ACS Blogs

I'm sure all of you have seen the new tagging feature of SharePoint.  This particular feature is a part of the User Profile Service Application AND Metadata Service Applications.  If you don't have one of these created, then you simply won't get the ability to do tagging.  If you do however, you can tag things as a generic "I Like It" or something more specific like "Awesome".  I have had a few different questions asked of me over the past few months and here I'll answer them all:

#1 If a user tags something, will other users see the tag?

ANSWER: Depends!  There is a checkbox when you attempt to tag an item.  If you check it, it will save the tag specifically for you and no one else.  If you do not check the box, then when some goes to tag the same item, you will see a suggested tag list made up of all tags that have been placed on that item.

#2 If a user tags something, will they see that tag indexed in a search for the item?

ANSWER: No, I have not gotten SharePoint or FAST Search to index the tags :(  This can certainly be setup with a custom iFilter or extend point in FAST Search content processing pipeline, but it doesn't look to be out of the box.

#3 As an administrator, how can I search on all the tags that have been created?

Tags are saved as Metadata terms in the Managed Metadata Service Application that is assigned to the web application you are working with.  You can simply view all the terms under the "System->Keywords" group of your MMS service application.   You can also run the following query on your MMS database to get a listing of the tags and who "tagged" it:

 SELECT
      [ObjectUniqueId]
      ,[ObjectId]
      ,[Label]
      ,[Owner]
      ,[CreatedTime]
      ,[LastModifiedTime]

  FROM [ECMChangeLog] ecl, ECMTerm t, ECMTermLabel etl
  where
  ChangeType = 1
  and
  ecl.ObjectUniqueId = t.UniqueId
  and
  ecl.ObjectId = etl.TermId 

#4 How do I query  what has been tagged?

ANSWER: All items that have been tagged are not stored in MMS, but instead in the UserProfileServicesApplication_SocialDB_* database and in the SocialTags table.  A simple query of that table will give you what you are looking for.  Other helpful tables include:

• SocialTagCloud_Everyone
• SocialTagCloug_EveryoneByUrlBase
• SocialTags
• SocialTags_ChangeLog
  

#5 Are tags filtered (as in bad words like *bleep*)?

ANSWER: No, and ForeFront doesn't filter them either (reference this post).

#6 Can tags be filtered?

ANSWER:  To answer this question, one must analyze the architecture of the tagging system.  Since all the tag keywords are stored with MMS, the question then becomes, can I filter MMS?  Looking at the structure of the MMS tables, we have:

• ECMTerm
• ECMTermDescription
• ECMTermLabel
• ECMTermProperty
• ECMTermSet
• ECMTermSetMembership

The value for the term is actually stored in the ECMTermLabel property table.  It would make sense that before anything that is allowed to be inserted into this table have the filter applied.  On that note, we explore the "proc_ECM_AddTermLabel" stored procedure.  It is simple enough to create a new table called "ECMTermFilters" and inject into this stored procedure a call to look up anything that has the filter value in it.  If it does, simply reject the insert and call up some random RAISERROR call to make it fail.  DONE!

#7 What does the "Tag Cloud" web part do?

Being that SharePoint doesn't have any filtering...this web part can cause some pretty nasty HR problems.  As long as your users are doing what they are suppose to be doing, then this simply queries all the tags in the Metadata store and displays them.

Enjoy!
Chris

At our SanSpug.org meeting for August I had some very intelligent questions asked of me.  Ones I didn't know the answer too, until now!  Here's the questions:

• What happens to a list that has been assigned a content type that was content published when we change and republish the content type.  Is it business as usual in that the content type will update across the lists?
• What happens to a list that has been assigned a content type and we move that list to another site? 

Very interesting questions, and my default answer would be to say that publishing is nothing more than automating the "Creation" of content types, and therefore, all previous rules will apply here.  Let's take a look at the basics.

Basic #1:  Does a list get updates of a content type?

1. Create a new content type
2. Assign it to a list
3. Create a new item based on the content type
4. Update the content type
   
5. Review if the content type gets the updated columns/settings

ANSWER:  A list will only get the items updated if you set the "Update all content types inheriting from this type?" radio button to TRUE!

Basic #2:  Does an exported list to a new site collection keep the content type?

1. Create a new content type
2. Assign it to a list
3. Create a new item based on the content type
4. Export the list with contents as a template (.stp)
   
5. Restore to a new site collection
6. Review if the content type is created/attached
   

 ANSWER: Yes!  The content type will in fact move to the new site collection and be assigned to the newly created list!

 CTHub #1:  Does a list get updates of a content type via a Managed Content Hub?

1. Create a new Managed Hub
2. Configure the MMS to point to the hub
   
3. Create a new content type in the hub
4. Publish the content type
5. Wait for the content type to be published
   
6. Assign it to a list
7. Create a new item based on the content type
8. Update the content type
9. Wait for the publish
   
10. Review if the content type gets the updated columns/settings

ANSWER:  Yes!  This implies that the "Update all content types inheriting from this type?" radio button to TRUE!

CTHub #2:  What happens if you create a list template and move the list to another site collection, then update the Content Type in the hub?

 CTHub #3:  What happens when you publish a content type with the same name as one already existing?

ANSWER:  The content type will not be updated, the Content Type Publishing logs will display an "Exists" error.

Enjoy!
Chris

While working with getting PowerPivot and Excel Services working, I ran into this very annoying error:

ServerSession.ProcessServerSessionException: An exception during ExecuteWebMethod has occurred for server: http://servername:32843/811dd9f4d4ae48779f1dc7a03ba5d555/ExcelService*.asmx, method: GetHealthScore, ex: Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server.CalculationServer.Proxy.ServerSessionException: An error has occurred. ---> System.ServiceModel.FaultException`1[System.ServiceModel.ExceptionDetail]: The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040) (Fault Detail is equal to An ExceptionDetail, likely created by IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults=true, whose value is: System.IO.FileLoadException: The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040)    at System.Reflection...    

Nothing in the event log...only this error with no reference to the assembly name or anything...annoying.  I found this nice post about debugging these type of errors:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/suzcook/archive/2003/05/29/57120.aspx

You must download the SDK to get the tool:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6B6C21D2-2006-4AFA-9702-529FA782D63B&displaylang=en

After installing, I wasn't seeing any binding errors.  In the documentation, you're suppose to restart the services that are using .NET after setting the logging.  I rebooted the server and the error didn't return...weird.

Chris

What I believe to be a new change to SharePoint 2010 is the addition of some error checking around Regional Settings and indexed columns in lists. When you try to change the regional settings and sort order to something with a different collation type (sorting based on a-Z0-9, or 'a' is bigger than 'A' type of stuff), you will get an error about the indexed columns.  Being that I have turned on all site and site collection features, several lists have been created with indexed columns.

Moral of the story is, you MUST set the sort order of the site FIRST, before you add any indexed columns and turn on any site and site collection features.  If you don't, then you are in for a few hours of work to remove them and then add them all back!

Chris

In working with the document id service in one of my labs I found some interesting "features" of this new SharePoint 2010 feature.

• When you activate the Site Collection Feature, you MUST wait for the timer job to complete BEFORE you change the site prefix.  If you move to fast for SharePoint and you change the site prefix, you will HOSE the site collection timer job setup.  I have found no way to fix this.  You will never see the Document ID column show up in the libraries.
• After the timer job runs, if you want to change the prefix, you must update each item before the ID resets. For some reason, it is not changed via the timer job 
• The format of the out of box ID Provider is SITEPREFIX-LISTID-ITEMID where LISTID is the autoincrement integer value for each list that is created on a web and the ITEMID is the autoincrement integer value for the item in the list
• ID's are ONLY generated for "Document" content types...this is LAME.  I want all documents that inherit from "Document" to get an ID.  SP Team, this is easy...check for the Content ID lineage prefix of 0x0101 and simply assign the ID!
  
• You can create your own Document ID Provider if you don't like this particular ID generation (part of my SharePoint Server Dev course)

Document ID Service has a ways to go, but it will get there!
Chris

How do I know this?  Because you get this error if you have a 2000 Active Directory:

UserProfileApplication.SynchronizeMIIS: Failed to configure ILM, will attempt during next rerun. Exception: System.Security.SecurityException: The Kerberos subsystem encountered an error. A service for user protocol request was made against a domain controller which does not support service for user.

If you want to move to SharePoint 2010, you must upgrade your active directory to 2003 or higher.

Chris

I had a student ask me the other day, does a document set get the metadata at the document set level?  I didn't know the answer...until now!  Let's start with a simple search on sanspug.org for "docset", we get nothing

Enable document sets in the site collection via "Site Actions->Site Settings->Site Collection Features->Activate Document Sets". Create a document set called "My Document Set" with a column called "Custom"

• Create a new column called "Custom" in the document set 
• We then need to setup some sub content types that the document set will contain via the "Document Set settings" link on the Document Set management page
• Assign the Document Set to a library (with allow management of content types enabled)

Create a new instance of the Document Set with the "Custom" column filled in with "docset"

• Re-index the content via the Search Service Application

Re-running the orginal search, we get only the document set:

Running a search for a sub document we get both document set folder and the document back:

So that begs the question...why doesn't Document Set metadata filter down to the sub items?  I think it should, but in the current version, it doesn't seem too with out some magic.

You may be asking the question what are "Shared Columns":

Well, you would think maybe it would cause the metadata to cascade down, but it doesn't, it only adds the column to the sub documents, which is weird in the first place because every time you add a content type, all the columns are added to the entire list anyway!

UPDATE!  A comment posted earlier pointed out there is a Timer Job Service that runs to update the metadata in the subcolumns.  Firing this job will supposedly update the sub document data.  However, I found that it doesn't for my Farm.  It would also make sense that your sub-document content types have a column with the same name as the document set level (if you didn't do the Shared Columns approach) or I'd guess this Timer Job would not do anything.  None-the-less, even after adding the column to the sub level docs via Shared Columns and the sub content types, the Timer Job still didn't update them :(  Still some bugs to be worked out here...

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc678870.aspx

So the answer to the students question is no, a document set folder does NOT cascade its metadata to sub documents by default, it has to be updated by a Timer Job (supposedly)!

Have fun exploring!
Chris

For IT Pros, it is simple to setup the Forms Auth in SharePoint 2010.  However, when a system is migrated to 2010 that uses the Membership Provider generic factory classes extensively...all hell breaks loose!  The class definition for the Membership provider and MembershipUser is here.  After looking at that, consider a piece of code such as:

MembershipUser.ResetPassword("oldpassword", "newpassword");

The default membership provider set in SharePoint 2010 is  "Microsoft.SharePoint.Claims.SPClaimsAuthMembershipProvider".  The main job of this provider is to play an aggregation patten.  Find all username in all available providers and allow you to select them.  It also does some mapping of those users from the internal formats to a human readable format in the SharePoint web sites.  This particular membership provider as advanced as it is...DOES NOT IMPLEMENT ALL THE METHODS OF THE MEMBERSHIP PROVIDER MODELS!

This means if you used the membership methods extensively in your code (forms and web parts) in 2007, it is NOT going to work in 2010 when you migrate!  You will get several different errors around method not implementing and good luck with getting everything to work.  You will need to update your code to specifically call and instanate an instance of the membership providers that have been loaded in the process.  Such as:

MembershipProvider prov = Membership.Providers["AspNetSqlMembershipProvider"]

From there, you would then make the appropriate calls in your forms and web parts using the defined provider variable.

Good luck with the code migration!  And reference my other blog about other forms based auth migration issues here!
Chris