Category: Uncategorized

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What’s new in SharePoint 2013 – What My Eyes Have Seen So Far

Last Updated – 7/17/2012 12:07pm… 

Here's a list of things that I have seen change so far:

Let's start with WORST feature (from this is a SUPER BAD IDEA standpoint):

And the rest of stuff that is pretty cool:

  • Push Notifications to mobile devices (this one is VERY interesting) 
  • Workflow are now .net 4.0 based!  This is a VERY important point and requires lots of testing!
  • Logging now has directories!  No longer a single file with all log entries!  – YEI!
  • Site Deletion Policies with a new "Site Closure" feature (basically hides the site from users without deleting it)
  • ASP.NET 4.0 instead of ASP.NET 2.0
  • Two new service applications:
    • Machine Translation – for translating your documents into other languages –
    • Translation Services! – BY FAR THE COOLEST PART OF SP15!
      • MMS SUPPORT IS INCLUDED!!! – I wrote this for 2010, but cool to see it actually OOB now!
    • Work Management Service – task aggregation across work management systems
      • THIS IS SUPER COOL BY THE WAY – AGGREGATE ALL TASKS IN MULTIPLE PLATFORMS (SHAREPOINT, EXCHANGE, PROJECT SERVER)
  • Claims  auth changes
    • No more need for sticky session – THIS IS HUGE!  – THANKS MICROSOFT!!!
    • SharePoint is actully ahead of the curve this time – JSON responses in metadata endpoints – AWESOME!
  • More service application databases support log shipping – WOOHOO! 
  • Integration with AppFabric (Request Mangaement) 
  • Shredding Database – (Deduping files and reducing wire line byte transfer)
  • New Micro blogging feature (sorry NewsGator)
  • Document Conversion has an IMMEDIATE feature (I could have used this months ago!)
    • If you don't know what DS is, it allows you to "Programmatically" convert documents to mutliple formats (DOC->DOCX, DOCX-PDF) and at the same time, to execute field updates like Table of Content (TOC) in place in a library
  • Extensible Analytics framework
  • When using the "Rating settings" you have the option to "Like" rather than "Rate"
  • No More PowerPoint (.thmx) themes, back to HTMLHTML5
  • DataSheet View Editing of MMS Columns in list – THIS ROCKS!
  • Developer Dashboard looks sweet now, it was only ok before
  • *Somewhat* improved permission prem
    equest management
    • Wish Group were global and not scoped at Site Collection levels = LAME
  • Office Web Apps is seperate server (not a service app anymore) 
    • Utilizes WOPI – Web Application Open Platform Interface
  • User-defined funtions don't work anymore 🙁 
  • Improved URLs for Office Web App links (they aren't ugly anymore)!
  • Office Web Apps can now CREATE documents (not just edit and view pre-created ones)
  • Office Web Apps has more supported (client like) features
    • Print
    • Ink
    • Animations
  • New REST based API for OWA programming/development
  • Image and Video rendering is improved greatly!
    • Just add some videos and pictures into a document library and check it out for yourself!
  • A new look and feel with a new header menu that includes:
    • A link to Social
      Newsfeed
       
    • A link to the
      Microsoft SkyDrive
    • A link to the Site of
      the farm
    • The typical user
      JavaScript dropdow
    • A new “settings” link
      (similar to “site Actions” in previous SharePoint versions
    • A help link
    • A feedback link
    • A “Share” link for
      granting access to a site
    • A “Focus” link that
      hides all but the main content area of a page
  • Removal of the retarded "Claims" vs "Windows" auth radio button in web app creation 
  • A new "Apps" link in Central Administration for accessing an App Marketplace
  • New site templates:
    • Developer Site
    • Project Site
    • Community Site
    • Multipage Meeting
    • Discovery Center (old Records Center)
    • Community Center
    • Product Catalog
  • A newly designed "My Site Host"
  • New Error page with Expandable details
  • New "Metro" look and feel on the team sites
  • Office Web Apps is no longer a service application
  • Web Analytics is part of Search Service Application
  • eDiscovery – Export from a file share into SharePoint
  • Personalized search results based on search history

Stay tuned for a killer Development blog post!
CJG

@givenscj

Posted on

Approval Workflow Access Denied – How to fix it!

Updated 3/18/2015:

Turns out when you migrate from one domain to another, this error pops up yet again (even after running the migrate user commands)!  Another option of fixing this is to open *each* site collection and delete the workflows.  Then deactive and active the feature.  Then you can create sites again!

Yet again, another weird bug in SharePoint 2010 that I had to track down and fix this week!  What is this?  Here's what happened:

 My customer has a few workflows created to approve important documents.  All of a sudden, these workflows stopped working with an access denied error message.  In looking at the log files, you would see this  (it's rather long):

06/27/2012 06:40:02.96     w3wp.exe (0x1314)                           0x2A00    SharePoint Foundation             General                           ftd0    Verbose     Access Denied. Exception: System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequestInternalClass.OpenWeb(String bstrUrl, String& pbstrServerRelativeUrl, String& pbstrTitle, String& pbstrDescription, String& pbstrTitleResourceId, String& pbstrDescriptionResourceId, Guid& pguidID, String& pbstrRequestAccessEmail, UInt32& pwebVersion, Guid& pguidScopeId, UInt32& pnAuthorID, UInt32& pnLanguage, UInt32& pnLocale, UInt16& pnTimeZone, Boolean& bTime24, Int16& pnCollation, UInt32& pnCollationLCID, Int16& pnCalendarType, Int16& pnAdjustHijriDays, Int16& pnAltCalendarType, Boolean& pbShowWeeks, Int16& pnFirstWeekOfYear, UInt32& pnFirstDayOfWeek, Int16& pnWorkDays, Int16& pnWorkDayStartHour, Int16& pnWorkD…    aed86901-9e96-4e1d-acac-32f5d8bba3d8
06/27/2012 06:40:02.96*    w3wp.exe (0x1314)                           0x2A00    SharePoint Foundation             General                           ftd0    Verbose     …ayEndHour, Int16& pnMeetingCount, Int32& plFlags, Boolean& bConnectedToPortal, String& pbstrPortalUrl, String& pbstrPortalName, Int32& plWebTemplateId, Int16& pnProvisionConfig, String& pbstrDefaultTheme, String& pbstrDefaultThemeCSSUrl, String& pbstrThemedCssFolderUrl, String& pbstrAlternateCSSUrl, String& pbstrCustomizedCssFileList, String& pbstrCustomJSUrl, String& pbstrAlternateHeaderUrl, String& pbstrMasterUrl, String& pbstrCustomMasterUrl, String& pbstrSiteLogoUrl, String& pbstrSiteLogoDescription, Object& pvarUser, Boolean& pvarIsAuditor, UInt64& ppermMask, Boolean& bUserIsSiteAdmin, Boolean& bHasUniquePerm, Guid& pguidUserInfoListID, Guid& pguidUniqueNavParent, Int32& plSiteFlags, DateTime& pdtLastContentChange, DateTime& pdtLastSecurityChange, String& pbstrWelcomePage, Boolean& pb…    aed86901-9e96-4e1d-acac-32f5d8bba3d8
06/27/2012 06:40:02.96*    w3wp.exe (0x1314)                           0x2A00    SharePoint Foundation             General                           ftd0    Verbose     …OverwriteMUICultures, Boolean& pbMUIEnabled, String& pbstrAlternateMUICultures, Int32& puiVersion, Int16& pnClientTag)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.OpenWeb(String bstrUrl, String& pbstrServerRelativeUrl, String& pbstrTitle, String& pbstrDescription, String& pbstrTitleResourceId, String& pbstrDescriptionResourceId, Guid& pguidID, String& pbstrRequestAccessEmail, UInt32& pwebVersion, Guid& pguidScopeId, UInt32& pnAuthorID, UInt32& pnLanguage, UInt32& pnLocale, UInt16& pnTimeZone, Boolean& bTime24, Int16& pnCollation, UInt32& pnCollationLCID, Int16& pnCalendarType, Int16& pnAdjustHijriDays, Int16& pnAltCalendarType, Boolean& pbShowWeeks, Int16& pnFirstWeekOfYear, UInt32& pnFirstDayOfWeek, Int16& pnWorkDays, Int16& pnWorkDayStartHour, Int16& pnWorkDayEndHour, Int16& pnMeetingC…    aed86901-9e96-4e1d-acac-32f5d8bba3d8
06/27/2012 06:40:02.96*    w3wp.exe (0x1314)                           0x2A00    SharePoint Foundation             General                           ftd0    Verbose     …ount, Int32& plFlags, Boolean& bConnectedToPortal, String& pbstrPortalUrl, String& pbstrPortalName, Int32& plWebTemplateId, Int16& pnProvisionConfig, String& pbstrDefaultTheme, String& pbstrDefaultThemeCSSUrl, String& pbstrThemedCssFolderUrl, String& pbstrAlternateCSSUrl, String& pbstrCustomizedCssFileList, String& pbstrCustomJSUrl, String& pbstrAlternateHeaderUrl, String& pbstrMasterUrl, String& pbstrCustomMasterUrl, String& pbstrSiteLogoUrl, String& pbstrSiteLogoDescription, Object& pvarUser, Boolean& pvarIsAuditor, UInt64& ppermMask, Boolean& bUserIsSiteAdmin, Boolean& bHasUniquePerm, Guid& pguidUserInfoListID, Guid& pguidUniqueNavParent, Int32& plSiteFlags, DateTime& pdtLastContentChange, DateTime& pdtLastSecurityChange, String& pbstrWelcomePage, Boolean& pbOverwriteMUICultures, Boolea…    aed86901-9e96-4e1d-acac-32f5d8bba3d8
06/27/2012 06:40:02.96*    w3wp.exe (0x1314)                           0x2A00    SharePoint Foundation             General                           ftd0    Verbose     …n& pbMUIEnabled, String& pbstrAlternateMUICultures, Int32& puiVersion, Int16& pnClientTag).    aed86901-9e96-4e1d-acac-32f5d8bba3d8
06/27/2012 06:40:02.96     w3wp.exe (0x1314)                           0x2A00    SharePoint Foundation             General                           8gs1    Verbose     Access Deni
ed for /contoso/_layouts/IniWrkflIP.aspx?List={b713a4ad-747e-4980-ad1c-c420d3f588b7}&ID=1&TemplateID={3cf9d212-c83d-4486-9fce-ee8d00efacbc}&Source=blah StackTrace:    at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUtility.HandleAccessDenied(HttpContext context)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUtility.HandleAccessDenied(Exception ex)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.OpenWeb(String bstrUrl, String& pbstrServerRelativeUrl, String& pbstrTitle, String& pbstrDescription, String& pbstrTitleResourceId, String& pbstrDescriptionResourceId, Guid& pguidID, String& pbstrRequestAccessEmail, UInt32& pwebVersion, Guid& pguidScopeId, UInt32& pnA…    aed86901-9e96-4e1d-acac-32f5d8bba3d8
06/27/2012 06:40:02.96*    w3wp.exe (0x1314)                           0x2A00    SharePoint Foundation             General                           8gs1    Verbose     …uthorID, UInt32& pnLanguage, UInt32& pnLocale, UInt16& pnTimeZone, Boolean& bTime24, Int16& pnCollation, UInt32& pnCollationLCID, Int16& pnCalendarType, Int16& pnAdjustHijriDays, Int16& pnAltCalendarType, Boolean& pbShowWeeks, Int16& pnFirstWeekOfYear, UInt32& pnFirstDayOfWeek, Int16& pnWorkDays, Int16& pnWorkDayStartHour, Int16& pnWorkDayEndHour, Int16& pnMeetingCount, Int32& plFlags, Boolean& bConnectedToPortal, String& pbstrPortalUrl, String& pbstrPortalName, Int32& plWebTemplateId, Int16& pnProvisionConfig, String& pbstrDefaultTheme, String& pbstrDefaultThemeCSSUrl, String& pbstrThemedCssFolderUrl, String& pbstrAlternateCSSUrl, String& pbstrCustomizedCssFileList, String& pbstrCustomJSUrl, String& pbstrAlternateHeaderUrl, String& pbstrMasterUrl, String& pbstrCustomMasterUrl, String& pbs…    aed86901-9e96-4e1d-acac-32f5d8bba3d8
06/27/2012 06:40:02.96*    w3wp.exe (0x1314)                           0x2A00    SharePoint Foundation             General                           8gs1    Verbose     …trSiteLogoUrl, String& pbstrSiteLogoDescription, Object& pvarUser, Boolean& pvarIsAuditor, UInt64& ppermMask, Boolean& bUserIsSiteAdmin, Boolean& bHasUniquePerm, Guid& pguidUserInfoListID, Guid& pguidUniqueNavParent, Int32& plSiteFlags, DateTime& pdtLastContentChange, DateTime& pdtLastSecurityChange, String& pbstrWelcomePage, Boolean& pbOverwriteMUICultures, Boolean& pbMUIEnabled, String& pbstrAlternateMUICultures, Int32& puiVersion, Int16& pnClientTag)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb.InitWeb()     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb.get_Title()     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite.OpenWeb(Guid gWebId, Int32 mondoHint)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOEWSSService.GetWebForWorkflow(SPWorkflow wf, SPWorkflowUserContext runAsUser)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOEWSSService.get…    aed86901-9e96-4e1d-acac-32f5d8bba3d8
06/27/2012 06:40:02.96*    w3wp.exe (0x1314)                           0x2A00    SharePoint Foundation             General                           8gs1    Verbose     …_Web()     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOEWSSService.GetWebForListItemService()     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOEWSSService.UpdateModerationStatus(Guid id, Guid listId, SPItemKey itemKey, SPModerationStatusType newModerationStatus, String comments)     at Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Actions.SetTaskProcessItemModerationStatus.DoUpdate(ActivityExecutionContext context)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.WorkflowActions.WaitForDocumentUnlockActivity.Execute(ActivityExecutionContext executionContext)     at Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Actions.SetTaskProcessItemModerationStatus.Execute(ActivityExecutionContext context)     at System.Workflow.ComponentModel.ActivityExecutor`1.Execute(T activity, ActivityExecutionContext executionContext)     at System.Workflow.ComponentModel.ActivityExe…    aed86901-9e96-4e1d-acac-32f5d8bba3d8

Looking at the stack trace, you can see that the code is making a call to the GetWebForWorkflow method of the SPWinOEWSSService.  In reflecting this method, you will see that it can take one of three paths:

  • Execute as the system account
  • Execute as the workflow template author
  • Execute as the workflow template owner

The system account always has access, so it was obvious that this wasn't the path it was taking.  The owner seems to always be set to "-1" and no where in the massive amount of code that I reviewed did it ever get set to anything else.  That left the author as the most probably entry point.  When reviewing where the author comes from, you find a tangled set of code that really doesn't make much sense at all (hmm…SharePoint in all its glory).  After decoding the entanglement, I found that the author comes from some set of properties that end up in a object array for the SPWebWorkflow.  This array is built from a call to SPRequest.GetListItemWorkflowAsSafeArray.  This of course means that you can't go any farther into the code unless you get really fancy building a SPRequest wrapper (which can be done, but its really hard).  Because the properties are built in a somewhat OnDemand fashion, you don't really have any way of knowing when that code will be executed…and because I'm in production, I can't sit here and do IISRESET's all day long watching for some workflow related Stored Procedure via SQL Profiler.

So how did I figure out what was up with this?  Well, the hint was in the SPRequest method call name.  GetListItemWorkflowAsSafeArray.  ListItem?  Which implies the metadata for the workflow is in the list.  Which means the author info is also coming from the listlistitem.  So where do workflows get stored in a siteweb?  They get saved to the \_catlogswfpub library at the site collection root web.

In looking at this library through SharePoint Designer, you will see that when you first activate the workflow features, the files are created by THE USER who actually made the feature activation call (whether through the UI or stsadm or PowerShell).  Hmm, very poor design.

Why is it poor design?  Well, the author comes from the created field for the list item that has the workflow template defined.  In our case, this account was recently DISABLED.  When an account becomes disabled, you can't do JACK in SharePoint.  This includes executing the workflows that were
built off the template in the first place. So what are your options?

  • Delete all the files, reactivate the workflows – YOU MUST DELETE THE FILES, if you do not, the files will stay with the created field still set to the old userId (If you have ever taken any of my course, you know rule number one is "SharePoint never deleted anything").  This means you'll still have the ACCESS DENIED error even after you deactivate and re-activate the workflows
  • Try to modify the CREATED and MODIFIED columns in the list to change the SPUser (I didn't try this, but it seems like it should work)

So, have you seen this?  Probably not.  Will every SharePoint farm on the planet eventually have this issue – YES!  You won't keep accounts around forever (unless you have a very poor security policy).  So it is worthwhile to review all your site collections and check to see who the workflow files are owned by.  Hopefully you have an SPAdmin or SPFarm account that you can use to enable the workflows with.  SO…NET NET:

Never enable workflow features as a regular user, always use some SharePoint account that will never be disabled

Yuk, yuk…yuk|
Chris

 

Posted on

SharePoint Durable Urls Twitter Promotion!

As some of you know, I'm originally from Oklahoma, USA and lived in Seattle for 10 years.  In celebration of the Oklahoma City Thunder making it to the NBA Finals, ACS will be giving away 5 copies of our products for each Thunder Win!  The first 5 copies will be for the SharePoint Durable Urls product:

http://www.sharepointdurableurls.com/twitter.aspx

To enter, you simply need to re-tweet from the above twitter page!

Let's go OKC!
Chris

Posted on

2012 SharePoint Jokes

Time for some more SharePoint jokes!

  • What did Office Word 2010 say to SharePoint 2010 Word Automation Services?
    • When can I retire?
  • There was a party going on in the content database, and several SharePoint groups were invited.  The pick-up question of the night was…
    • What site collection you from?
  • What percentage of code is Microsoft's after installing all 3rd party components to support your business?
    • <5%
  • A security firm recently asked SharePoint customers what was their major pain with SharePoint security?  The customer replied…knowing what permissions SharePoint decides to give you at any moment in time!
  • A customer recently was migrating from Oracle Portal to SharePoint 2010. After the migration, the customer asked, where'd all my features go?
  • How did the IT Pro reset the passwords on their SharePoint Farm?
    • They reinstalled everything!
  • What did one SharePoint user tell another user…?
    • Hey, if we yell enough, we can get SharePoint Designer access!
  • On average, how many SharePoint consultant firms till you find a good one?
    • Not including MCS?
  • What will you find if you look in the recycle bin?
    • A hole
  • What happens if you program Project Service Interface (PSI)?
    • Absolutely nothing
  • How many times does it take to setup Document IDs?
    • Lost count at 100…
  • How many customer actually use Document IDs?
    • One – Microsoft
  • What happens when you setup the content type hub?
    • You get lots of errors
  • How many SharePoint developers do you need to support your business units custom needs?
    • Half of China
  • How many SharePoint MVPs earned their MVP from posting on the MSDN Forums?
    • Wait…they know what the forums are?
  • What did the Oracle WebCenter customers tell Oracle after looking at Microsoft Pricing?
    • Why do you make us pay so much?
  • Why did Seattle lose the SuperSonics? 
    • Because SharePoint Designer is FREE and Baller isn't Jewish…and lattes cost $5 and Shultz is Jewish…and neither of them are from Oklahoma!

Bad, but oh so good…
CJG

Posted on

How to remove blank comments on Append Changes to Existing Text

This is a rather simple issue, but an issue none the less.  It has been covered a few times before:

The issue is that it creates a blank comment every time someone edits a versioned list item.  The reason is that it *IS* actually adding text but it is an empty DIV tag:

<DIV></DIV>

When you set the column to be plain text, it doesn't add this empty DIV tag.  Ok, so just change to plain text and everyone is happy right?  Not quite.  When users connect to the list via the Outlook option, you get a very nasty set of HTML saved to the column (even in Plain text mode):

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="MS Exchange Server version 08.01.0240.003">
<TITLE></TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<!– Converted from text/plain format –>
</BODY>
</HTML>

Here's what you do in the event receiver to get rid of all this mess and have it work wether it is Plain Text or Rich Text:

class ContosoEventReceiverAppendChanges : SPItemEventReceiver
{
public override void ItemUpdating(SPItemEventProperties properties)
{
base.ItemUpdating(properties);
Hashtable ht = new Hashtable();
foreach (DictionaryEntry o in properties.AfterProperties)
{
if (o.Value.ToString() == "<DIV></DIV>" || o.Value.ToString().Contains("<BODY> <!– Converted from text/plain format –> </BODY>"))
{
ht.Add(o.Key, o.Key);|
}
}
foreach (string key in ht.Keys)
{
properties.AfterProperties[key] = "";
}}}

Powershell to deploy it:

$web = get-spweb http://sharepoint.contoso.com
$list = $web.lists["TaskTest"]
$def = $list.EventReceivers.add()
$def.Assembly = "Contoso.Common, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=Neutral, PublicKeyToken=a61cba8dcde3eaaa";
$def.Class = "Contoso.Common.ConotosEventReceiverAppendChanges";
$def.Name = "ItemUpdated Event";
$def.Type = [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPEventReceiverTy
pe]::ItemUpdating;
$def.SequenceNumber = 1000;
$def.Synchronization = [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPEventReceiverSynchronization]::Synchronous;
$def.Update();
$web.dispose()

Enjoy,
Chris

Follow me on twitter: @givenscj

Check out the previous blog post:
https://blogs.architectingconnectedsystems.com/blogs/cjg/archive/2012/05/30/Project-Server-2010-_2D00_-Moving-Project-Sites-and-deleting-the-old-PWA-causes-issues.aspx

Posted on

SharePoint Farm Full Password Reset

At a customer of mine we recently had to do a full password reset of ALL of Active Directory.  This included all user and service accounts, even the SharePoint ones.  If you have EVER had to do this, you know that if you don't change the password in SharePoint a few minutes after the change in AD, you will be forced to manually change them across soo many places its not even funny.  It turns out, we had to do a second password reset not long after the first one.  It will become a commonplace thing that ALL passwords will be reset every couple of months and therefore, changing the passwords across all the farm servers (SharePoint, FAST and SQL Server) just ain't going to cut it.

Therefore, I wrote a PowerShell script to do it!  It worked really well!  It changes every single place one could imagine to have a username and password in your farm.  I was going to post it, but decided that I would make a product out of it.  If you would like to try out this gem, send me an email and I can send you a trial:

chris@architectingconnectedsystems.com

Thanks,
Chris

Follow me on twitter: @givenscj

Check out the previous blog post:
https://blogs.architectingconnectedsystems.com/blogs/cjg/archive/2012/05/23/Office-Web-Apps-_2D00_-Word-Viewing-Service-Error.aspx

Posted on

Project Server 2010 – Moving Project Sites and deleting the old PWA causes issues

Recently we had to deconstruct the entire Project Server environment and rebuild it.  This involved moving the sharepoint sites related to the projects and then re-attaching the old project server databases to a new PWA (ie, the old PWA was http://projects.contoso.com, the new PWA is http://projects.contoso.com/PWA).  Then we had to relink the PWA projects to their old but moved sites urls.

This all went fine until the moment we had to view or edit the properties of the documents in the team sites.  We would get a lovely correlation error when trying to view or edit.  The generic error was:

05/30/2012 10:36:10.02  w3wp.exe (0x207C)                        0x1D80 Project Server                 General                        g7ls Exception  System.ServiceModel.FaultException: The server was unable to process the request due to an internal error.  For more information about the error, either turn on IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults (either from ServiceBehaviorAttribute or from the <serviceDebug> configuration behavior) on the server in order to send the exception information back to the client, or turn on tracing as per the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 SDK documentation and inspect the server trace logs.    Server stack trace:      at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.ThrowIfFaultUnderstood(Message reply, MessageFault fault, String action, MessageVersion version, FaultConverter faultConverter)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.HandleReply(ProxyOperationRuntime operation, ProxyRpc& rpc)     at System.S… 22df46a2-3f76-4c8c-b317-d2076882b490
05/30/2012 10:36:10.02* w3wp.exe (0x207C)                        0x1D80 Project Server                 General                        g7ls Exception …erviceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.Call(String action, Boolean oneway, ProxyOperationRuntime operation, Object[] ins, Object[] outs, TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.InvokeService(IMethodCallMessage methodCall, ProxyOperationRuntime operation)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.Invoke(IMessage message)    Exception rethrown at [0]:      at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.HandleReturnMessage(IMessage reqMsg, IMessage retMsg)     at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.PrivateInvoke(MessageData& msgData, Int32 type)     at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Interfaces.IAuthentication.GetUserByName(String username)     at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.AuthenticationHelper.AuthenticateUserByName(String userName, Guid … 22df46a2-3f76-4c8c-b317-d2076882b490
05/30/2012 10:36:10.02* w3wp.exe (0x207C)                        0x1D80 Project Server                 General                        g7ls Exception …siteId) 22df46a2-3f76-4c8c-b317-d2076882b490

Changing the includeExceptionDetailInFaults property of the D:Program FilesMicrosoft Office Servers14.0WebServicesSharedProjectServerPSIweb.config file to "True", we get a more meaningful error:

05/30/2012 10:36:12.68  w3wp.exe (0x207C)                        0x282C Project Server                 General                        g7ls Exception  System.ServiceModel.FaultException`1[System.ServiceModel.ExceptionDetail]: No site found (Fault Detail is equal to An ExceptionDetail, likely created by IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults=true, whose value is: System.InvalidOperationException: No site found    at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.DataAccessLayer.DAL.GetConnectionStrings(PlatformContext context)     at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.DataAccessLayer.DAL..ctor(PlatformContext context)     at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Base.PlatformContext.get_Dal()     at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Base.PlatformContext.InitSqlCommandTimeout(CachedContextProperties cachedProperties)     at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Base.PlatformContext.PreInitialize(Guid trackingId, Guid siteId, SPUrlZone urlZone, CultureInfo languageCulture, Cultu… a73494b6-2bff-4b2f-9faf-67ad55d9f7d9
05/30/2012 10:36:12.68* w3wp.exe (0x207C)                        0x282C Project Server                 General                        g7ls Exception …reInfo localeCulture)     at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Base.PlatformContext..ctor(Boolean isWindowsUser, String username, Guid userId, Guid trackingId, Guid siteId, SPUrlZone urlZone, CultureInfo languageCulture, CultureInfo localeCulture, Guid delegateUid, String delegateName)     at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Base.Platform…). a73494b6-2bff-4b2f-9faf-67ad55d9f7d9

After reviewing the possibilites of what could cause this, I found a few things:

  • Project sites have special content types (Project Site Document)
  • The Project Site Document has a special field type (Microsoft.Office.Project.PWA.CustomFieldTypes.SPFieldPWALink)
  • Project site lists have event receivers (Microsoft.Office.Project.PWA.WSSEventReceivers.PSDBUpdater)

I tried several different things before I found the one item that was really causing the issues with viewing and editing.  They included:

  • Trying to remove the content type and set them to "Document" – Didn't work
  • Trying to remove the event receivers (removing them was successful, but it didn't fix the problem)
  • Removing the "Links" column values from all the items (the values removed, but it didn't fix the problem)
  • Removing the "Links" field from the list – this was the answer

Turns out that the custom field type had recorded the old PWA url and when the display forms were trying to render, the call to the PWA authentication service would fail because it couldn't find the old PWA url. After removing the "Links" field from the "Content Type/List" and changing the content types to "Document", we were able to viewedit the properties of the items onc
e again:

$f = $list.fields["Links"]
$f.delete()

foreach ($li in $list.items)
{
if ($li["Content Type"] -eq "Project Site Document")
{
$li.file.checkout()
$li["Content Type"] = "Document"
$li.update()
$li.file.checkin("")
}
}

Enjoy!
Chris

Follow me on twitter: @givenscj

Check out the previous blog post:
https://blogs.architectingconnectedsystems.com/blogs/cjg/archive/2012/05/30/SharePoint-Farm-Full-Password-Reset.aspx

Posted on

Office Web Apps – Word Viewing Service Error

All of a sudden, we started having issues with our Office Web Apps install for a set of users.  No reason, no changes, just some users can't use OWA to VIEW files (they can however edit the files in the browser).  The service account for the application pool and the word viewing app pool both have dbo on the content database in question.

Here's the errors:

User:

Word Web App cannot open this document for viewing because of an unexpected error.  To view this document, open it in Microsoft Word.

WFE:

 05/23/2012 07:56:55.17  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x310C Office Web Apps                Office Viewing Architecture    dg2s Medium   RequestDispatcher: response received for document F4813f0a0691d4d61a109e9ab86a17815m4d776f4fd83844328210cf1c84e667cbm06ebaf2e1684459c9c00819543a2a08em from http://servername:32843/69c32f311e164e8184803a179b32d194/Conversion.svc. d3e88a2a-977b-48df-a70a-4765c4ff1ac9
05/23/2012 07:56:55.19  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x310C Office Web Apps                Office Viewing Architecture    b4vn Medium   Conversion response received: CantFindSourceDocument d3e88a2a-977b-48df-a70a-4765c4ff1ac9
05/23/2012 07:56:55.19  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x310C Office Web Apps                Office Viewing Architecture    b4vi Verbose  DocumentInfoCache.RemoveDocumentInfo: docId=d=F4813f0a0691d4d61a109e9ab86a17815m4d776f4fd83844328210cf1c84e667cbm06ebaf2e1684459c9c00819543a2a08em&z=06EBAF2E-1684-459C-9C00-819543A2A08E1, outputFormat=_v00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000202 d3e88a2a-977b-48df-a70a-4765c4ff1ac9
05/23/2012 07:56:55.19  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x310C Office Web Apps                Office Viewing Architecture    vjza Medium   Librarian.OnConversionResponseReceived(F4813f0a0691d4d61a109e9ab86a17815m4d776f4fd83844328210cf1c84e667cbm06ebaf2e1684459c9c00819543a2a08em, Png, docdata.xml) – Response=CantFindSourceDocument, Data=NO d3e88a2a-977b-48df-a70a-4765c4ff1ac9
05/23/2012 07:56:55.20  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x310C Office Web Apps                Office Viewing Architecture    vjzo Medium   Librarian.SetCompleted(F4813f0a0691d4d61a109e9ab86a17815m4d776f4fd83844328210cf1c84e667cbm06ebaf2e1684459c9c00819543a2a08em, Png, docdata.xml) – status = ConversionError d3e88a2a-977b-48df-a70a-4765c4ff1ac9

APP:

05/23/2012 07:56:55.57  w3wp.exe (0x1330)                        0x0B6C Office Web Apps                Office Viewing Architecture    bv6l Medium   DownloadManager: Starting download for document F4813f0a0691d4d61a109e9ab86a17815m4d776f4fd83844328210cf1c84e667cbm06ebaf2e1684459c9c00819543a2a08em. d3e88a2a-977b-48df-a70a-4765c4ff1ac9
05/23/2012 07:56:55.57  w3wp.exe (0x1330)                        0x0B6C Office Web Apps                Office Performance Tracing     dcw3 Verbose  PerfCounterAverageTimer started: WssStorageReadTime d3e88a2a-977b-48df-a70a-4765c4ff1ac9
05/23/2012 07:56:55.57  w3wp.exe (0x1330)                        0x0B6C SharePoint Foundation          General                        6t8j Verbose  Site lookup by id found the typical site /training. d3e88a2a-977b-48df-a70a-4765c4ff1ac9
05/23/2012 07:56:55.57  w3wp.exe (0x1330)                        0x0B6C SharePoint Foundation          General                        8kh7 High     Cannot complete this action.  Please try again. d3e88a2a-977b-48df-a70a-4765c4ff1ac9
05/23/2012 07:56:55.58  w3wp.exe (0x1330)                        0x0B6C SharePoint Foundation          General                        8kh7 High     Stack trace: onetutil.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=00000000000A2551) at 0x000007FEF0142551 onetutil.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=00000000000A3711) at 0x000007FEF0143711 owssvr.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=0000000000009212) at 0x000007FEF0399212 owssvr.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=0000000000044378) at 0x000007FEF03D4378 mscorwks.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=00000000002CB6D7) at 0x000007FEF9BFB6D7 Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=00000000000E5128) at 0x000007FEF2D85128 Microsoft.SharePoint.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=0000000001AB43D0) at 0x000007FEE0AA43D0 Microsoft.SharePoint.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=0000000001AA811D) at 0x000007FEE0A9811D Microsoft.SharePoint.ni.dll: (unre… d3e88a2a-977b-48df-a70a-4765c4ff1ac9
05/23/2012 07:56:55.58* w3wp.exe (0x1330)                        0x0B6C SharePoint Foundation          General                        8kh7 High     …solved symbol, module offset=0000000001AADC71) at 0x000007FEE0A9DC71 Microsoft.SharePoint.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=0000000001AA2A25) at 0x000007FEE0A92A25 Microsoft.SharePoint.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=0000000001AA4717) at 0x000007FEE0A94717 Microsoft.SharePoint.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=0000000001AA46A2) at 0x000007FEE0A946A2  d3e88a2a-977b-48df-a70a-4765c4ff1ac9
05/23/2012 07:56:55.58  w3wp.exe (0x1330)            &nbs
p;           0x0B6C Office Web Apps                Office Viewing Architecture    ekp1 Medium   No SPFile found for Id 06ebaf2e-1684-459c-9c00-819543a2a08e d3e88a2a-977b-48df-a70a-4765c4ff1ac9
05/23/2012 07:56:55.58  w3wp.exe (0x1330)                        0x0B6C Office Web Apps                Office Viewing Architecture    ekp3 Medium   SharepointReaderAsync: No SPFile provided d3e88a2a-977b-48df-a70a-4765c4ff1ac9
05/23/2012 07:56:55.58  w3wp.exe (0x1330)                        0x0B6C Office Web Apps                Office Performance Tracing     a495 Verbose  PerfCounterAverageTimer stopped: WssStorageReadTime, elapsed time = 20 milliseconds d3e88a2a-977b-48df-a70a-4765c4ff1ac9
05/23/2012 07:56:55.58  w3wp.exe (0x1330)                        0x0B6C Office Web Apps                Office Viewing Architecture    bv6p Unexpected Exception thrown downloading file C:WindowsTEMPwaccache69c32f31-1e16-4e81-8480-3a179b32d194domainuserca171873-6de3-4dd4-abef-09d23996d26coutput.docx: System.ArgumentException: SharepointReaderAsync: no SPFile     at Microsoft.Office.Web.Environment.Sharepoint.SharepointReaderAsync.End()     at Microsoft.Office.Web.Conversion.Framework.DownloadManager.OnFileReadComplete(IAsyncResult ar) d3e88a2a-977b-48df-a70a-4765c4ff1ac9
05/23/2012 07:56:55.58  w3wp.exe (0x1330)                        0x0B6C Office Web Apps                Office Viewing Architecture    fvj9 Unexpected DownloadManager: Download FAILED for document F4813f0a0691d4d61a109e9ab86a17815m4d776f4fd83844328210cf1c84e667cbm06ebaf2e1684459c9c00819543a2a08em; Time spent: 24ms. d3e88a2a-977b-48df-a70a-4765c4ff1ac9

The only possible hints lie in the users access (this says it is request view and edit access but the user doesn't have it):

05/23/2012 07:56:54.20  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x2B94 SharePoint Foundation          General                        ewn8 Verbose  OriginalPermissionMask check failed. asking for 0x00000005, have 0xB008431041 9806faaf-ad37-406f-9164-5705a9aca938

You'll also find several errors about configuration settings missing for the Word Viewing settings:

05/23/2012 07:56:54.30  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x2B94 Office Web Apps                Office Web Apps Configuration  bbw9 Verbose  Trying to get setting C2ROFFERENABLED 9806faaf-ad37-406f-9164-5705a9aca938
05/23/2012 07:56:54.30  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x2B94 Office Web Apps                Office Web Apps Configuration  bbx0 Verbose  Tried to obtain setting C2ROFFERENABLED but it does not exist in the list of known settings for this environment. 9806faaf-ad37-406f-9164-5705a9aca938
05/23/2012 07:56:54.30  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x2B94 Office Web Apps                Office Web Apps Configuration  bbw9 Verbose  Trying to get setting WLSIAOFFERENABLED 9806faaf-ad37-406f-9164-5705a9aca938
05/23/2012 07:56:54.30  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x2B94 Office Web Apps                Office Web Apps Configuration  bbx0 Verbose  Tried to obtain setting WLSIAOFFERENABLED but it does not exist in the list of known settings for this environment. 9806faaf-ad37-406f-9164-5705a9aca938
05/23/2012 07:56:54.31  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x2B94 Office Web Apps                Office Web Apps Configuration  bbw9 Verbose  Trying to get setting USEPARENTHELPFUNCTION 9806faaf-ad37-406f-9164-5705a9aca938
05/23/2012 07:56:54.31  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x2B94 Office Web Apps                Office Web Apps Configuration  bbx0 Verbose  Tried to obtain setting USEPARENTHELPFUNCTION but it does not exist in the list of known settings for this environment. 9806faaf-ad37-406f-9164-5705a9aca938
05/23/2012 07:56:54.31  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x2B94 Office Web Apps                Office Web Apps Configuration  bbw9 Verbose  Trying to get setting SHOWFEEDBACKLINK 9806faaf-ad37-406f-9164-5705a9aca938
05/23/2012 07:56:54.31  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x2B94 Office Web Apps                Office Web Apps Configuration  bbx0 Verbose  Tried to obtain setting SHOWFEEDBACKLINK but it does not exist in the list of known settings for this environment. 9806faaf-ad37-406f-9164-5705a9aca938
05/23/2012 07:56:54.33  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x2B94 Office Web Apps                Office Web Apps Configuration  bbw9 Verbose  Trying to get setting HIDETITLE 9806faaf-ad37-406f-9164-5705a9aca938
05/23/2012 07:56:54.33  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x2B94 Office Web Apps     
           Office Web Apps Configuration  bbx0 Verbose  Tried to obtain setting HIDETITLE but it does not exist in the list of known settings for this environment. 9806faaf-ad37-406f-9164-5705a9aca938
05/23/2012 07:56:54.33  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x2B94 Office Web Apps                Office Web Apps Configuration  bbw9 Verbose  Trying to get setting MACOFFICETRIALOFFERENABLED 9806faaf-ad37-406f-9164-5705a9aca938
05/23/2012 07:56:54.33  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x2B94 Office Web Apps                Office Web Apps Configuration  bbx0 Verbose  Tried to obtain setting MACOFFICETRIALOFFERENABLED but it does not exist in the list of known settings for this environment. 9806faaf-ad37-406f-9164-5705a9aca938
05/23/2012 07:56:54.33  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x2B94 Office Web Apps                Office Web Apps Configuration  bbw9 Verbose  Trying to get setting TRIMOICBUTTONSIFUNAVAILABLE 9806faaf-ad37-406f-9164-5705a9aca938
05/23/2012 07:56:54.33  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x2B94 Office Web Apps                Office Web Apps Configuration  bbx0 Verbose  Tried to obtain setting TRIMOICBUTTONSIFUNAVAILABLE but it does not exist in the list of known settings for this environment. 9806faaf-ad37-406f-9164-5705a9aca938
05/23/2012 07:56:54.33  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x2B94 Office Web Apps                Office Web Apps Configuration  bbw9 Verbose  Trying to get setting WORDWEBAPPSHORTRESOURCENAME 9806faaf-ad37-406f-9164-5705a9aca938
05/23/2012 07:56:54.33  w3wp.exe (0x32CC)                        0x2B94 Office Web Apps                Office Web Apps Configuration  bbw9 Verbose  Trying to get setting WORDWEBAPPFULLRESOURCENAME 9806faaf-ad37-406f-9164-5705a9aca938

What have I done so far?  Here's the things I have tried: 

  1. I created a new Word Viewing Service and set it as the default service application.  Had the user retry…the documents still didn't display in OWA and I still get all the wonderful OWA settings are missing messages (so the messages can be ignored) – NO GO
  2. I gave the user contribute access, had them re-try…still didn't display in OWA, but at least a new button showed up on the error that lets them "Open in Word" (realized this happens after the second attempt to open the file) – NO GO
  3. Last ditch effort, added the app pool for the OWA conversion service to the local WSS_ADMIN_WPG…NO GO.
  4. Made the user a site collection admin – NO GO  

Weird that it only applies to a small set of users.  It shouldn't matter that they just have View Only rights to the file, it should open in OWA…again editing works just fine…

Sooo…how did I fix this?  I went to the handy SQL Profiler tool and watched the SQL traffic.  I re-run all the queries and looked at all the results sets that were returned.  I opened the OWA dlls in Reflecter and explored every method call.  I found the "no SPFile" returned set of code, everything looks file, but, it is the hint that I was looking for.  Stepping back, one should ask…why is the file not being returned?  It is there, but…it isn't?  In looking at the result sets, I found something interesting.  Once upon a time, users had enabled the DocumentID feature of sharepoint.  This assigned document ids to some of the documents.  They also are using this tool called "CopyPaste".  When copying a record from one site collection to another, the document ID values were being replicated to the new location and metadata of the files.  When OWA makes the call to get the file, it is going through the SharePoint APIs and in this case, the document ID is wrong and the site that used to hold the file is gone (or in some cases not accessible by the user because we removed their permissions)!  Document IDs suck and this is just another reason to use my SharePoint Durable Urls tool (http://www.sharepointdurableurls.com). That means…if you hit the document id link for the file, you get simple html that says "File Not Found".  BINGO!  Now…how to remove the DocumentID residual?  Here's what I did:

foreach($li in $list.items)
{
$docid = $li["Document ID"]

if ($docid)
{
"Found doc id in " + $li["Name"]
"ID is: $docid"

$li.file.checkout()
$li["Document ID"] = ""
$li.update()
$li.file.checkin("Removed Document ID")
}
}

Yet another case of the code making one call (View is using the DocumentID redirect) in one instance and another in another instance (Editing does not use the DocumentID redirect).  Very annoying.

Enjoy!
Chris

Follow me on twitter: @givenscj

Check out the previous blog post:
https://blogs.architectingconnectedsystems.com/blogs/cjg/archive/2012/05/18/Announcing-_2D00_-ACS-Rebate-and-Charity-Event.aspx

Posted on

Announcing – ACS Rebate and Charity Event

For those of you that are ACS Courseware customers, if you didn't get our email today, here it is:

Dear ACS Courseware customers, As I have mentioned in the past, we have been wanting to do a promotional campaign for ACS courseware sales through the Courseware Library.  And today I’m pleased to announce, the time has come!  For the next three months (now until July 31st, 2012), if you send us your courseware library receipt, we will refund you 10% of your purchase price!

As an alternative, if instead of receiving a rebate you would like your 10% to go to a charity, we have selected three charities that we would like to support with the promotion:

Susan F Koman
Action against
Hunger Mercy Corps

To take advantage of this promotion, simply send your receipts to rebate@architectingconnectedsystems.com and specify if you want a check or for the rebate to go to one of the above charities.  Please allow 45 days to process after program ends for rebates to be maileddeposited.

Thanks again for being an ACS customer and we look forward to what the rest of 2012 will bring and beyond (SharePoint 2013 of course)!

Thanks again,
Chris Givens
CEO, Architecting Connected Systems

Posted on

WebDAV, Options and PropFind…Oh My…

I have been struggling with a particular problem at my current contract.  One where windows 7 machines could connect to a webdav path to sharepoint sites and libraries, but older windows XP machines could not.

Originally I thought it might be something I configured on the server (like permissive versus strict), but it wasn't anything to do with that.  You see alot of posts on server admins turning on the IIS webdav, but that wasn't it either.  

For this particular environment, it just so turned out that StoragePoint was installed on the very same web app that we were trying to connect too, but it was simple chance that it was installed on this particular web app and thusly it wasn't StoragePoint that was causing the problem (but I won't old my breath that it won't cause issues later, there Librarian product has so many bugs it isn't funny).

So what was it?  I was able to track down the issue using WireShark.  I would start the trace and then follow the HTTP calls (which on the working mapped drive was PROPFINDs, and the broken web app, OPTIONS calls).  It turns out that once you have a successful OPTIONS response, windows will cache the information in your registry.  After that, all you will see are PROPFINDs.  This is documented here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2019105

After watching the TCP stream, I noticed the last call to the OPTIONS after all the authentication was a 404 error.  That's when I was able to make some nice google searches and stumbled upon this blog by sudeepg:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sudeepg/archive/2010/04/02/webdav-folders-no-full-functionality.aspx

He found that you have to have a root site collection in order to respond to the OPTIONS http request.  Sure enough, after adding the root site collection (in my dev environment which doens't need a root site collection), the WEBDAV calls started working.

Talk about a shot in the head…its the simple things…
Chris

Follow me on twitter: @givenscj

Check out the previous blog post:
https://blogs.architectingconnectedsystems.com/blogs/cjg/archive/2012/05/14/Awesome-ACS-SharePoint-Tools-_2D00_-On-Sale-Now_2100_–SharePoint-Filter_2C00_-SharePoint-Desinger-LockDown-and-SharePoint-Durable-Urls.aspx