack is installed and then the issue started happening.

Resolution:

Started the application pool one by one and tried accessing the sites

All sites are accessible now without any issues…

Additional Notes:

Noticed that one of the content DB (WSS_content_ABC) shows that a few sites are not upgraded to SharePoint 2010.

Detached the content Database and attached it back to the same web application, just to make sure that the DB gets upgraded.

Product Applies To:

SharePoint 2010

SharePoint 2007

Failed to open a connection to the Nintex Workflow configuration database

Here we go with another new issue and easy resolutions & workarounds

This time, the issue was with Nintex workflows at the time of activating a site collection feature. Let me describe the details in step by step so that it will be easy recognize as well as understand

Problem Description:

Problem activating Site Feature. While activating the ‘Nintex workflow 2010’ at the site collection level, we faced the following error message:

Error Message:

An unexpected error has occurred.

Troubleshoot issues with Microsoft SharePoint Foundation.

Correlation ID: XXXXX

Troubleshooting Steps: 

1)    Most imp regarding any exceptions: SharePoint logs (\14\logs)-specifically if we face “unexpected error”

2)    Windows event logs

3)    If we have a correlation id then it’s very easy to find out the exact error message

After reviewing the SP logs, this is what I found:

Exception was thrown while ensuring dependencies met for feature 'NintexWorkflow' (id: 0561d315-d5db-4736-929e-26da142812c5): Nintex.Workflow.NWFeatureActivatingException: Nintex.Workflow.NW2007DatabaseConnectionException: Failed to open a connection to the Nintex Workflow configuration database. ---> System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Cannot open database "NW2007WFDB" requested by the login. The login failed.  Login failed for user 'Contoso\Administrator'. 

What we need to target first in such conditions:

1.    What exactly the app pool identity is used by that web application? Does it have sufficient rights/not?

2.    The Nintex database has a role called WSS_Content_Application_Pools. This is the group that we need to add the app pool identity to

• SQL SERVER
• SharePoint_Config
• Security
• Users
• The account which is running the app pool of the web application
• Right Click-Properties
• General
• Database role membership

Resolution:

I have added this group named as WSS_Content_Application_Pools to the APP POOL identity and that it. It worked and issue has been successfully resolved

Disabled accounts in AD show up in SharePoint as active profiles

Problem Description:
If the proper filer is not applied in import connections then it can lead to hundreds of unwanted / disabled profile in ssp database. Sometimes due to IT audits we want to get rid of those profiles from SharePoint.

Product Applies:
1.    MOSS2007 (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007)
2.    WSS3.0 Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)

Error Message: N/A

What exactly I did? How exactly I configured and came to know about the issue?
1.    In AD, I have created lots of user and disabled few of them.

2.    Configured SSP to import user profile by using the default filter
(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user).

3.    That’s it-Problem started and found lots of profiles in view user profile.

Resolution:
At first apply filter
(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(!(userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2)))
to just import active profiles in connection.

Run full profile import three times back to back.
After that you will find users in view user profile > Profile Missing from import.
You can manually delete these unwanted profile or wait till clean up job delete them.

Data Sheet Error "The text entered for lookup isn't an item from the list"

Issue

Ø  Create a Custom List

Ø  Add a Lookup Column

Ø  Create a New Item , leave the Lookup column blank.

Ø  Once the item is created try to edit the same item in Datasheet view.

Once you try to edit the Column in datasheet view it will throw the following error message

"The text entered for lookup isn't an item from the list. Select an item from the list, or enter text that matches one of the listed items."

Resolution

Install the following Hotfix on Client machine to resolve this issue

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948952

Exception error while activating Sharepoint Publishing feature

Issue:

Whenever you try to activate the "Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure" feature from site collection, it throws the following error message.

Exception Error 0x80020009

Solution:

Try to activate through command line

stsadm -o activatefeature -filename publishing\feature.xml -url http://URL -force

stsadm -o activatefeature -filename publishingresources\feature.xml -url http://URL  -force

stsadm -o activatefeature -filename publishingSite\feature.xml -url http://URL -force

stsadm -o activatefeature -filename publishingweb\feature.xml -url http://URL -force

stsadm -o activatefeature -filename publishinglayouts\feature.xml -url http://URL -force

stsadm -o activatefeature -filename navigation\feature.xml -url http://URL -force

Unable to create new page "Data at the root level is invalid. line 1 position 1"

Issue:

Unable to create new page in SharePoint 2007 subsite
Error:  "Data at the root level is invalid. line 1 position 1"

Resolution: 
1. Deactivate Office SharePoint Server Publishing feature from the affected subsite - Site features
2. Deactivate Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure feature from the top level site - Site Collection features
3.  Activate  Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure feature from the top level site - Site Collection features
4.  Activate Office SharePoint Server Publishing feature from the affected subsite - Site features

Hope this helps.

Adding a Description Column for a folder under Document Library

Ø  Go to Site Actions, Site Settings

Ø  Click Site Content Types

Ø  Click Create

Ø  Give the new content type a name such as "Description"

Ø  Set the parent content type group as Folder Content Types

Ø  Set the parent content type to Folder

Ø  Add the new content type to a Group. I put it back in the "Folder Content Types" group

Ø  Click OK

Ø  Scroll down to the columns section and click Add from new site column

Ø  Name the column and set all the usual column options

Ø  Repeat for any additional columns

Ø  Click OK

Ø  Go to your document library

Ø  Click Settings and Library Settings, or in 2010 click the Library ribbon tab and then click Library Settings

Ø  Click Advanced and set Allow management of content types to Yes and click OK (this may already selected)

Ø  Scroll down to Content Types and click Add from existing site content types and add your new folder content type

Ø  Go to your document library and click the New dropdown, or the New button in the 2010 Document ribbon, and add your new folder!

Ø  Go to the View dropdown and click Modify this view and add your new folder meta data columns (you will probably want to move them to just after the Name column)

The difference between Read Only and View Only permission

Today I came across a very good debate on View Only and Read Only permissions during a lunch break (in fact we all had a great FUN J)

Briefly speaking, View Only is one of the default permissions that can be directly assigned to groups or users in SharePoint sites; Read Only is a mode of viewing document.

They have some relations in SharePoint. View Only permission gives users the right to view pages, list items, and documents, but prevent any modification. That means, in item level, document can only be viewed in Read Only mode by the users with View Only permission.

A very good MS article on this

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS): Permission levels and permissions

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA101001491033.aspx