SharePoint Nuggets – June 2011 Part 2

So the Nuggets I managed to gather in May was so much that my June issue wasn’t big enough.  Herewith the second instalment of my June 2011 SharePoint Nuggets.

Hope they spark some thought, discussion and potentially safe you some time.

Enjoy.

SharePoint 2010 Administration

• I ran into an issue about not being able to create a secure store key: "An error occurred during the "Generate Key" process" I read the following articles (http://www.heyweb.net/2010/09/sharepoint-2010-secure-store-service-error/, http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sharepoint2010general/thread/559f72a4-d9ca-4004-b5ca-a0fa6dbad51f, http://www.spjeff.com/?p=480 and http://sharepoint.nauplius.net/2010/09/secure-store-service-error.html. After reading them I realised that something with AppPool wasn’t right. I reviewed this via the service application properties option and updated it to use the SecurityTokenService application pool. I then logged in with the correct account and it worked.
• How to generate GUID when configuring Secure Store? SELECT NEWID()
• When updating service accounts via the _admin/FarmCredentialManagement.aspx page beware that SharePoint does a couple of things in the background. For the user profile sa for example, all custom mappings and sync connections are wiped clean. Note: After restarting the services, all settings are returned to normal.
• In MOSS 2007 a user with Farm Administrator rights will not have the "Create Web Application" link unless he / she is in the local administrators group of the SharePoint server hosting Central Administration. (I know this is related to older version, just FYI)

SharePoint 2010 Licensing

• Cannot edit SPD Workflows in Visio without premium edition – https://msmvps.com/blogs/sundar_narasiman/archive/2010/10/29/visio-2010-does-not-show-option-to-create-sharepoint-2010-workflows.aspx

SharePoint 2010 for ITTPro’s

• Cool SQL queries to READ info from SPS – http://vspug.com/ethan/2007/09/16/inspecting-the-sharepoint-content-database/
• Removing the "Recently modified" sidebar from the wiki library sections: http://johndandison.com/blog/post/2010/01/25/Removing-the-e28098Recently-Modifiede28099-from-the-Quick-Launch-e28093-SharePoint-2010.aspx
• PUBLISHING ISSUES: If you run into monster publishing page issues, then ensure that you enable "Publishing" and "PublishingSite" features. ( Guids in here – http://www.sharepointfix.com/2010/11/sharepoint-2010-publishing-feature-guid.html)

SharePoint 2010 and InfoPath 2010

• InfoPath string functions (toUpper etc) via translate() http://arichterwork.blogspot.com/2008/04/comparing-infopath-fields-case.html
• Did you know: To preview a complex form in InfoPath without publishing it to SharePoint, simply update the trust settings to enable "FULL TRUST" verses "DOMAIN TRUST"

TechNet Awesomeness

• Managing Digital Assets (TechNet article): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee414276.aspx
• Calculated Columns references – http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb862071.aspx

SharePoint Nuggets – June 2011

You guessed it, it’s that time of the month again.  The topics covered in this months Nuggets ranges includes, Federated Search, Fixing Troubled Farms, Fun with InfoPath, Testing SQL Connectivity, Publishing Feature Mayhem and more.

Have fun reading through the bits and pieces I’ve collected over the past 4 weeks:

SharePoint and Mobility

• Cool blog post on Mobility feature in SharePoint (http://www.shareesblog.com/?p=280)

SharePoint Farm, SQL Connectivity

• If you are trying to disconnect from a troubled SharePoint Farm, simply stop SQL which will force SharePoint to give you the option to disconnect from the farm.
• To test SQL connectivity you can use sqlcmd -S <servername> -E
• Read this blog entry to find out how to see what port SQL Server is listening on (http://www.smallcitydesign.com/problems/cannot-connect-to-database/)

Configuring SSL for SharePoint 2010

• Export from IIS 7
• Import from website
• Edit bindings to web application
• Select certificate
• Add alternate access mapping to SharePoint

SharePoint Administration

• When creating a new web application, remember to set the “Browser File Handling” to “Permissive” to enable the loading of PDFs.
• Cool PDF icons for SharePoint – http://www.iconarchive.com/show/i-icons-by-treetog/PDF-icon.html
• Configuring 64bit Adobe iFilter for SharePoint 2010 – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2293357
• STSADM vs POWERSHELL commands re: solutions in SharePoint 2010 – http://www.sharepointanalysthq.com/2010/08/sharepoint-powershell-for-solution-deployment-wsp/

SharePoint Search

• If search crawler complains about crawling account cannot connect to sps3://[servername] repository, ensure to complete the following steps:
  • Open Manage Service Applications
  • Select User Profile Service Application
  • Click on “Administrators”
  • Add the default content access account and select “Retrieve People Data for Search Crawlers” as per the following screenshot:

• If you’re having trouble searching the user profile store in a SSL environment remember to update the URL for search to sps3s:// vs sps3:// (Thanks to a client for pointing this out)
• Adding federated search to SharePoint, quick and easy: http://manish-sharepoint.blogspot.com/2009/12/federated-search-in-sharepoint-2010.html
• Federated search connectors – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/enterprisesearch/ff727944.aspx

SharePoint Migration Challenges

• Dealing with orphaned users in SharePoint vs AD – http://nikspatel.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/delete-orphaned-ad-users-from-the-site-collection/
• After migration, Excel Web Access is not functioning. This article describes the issue: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jjameson/archive/2010/05/04/the-workbook-cannot-be-opened-error-with-sharepoint-server-2010-and-tfs-2010.aspx. To resolve it, ensure that the service account has access to the _Content db.
• Taming calculated columns – https://www.nothingbutsharepoint.com/sites/eusp/Pages/taming-the-elusive-calculated-column.aspx

I’ve just realised that my Nuggets for June are too many to fit into one blog post.  I’ll either start doing this bi-weekly, or post it whenever I have 10 or so items to share.

Hope this sparks some thought and potentially saves a bit of time searching the net for answers.

Introducing SharePoint Nuggets

During the course of any given period I come across an enormous amount of SharePoint related content, whether it be articles, tips, tricks, cool sites and more.  I tend to bookmark things, gather it in OneNote and plan to write elaborate posts about almost each item I find. 

This hasn’t worked.  The amount of content generated in the community on a daily basis is simply too much to take note of all and draw your own conclusions on it all OR add insightful comment to it all.

Enter SharePoint Nuggets

I’ve decided to create a new post heading where I will literally jot down ideas, notes, links and more that I’ve amassed over a period of time.  I’m not sure whether I’ll do this weekly, monthly or whatever, but I’ll be doing my best to keep it going.  Herewith the first instalment:

SharePoint Nuggets – May 2011

The theme of nuggets this time around is Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010.  I did a lot of research for my presentation at SharePoint Saturday and have decided to share some of the links with the greater community.  Here they are, have fun:

http://www.sharepoint911.com/blogs/laura/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?List=676af157%2D7d96%2D4e15%2Da987%2D54b8a3e4d948&ID=44

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

http://satishsri.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/lists-of-webparts-in-sharepoint-server-2010/

http://www.wssdemo.com/Lists/WebParts/sharepoint-web-parts.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg508696.aspx (What’s new in Windows Small Business Server 2008)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee539826(office.14).aspx (What’s new in SharePoint Foundation 2010)

http://blog.allyis.com/blog/bid/48102/Working-with-SharePoint-2010-Foundation-Master-Pages

http://www.pentalogic.net/sharepoint-knowledge-base/white-papers#smallbusiness

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff934618.aspx (Co-authoring)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff934620.aspx (Co-authoring admin)

http://veroniquepalmer.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/deleting-users-from-hosted-sharepoint-2010-foundation-sites (Security in MSF2010)

Enjoy.