SharePoint Blogs / SharePoint University

Windows 7 Ultimate Gratis

DOrtiz — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:21:00 GMT

Este blog posting está disponible en el siguiente vínculo: http://dougortiz.blogspot.com/2009/07/windows-7-ultimate-gratis.html...(read more)

Free Windows Ultimate 7

DOrtiz — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:20:00 GMT

This blog posting is available at: http://dougortiz.blogspot.com/2009/07/free-windows-7-ultimate.html...(read more)

Blog-Umzug - neue Adresse

Oliver Wirkus — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:26:00 GMT

Ich habe meinen Blog umgezogen!

Hier in diesem Blog werde ich keine weiteren Artikel mehr veröffentlichen. Die Funktionen zum Kommentieren und Bewerten von Beiträgen habe ich deaktiviert.

Mein Blog ist ab sofort über diesen neuen Link erreichbar:

http://sharepointcommunity.de/blogs/owirkus/

--------------------

My blog has been moved. Please use the new link to visit my blog!

http://sharepointcommunity.de/blogs/owirkus/

[EGYSUG] Post June gathering materials

Marwan Tarek — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:39:00 GMT

Good to back for the blog after long time due to a lot SharePoint projects and implmentations

June gathering for Egypt SharePoint User Group was amazing with a couple of great speakers who captuered all the audeince attention, check the pictures

You can find the session materials over her June gathering presentations

See in the next event

SharePoint Server MVP

steveC — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:01:00 GMT

Technorati Tags: ECM , MOSS , WSS I found out yesterday I was awarded MVP for SharePoint Server. Its is great to be rewarded for something you love to do. You cannot keep what you cannot give away. Giving back to the community is an easy thing to do, especially in the MSDN forums. SharePoint is such a product that if you know how something works then you must share it with others, it makes SharePoint better. I work for KnowledgeLake http://www.knowledgelake.com and we offer a great ECM document imaging...(read more)

Enable Custom Search Scopes from code

Sander de Koning — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:27:22 GMT

I was looking for some code to Enable Custom Scopes on a Site-Collection. I want to enable this from a feature instead of doing it manually for each site.

I couldn’t find it fast on Google, so I tried to find out how ‘they’ did it by using Reflector. It turned out it’s easier than expected, just store the URL of the Search Center in a site-property and you’re done:

[RootWeb].AllProperties["SRCH_ENH_FTR_URL"] = [URL to Search Center];
[RootWeb].Update();

To disable the Custom Search Center:

[RootWeb].AllProperties["SRCH_ENH_FTR_URL"] = null;
[RootWeb].Update();

Troubleshooting SSRS 2008 and SharePoint Integration

moffitar — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:45:00 GMT

I recently implemented SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services in SharePoint Integration mode. Although I followed all the directions and walkthroughs, it took me two days to get it implemented. I was installing SSRS on an existing MOSS WFE, and though every indication showed a successful installation, it would not integrate. I finally did get it working, though. Here is what I did.

While I was testing the broken SSRS implementation the symptoms included:

No report would open or display.
I could not configure any of the SSRS-specific properties of any SSRS object, including reports, models, and data sources.
The SharePoint-specific properties, such as version and metadata, were still editable.
Every failure resulted in the unhelpful error message: "An unexpected error occurred while connecting to the report server. Verify that the report server is available and configured for SharePoint integrated mode."

The SSRS logs and SharePoint logs did not have much in the way of useful information, except a generic .NET failure message:

Timestamp

Process

TID

Area

Category

EventID

Level

6/29/09 17:17

OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0820)

0x0FBC

Office Server

Office Server Shared Services

7fy6

Exception

Message:

System.IO.FileNotFoundException:

Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.ReportingServices.SharePoint.Common, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91' or one of its dependencies.

The system cannot find the file specified. File name: 'Microsoft.ReportingServices.SharePoint.Common, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91' at System.Reflection.Assembly._nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, Assembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection) at blah blah blah...

In the SharePoint site I set up to test SSRS, I put a Report Viewer Web Part on the page and attempted to link to an existing RDL file in a document library on the same site. When I clicked the browse button, instead of seeing the custom "browse for file" dialog, I saw a SharePoint page stating that a 401 error had been returned). This was not the generic IIS 401 page, but a SharePoint page.

This is where I had an "aha!" moment. SharePoint has a known issue with a 401.1 error, where access will be denied when attempting to browse to a host header that doesn't match the hostname of the server.

On my MOSS server, SharePoint integration is configured as follows:

Service	URL	Port
MOSS	http://portal (a host header)	80
SSRS	http://Moss1 (a hostname)	8080

The way MOSS and SSRS integrate is that reporting services creates an HTTP endpoint and hands off to MOSS (and vice versa). As far as the user is aware, the interface is seamless and only one URL (http://portal) is presented. That's the way it's supposed to work.

But since our MOSS portal is using a host header, this is triggering some built in security on Windows 2003's part. Since SP1, the default behavior has been to block host header browsing from the server itself. If you browse from any other machine to the server, it works fine. But on MOSS1, for example, I would not have been able to browse to http://portal , since this would be looping back on itself and possibly a reflection attack.

Normally this is a simple inconvenience. So what if you can't browse to a host-header site from the server it's hosted on? No biggie, right?

But SSRS is another web service trying to communicate to MOSS via a host header, and that is what broke. After modifying the registry to disable loopback protection and rebooting, the integration began working as expected.

References:

Reporting Services HTTP 401 (Unauthorized) - Host Headers require your attention \
- http://blogs.msdn.com/lukaszp/archive/2008/07/18/reporting-services-http-401-unauthorized-host-headers-require-your-attention.aspx
Integrating SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services with SharePoint 2007:
- http://blogs.southworks.net/ebella/2008/10/08/integrating-sql-server-2008-reporting-services-with-sharepoint-2007/

Last modified time stamp changes when applying SP2 for MOSS/WSS ?!

David Biskup — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:39:00 GMT

Ok...I need a little feedback from the community on this one, please. I applied service pack 2 and the April 2009 CU for MOSS and WSS last week. Today, I noticed that all of the content, farm-wide, is showing a last modified time stamp of 1 week ago, unless the file has been updated in the last week, in which case it does show the correct time. I've verified this is the case in my dev farm as well.

For those of you who have applied Service Pack 2 and/or the April 2009 Cumulative Update, can you look and see if you can find any last modified times that date back to before the updates were applied?

Thanks!

Global SharePoint Survey – Win a Conference Pass to the SPC!

Agnes Molnar — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:53:51 GMT

Nintex just released the Global SharePoint Survey that is aimed at understanding the adoption and usage of Microsoft Office SharePoint products and technologies worldwide. The survey is open to both business and IT professional users of SharePoint. Those who participate in the survey will be eligible to win a conference pass to the 2009 Microsoft SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas (value USD $1199). To participate in the Global SharePoint Survey simply visit www.sharepointsurvey.com The Global SharePoint...(read more)

export site fatal error a0e5a010-1329-49d4-9e09-f280cdbed37d for list template 10102 not installed

mdcamp00 — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:10:00 GMT

I was running into an issue when trying to run the stsadm export command on a site I wanted to move. The error I was getting was "FatalError: Feature 'a0e5a010-1329-49d4-9e09-f280cdbed37d' for list template '10102' is not installed in this farm. 10102 refers to the "List of user browser-enabled form templates on this site collection." The operation could not be completed." Some people get this because they don't have the InfoPath services feature installed. My issue was that we migrated our SharePoint site from a farm with enterprise services turned on to a farm without enterprise services, hence no feature. So, I couldn't activate the feature. I looked at the export log, and the error occurred right after the list "Converted Forms" but I couldn't find it in the site directory. I pulled up SharePoint Manager and browsed to my Site collection. In it I found the following:

What I was then able to do was grab the URL from the DefaultViewUrl and execute the stsadm command forcedeletelist.

If you have the same scenario you can just run: stsadm -o forcedeletelist -url http://%SITE_COLLECTION_URL%/IWConvertedForms to delete this list. You should be able to export your site afterwards.

Title, description and navigation Link in List Settings Throws a 'value does not fall within the expected range' Exception

jscott — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:40:00 GMT

Recently I migrated a site from Development to Testing and then to Production using the SharePoint Deployment Wizard ( http://www.codeplex.com/SPDeploymentWizard ) from CodePlex. For the most part everything migrated over smooth.

I have a subsite that is for all the InfoPath Forms. All the InfoPath forms are displayed in a web browser using forms services. Each form has a workflow that is kicked off when a form is submitted. This all still worked.

But when you click on the 'Title, description and navigation' Link in List Settings for the forms libraries for the 2 sites where it was migrated to (testing and production) you get the following error...

Value does not fall within the expected range.   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListTemplateCollection.FindServerTemplate(Guid featureId, Int32 templateType)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPList.get_ServerTemplate()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPList.get_OnQuickLaunch()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationPages.ListGeneralSettingsPage.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive()
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)

It turned out that the 'Office SharePoint Server Enterpirese Site features' feature wasn't activated in the new site.

This wasn't the logical place for me to look at first since...

I assumed the deployment tool would of activated it.
The forms were rendering in a web page and could be submitted. Only this one list setting link didn't work.

I hope if your having this issue, this helps you out.

Site Column Definition Schema

Mirjam — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:49:00 GMT

While working on a customer project I had to create a lot of site columns, based on the columns created by a business analyst through the user interface.

As I was creating the site columns through a feature I was trying to find the Site Column Definition Schema on MSDN. And I found it. It can be found here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms459922.aspx. Too bad it 's not a complete overview. That might have something to do with the disclaimer at the top of the page though:

[This topic is pre-release documentation and is subject to change in future releases. Blank topics are included as placeholders.]

Maybe there is a full reference somewhere on Technet or MSDN and I just couldn't find it, but this wasn't much help to me.

Luckily I was able to use the great post Brian LaSitis did that has a nice overview of all properties of all column types in it.

[Update]

Wouter van Vught just tipped me that you shouldn't always use StaticName and SourceID. This info is coming from this blog post by Robert Bogue.

He says:

" Version, StaticName, and SourceID aren't attributes that should typically be set. Version isn't supported at all, StaticName is only for the office clients, and SourceId is supposed to be set by the framework to the feature that created the field. SourceId is supposed to help you work back to the feature that created the fields. Well, as it turns out if you set this field to be the same as the sourceId for the fields that you added in via the UI, SharePoint doesn't mangle the document template. (So leave the sourceId in -- for this case only). "

My colleague Maarten gave me a tip to go and look at this page that contains information about the Field Element. Some of this information can be used to help determine how site columns should be described.

[Update2]

Found out that this post by Brian LaSitis doesn't contain all possible options. I'm adding a few extra options that I needed myself here. If you know of more options that aren't mentioned in the Brian's blog let me know by leaving a comment with the option and the field type.

Choice Field

<Field ID="{8e2b16ee-86ce-49c5-b217-91a1eee4e664}"

Name="Project"

StaticName="Project"

DisplayName="Project"

Description=""

Group="My Columns"

Type="Choice"

SourceID="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3/fields"

Format="[Dropdown/RadioButtons]"

FillInChoice="FALSE">

<CHOICE>Project A</CHOICE>

<CHOICE>Project B</CHOICE>

</CHOICES>

</Field>

DateTime Field

<Field ID="{b0cda4bf-3588-498b-8f5b-dcd5f860ecf0}"

Name="DueDate"

StaticName="DueDate"

DisplayName="Due Date"

Description=""

Group="My Columns"

Type="DateTime"

Format="[DateTime/DateOnly]"

SourceID="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3/fields"/>

Note Field

<Field ID="{c8da1af1-5a97-4ea9-8055-bfd9ea4e89e1}"

Name="Comments"

StaticName="Comments"

DisplayName="Comments"

Description=""

Group="My Columns"

Type="Note"

NumLines="6"

AppendOnly="TRUE"

SourceID="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3/fields"/>

Windows 7 Hasta el Momento

DOrtiz — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:16:00 GMT

Este blog posting está disponible en el siguiente vínculo: http://dougortiz.blogspot.com/2009/06/windows-7-hasta-el-momento-varios.html...(read more)

Windows 7 So Far

DOrtiz — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:15:00 GMT

This blog posting is available at: http://dougortiz.blogspot.com/2009/06/windows-7-so-far.html...(read more)

Even the mighty stumble sometimes…

Brain Dump: Posts — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:21:46 GMT

Body: Well, I upgraded my iPhone 3G last week to the latest iPhone 3.0 OS and I like the new features such as search, snappier texting etc., but the most interesting thing to me was noticing something totally unrelated. I’ve been playing Mafia Wars on iPhone for a while. One of the great annoyances for me, and many other people if you read the Zynga message boards, has been that the game seems to leak memory and crash every so often. When fighting, you can generally get about 30 fights in before...(read more)

Managing Risks in Sharepoint 1 - Aligning the Environments

tommysegoro — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:43:00 GMT

INTRODUCTION

I just want to share with you my experience in managing Sharepoint environments (both server and custom code). Before, I came from a development background and purely think as a developer. As a developer, I used to think that as long as my code is bug-free and memory-leak-free then I'm safe.

Now, I've got some experience in managing the servers, I can share with you the things that we have to be aware of more than just having a bug-free and memory-leak-free code. This article will (as usual) come in series so if you're interested, please stay tuned and read the series. I also would also like to see comments and sharings from you so that we can all learn from each other.

MANAGING RISKS 1: KEEP YOUR ENVIRONMENTS ALIGNED

The Sharepoint environment I'm currently working on has the following server topology:

- 1 DB
- 2 WFE
- 1 Central Admin
- 1 Indexing Server

The same topology was also created for Test (yes, it's EXTREMELY important to have a Test environment for Sharepoint just like general .NET development). The goal is whenever we deploy things (code, solutions, features, etc) to Test, we would expect the same results in Production (ie. if it fails in Test then it will fail in Prod and vice-versa).

The idea is great but the problem is, this client's Test and Production weren't installed by the same person. One person setup the Prod and another person setup Test. Hence, we now have different settings and configurations in both Test and Prod.

This will create a huge risk, because if we deploy things in Test, we can never guarantee that the same would succeed in Production even if they successfully pass testings in Test.

Therefore, the very-very first step I would do is to ensure that both Test and Production are aligned. These are (and not limited to):
- The server topology
- The user accounts used to run MOSS/Sharepoint services (Search, SSP, etc etc)
- The configurations (SSP config, Central Admin config, email settings, etc)
- The solutions installed
- The features activated
- The code and DLL deployed (even third party DLLs such as stsadm extensions, etc)
- Web.config settings
- IIS settings
- SQL server settings
- AD settings for each user account used in Test and Prod
- The resource settings for both Prod and Test (RAM, Hard Disks, Processor Utilization, etc)

By ensuring that the settings above are the same for both Test and Prod, we can now expect that the deployment results will be exactly the same. If your deployment breaks in Test then it will most likely break in Production.

TAKE IT FURTHER

I would actually like to take this further. Even the developers' machine - although it's impossible to create the topology within each developer's machine - is at least installed using Test/Prod user accounts and configured using exactly the same configuration. This has worked really-really well for me. I can now be very confident that whatever fails on my machine will also fail in Test and Prod and vice versa (whatever succeeds on my machine will also succeed in Test and Prod).

DOCUMENTATION

This is the bit that I HATE! :) As a developer, there is nothing worse than writing a documentation. Anyway, it's EXTREMELY important to document the setup process for both Test and Prod. Take screenshots as you go through each step and document them. You can use MS Word to Copy Paste things easily or even OneNote with its screen clipping feature. It's really-really handy. Just like taking your wedding photographs for memory, that's how valuable documentation is for us.

From my experience, I will forget within one day what steps I took to setup MOSS. So guys...get your documentation tight.

STILL THERE IS ONE RISK LEFT

The CONTENT DATABASE is the major risk. You would never be able to always align content database. You will be surprised how quickly the content in your machine and in Test are outdated. People will upload more and more documents in Prod and even worse, some of the users are stupid enough to create content types and meta-data directly in Prod!

I'll discuss about this more later.

Hope this helps and please stay tuned for next series,
Tommy

MOSS Manual Navigation Links Are Static - DANGEROUS

tommysegoro — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:16:00 GMT

INTRODUCTION

We just completed a MOSS server rebuild project which we managed to align both Production and Test environments with exactly the same topology and configurations. We installed using the exactly the same user accounts, configurations and even the list of features and solutions. After we configured the farm, we then took Production's latest database backup and restore it in Test. Everything worked perfectly except one thing:

The manual links in navigation menu items are not updated.

You know that in MOSS you can go to Site Actions -> Site Settings -> Modify Navigation, right? And we can create external/manual links, correct? The problem is, some of the users have created links that point to a document/page within MOSS but using static URL instead of relative. The problem is, these manual/static links are NOT updated after database restore to a different environment.

For example:
http://intranet/Pages/Home.aspx is meant to be updated to http://test-intranet/Pages/Home.aspx.

This will create a huge risk because we've actually had problem before when user thought they're still in Test but they're actually in Production. And guess what...he deleted a site that he thought was in Test.

SOLUTION

Anyway, to cut the long story short, I've managed to come up with a very simple SQL statement (which some of you must have known anyway) that can allow us to modify static links into relative links:

update navnodes set url = REPLACE ( url , 'http://intranet' , '' ) where url like '%http://intranet%'

The above statement will update ALL static links in navnodes table (which is the table used by MOSS navigation control) and remove any static reference to any page/document within MOSS.

WHAT LINKS ARE UPDATED BY DB RESTORE?

- Links within content query web-part or page content field

- Automatic links that are created by MOSS in navigation items as a result of creating a page/sub-site

WHAT LINKS ARE NOT UPDATED?

- Manual/static links in MOSS Navigation Items although they may point to a page/document within Sharepoint itself

Hope this helps,
Tommy

One of more field types are not installed properly

ssa — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:07:00 GMT

Here is another small tip. If you get the following error, change the field name that you are using in your SPQuery to the "internal" field name and that should resovle your issue. One of more field types are not installed properly Well, I won't go into details as this is not a new topic and has been discussed several times on different blogs and forums but why I wanted to post this tip again was the reason that I have seen on different blogs where authors have mentioned that internal...(read more)

SharePoint Search Inputs and IE6

janeydoey — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:12:00 GMT

SO...you have users that STILL use IE6. There, there, I know. Let's get out our IE6 voodoo doll and start a'pinnin.

You've got a fantastic non-boring search input. It puts the pop in wow. Until you check on your IE6 test site, and #$(*%)#@(*%^)(*!@$(). Nothing.

Well, you can just add this bit to your master page somewhere in the head tag:

Where "#search" is the id of your search. Of course, would be .search if you used a class. You get the idea! Basically, if someone out there in your SharePoint audience still has IE6, then they get a 2px border and an inset to boot, just to throw a bone. And that's all. So there.

SharePoint 2007 SP2 - Update

Agnes Molnar — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:17:14 GMT

The SharePoint 2007 SP2 bugfix is ready: “ The update can be applied before or after Service Pack 2 installation. If the update is applied prior to installing Service Pack 2 it will prevent the expiration date from being improperly activated during installation of Service Pack 2, if it is applied after Service Pack 2 it will remove the expiration date incorrectly set during installation of Service Pack 2. ” More information and downloading can be found HERE . Originally posted at my new blog...(read more)

Reports: Michael Jackson dies at the age of 50

ssa — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:50:00 GMT

Reports say Michael Jackson has died after suffering a cardiac arrest. He was 50. It is indeed a very sad news. He was the king. I was a big fan of him. http://www.edmontonsun.com/entertainment/2009/06/25/9936706.html...(read more)

Handle TextArea / Multiline Textbox when using System.Web.UI.WebControls.Adapters.WebControlAdapter

mhofer1976 — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:01:00 GMT

If you are using a ASP:NET Web Control Adapter (System.Web.UI.WebControls.Adapters.WebControlAdapter) to give Textboxes a specific look'n'feel in your web application you might encounter a strange problem:

TextBoxes set to TextBox.TextMode = TextBoxMode.Multiline will not render any content / text

I found a couple of people experiencing this problem, but I haven't found a proper solution that was not "create your own textarea control"...

I believe that the problem is that when a TextBox is rendering Multiline-content, it is not rendering an <input>-Element but a <textarea>-Element. So the property TextBox.Text will not be rendered within the value-Attribute of the <Input> but within the <textarea>-Element, like a ChildControl, or better said as Element.InnerText. However, I have not investigated too much in what is going on.

A proper solution to address this issue is by overriding the RenderContents method and handle Multiline-Textboxes specifically:

        protected override void RenderContents(HtmlTextWriter writer)
        {
            TextBox textBox = (TextBox)Control;
            if (textBox.TextMode == TextBoxMode.MultiLine)
                writer.Write(HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(textBox.Text));

base.RenderContents(writer);
}

How to use SharePoint Rich-Text Editor in Webparts and Controls

mhofer1976 — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:37:00 GMT

UPDATE 2009-06-25:

As I've hoped somebody pointed me to a much more "standardized" solution for achieving this: Use the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.InputFormTextBox if you want the SharePoint RichText/HTML-Editor in your WebPart or control, so you don't have to worry about JavaScripts and ServicePack/Migration-Issues (i hope at least....).

My implementation is now very smooth:

<%@ Register Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c"
Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" TagPrefix="sharepoint" %>

<sharepoint:InputFormTextBox TextMode="MultiLine" Title="Email Body" class="ms-input" Rows="6" ID="txtEmailBody"
RichText="true" RichTextMode="Compatible" Runat="server" />

Thanks go to the commenters below who pointed me very quickly to the above control, especially to"Dissing // Ameq" from the "SharePoint Bruger Gruppe"

-------------------------------------------------

Did you ever wanted to provide your users the ability to enter RichText/HTML in your input controls within a WebPart or Server Control? This post will show you (conceptionally) how this can be achieved using the standard SharePoint RTE.

Scenario: We've got a textarea that should allow users to enter RichtText/HTML, for instance:

<asp:TextBox ID="txtEmailBody" runat="server" TextMode="MultiLine" Rows="10" />

please note that "MultiLine" is mandatory, because we need a <textarea> to be rendered.

If we want to make this control to show the formatted RichText/HTML and provide a toolbar that allows for formatting, there are 4 steps required (I do them in the PreRender event):

Step1: Adjust the text that is passed to the <textarea>

In order to render you exisiting field content, you must ajust the text that is set to the textbox like this:

if(!string.IsNullOrEmpty(txtEmailBody.Text))
txtEmailBody.Text = txtEmailBody.Text.Replace("\x00a0", " ");

Step 2: Ensure that "forms.js" is present on the page

This javascript-File contains especially "RTE_ConvertTextAreaToRichEdit" and "RTE_TransferIFrameContentsToTextArea".

// Only needed if the page does not include forms.js anyway
if (!Page.ClientScript.IsClientScriptIncludeRegistered("forms")) {
Page.ClientScript.RegisterClientScriptInclude("forms", "/_layouts/" + SPContext.Current.RegionalSettings.LocaleId + "/form.js");

Step 3: Add the client-side script that converts the TextArea to the RichText/HTML Editor

For the conversion, you need to add a javascript after(!) your TextBox. I did this by adding a <span>:

Now add the BLOCKED SCRIPT

// Registers the client-script that converts the text-area to the richt-text editor
string script1 = "<script>if (browseris.ie5up && browseris.win32 && !IsAccessibilityFeatureEnabled()){RTE_ConvertTextAreaToRichEdit(\""
   + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(txtEmailBody.ClientID) + "\", true, true, \"\", \""
   + SPContext.Current.RegionalSettings.LocaleId + "\", null, null, null, null, null, \"FullHtml\", \""
   + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(SPContext.Current.Web.ServerRelativeUrl)
   + "\",null,null,null,null);}else{document.write(\" <br><SPAN class=ms-formdescription>"
   + "<a href='BLOCKED SCRIPTHelpWindowKey(\\\"nsfullrichtext\\\")'>Click for help about adding HTML formatting.</a></SPAN> <br>\")};</Script>";
rteScript.InnerHtml = script1;

Step 4: Register the OnSubmit client-side script

// Registers the OnSubmit client-script that transfers the contents of the richt-text editor back to the text area

string script2 = "if (browseris.ie5up && browseris.win32) RTE_TransferIFrameContentsToTextArea('"
+ SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(txtEmailBody.ClientID) + "');";
Page.ClientScript.RegisterOnSubmitStatement(typeof(SPUtility), "RTE_" + txtEmailBody.ClientID, script2);

There you go!

Some thoughts about this solution:

Don't even think about this as "standard solution": You must check after every service pack etc. if the scripts are still the same etc. Not even thinking about the migration to SharePoint 2010.
If you need validators on your field, make sure you disable client-side validation and do it on the server.
I have not checked this, but I believe that the text entered by the user is not filtered on the client side. This could be used to include new functionalities such as "insert movie" which inserst <object> and other tags that the standard RichTextField-Control would filter out. But don't forget to implement an XSS-Filter to prevent scripting attacks.
If you need more details on how it is done for the RichTextField control have a look at Microsoft.SharePoint.dll with .NET Reflector

SharePoint and FIPS Compliance

cdc-43 — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:51:00 GMT

I while back (about 18 months ago I think) my team ran into an issue while working on a system for the Department of Defense. The issue occurs when the "System cryptography: Use FIPS compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing and signing" security setting is enabled through Group Policy or Local Security Policy on a WSS or MOSS server. After much research and gnashing of teeth, we finally traced the issue back to the fact that the .NET Framework uses AES encryption as the default. Unfortunately, at least in Windows Server 2003, the Microsoft implementation of AES had not been FIPS validated and the application immediately threw an error when it tried to use the algorithm. We were able to resolve this issue by specifying a "validation" attribute as well as a "decryption" attribute in the SharePoint web.config files for all Content web applications as well as SharePoint Central Administration. We used 3DES as the value of the attribute. Any of Windows Validated FIPS Compliant algorithms should work in this setting. SharePoint specifies an encryptionKey and decryptionKey under the machineKey element but other than that, once the attributes are added, you should have a machineKey element that looks something like

This same fix would apply to any ASP.NET application that is using View State Encryption and displays the "This Implementation is Not part of the Windows Validated FIPS Compliant Algorithms" error message when trying to view a page.

So… why am I just now writing about this? Yesterday, a friend of mine sends me an email that says "Remember when we hit that encryption issue with SharePoint... How did we solve that?" Luckily, I still had a demo server that had the modified machineKey element and I remembered enough to know where to look. I also know that there are some other articles out there about this issue now, but I can never find them when I need them.

Here are a couple of related references: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/911722, http://www.dscoduc.com/post/2008/05/03/FIPS-Compliant-Algorithms-and-IIS.aspx, http://stevesps.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998288.aspx.

Windows 7 RTM en Julio 13, 2009?

DOrtiz — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:53:00 GMT

Este posting esta disponible en: http://dougortiz.blogspot.com/2009/06/windows-7-rtm-en-july-13-2009.html...(read more)

Windows 7 RTM by July 13 2009?

DOrtiz — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:51:00 GMT

This blog posting is available at: http://dougortiz.blogspot.com/2009/06/windows-7-rtm-by-july-13.html...(read more)

Finally - www.1stquad.com is online!

mhofer1976 — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:52:00 GMT

Short one - nothing to do with Sharepoint, but Wheeeeew!... Finally http://www.1stquad.com has been released in it's first version... Don't expect anything fancy for the moment, we are just happy that we could piece together some texts that we like and will keep on enhancing the site bit by bit over the time. As for now, there is only a german version, as the german speaking area will remain our focus. But i'm positive we will come up with a multi-language version of the website sometime soon, together with news, events, blogs and so on. But as for now, I'm happy with what we have - next will be some foto shootings for the company - that's why we go for now with only one picture without investing in more research and design.

But I’m a business why should I attend the Learning Gateway Conference?

apearce — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:48:00 GMT

The Learning Gateway Conference is focused mainly for education but there are at least 10 reasons why you, as IT Pro’s should attend which would benefit your environment.

Simple really – find out about great innovative technologies being used in education
Session 1 – Maintaining your SharePoint
Steve Smith will talk about best practices for your SharePoint environments, SQL, patching etc. These are the best practices for education, health and any small or medium sized SharePoint farms
Session 2 – Unified Communications for the Learning Gateway
Hear Nathan Winters talk about the Microsoft Unified Communications, Office Communications Server, Live Meeting, Group Chat and Exchange. All these are used in small and medium sized businesses. Again for any industry.
Session 3 – Sites and Structure
Andrew Woodward will talk about different site templates you can use and how to structure your site properly with content databases.
Session 4 – Branding
Whether you are a school or business you still need you site to be branded well. Hear Penny talk about how to brand your site.
Session 5 – What else can you do with the Learning Gateway
A session that looks at what else can be done with SharePoint. Can you benefit from some of these features in your business? Do they give you ideas for your environment?
Ask the exports!
Hear a great keynote speakers – Steve Beswick, Microsoft's Director of Education
Meeting with suppliers that work in both education and business
COME TO SHAREPINT!!!! We’ll meet in The Bell bar at the Belfry afterwards.

All that for £150 – not to be missed

Small SPQuery tip (How to get rid of "Cannot complete this action" error)

ssa — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:45:00 GMT

You try to run an SPQuery and get a "Cannot complete this action" error. I have seen users who think it's a permissions issue and they try to use elevatedprivileges. Remember, if you get this error when running an SPQuery object,the first thing you should look for is the query itself. Because of a small semantical mistake the query will not run and SharePoint will throw this error. These mistakes are often difficult to locate with eye. I'd suggest use a tool, such as U2U CAML builder...(read more)

A Peek Under the Hood, and More...

WoodyW — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:39:00 GMT

Hi guys! For those of you who still have this site on your feeds, here's the latest stuff that I've written:

A Peek Under the Hood - What Makes The Sanity Point run?

I talk about selecting and setting up a dedicated server. (Which, by the way, is where you will find all of my latest postings...)

What a Week! - A TechEd Wrap-up

What was hot at TechEd 2009 in Los Angeles.

Discovering the Setup User Account - A SharePoint "Whodunnit?"

Read this fictionalized tale of a Dark and Stormy Night, and learn some very important things about SharePoint configuration.

A Hidden Gem - The Preview Pane View in SharePoint

A great little view that, once you see it, you'll wonder how you got along without it.

Wiki in the Box - Is SharePoint Wiki Really that Bad?

No, it isn't. And this article shows you why.

SharePoint Designer and Expression Web - Separated at Birth

A look at Microsoft's fraternal twin web editors.

And finally, here are the links to My new site and RSS Feed. The RSS Feed is a Feedburner, that I will redirect even if I change hosting providers. Use it, and you'll never miss an article!

Large items in SharePoint recycle bin fixed ... er ... worked around

cwogle — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:36:00 GMT

I've written about it, and written about it, and written about it some more. A very large (70gb) object in the SharePoint recycle bin resembles a steel wool hairball -- you know it's there, it hurts like crazy, and you just can't get rid of it. Microsoft gave me two choices...

I could wait for the WSS/MOSS Service Pack(s) 2, because they're supposed to fix the problem. Well, I tried to install them (on a test system, natch) but WSS SP2 ran for days (no kidding) before I finally gave up. Seems that the update just couldn't handle that big an item in the database. Maybe if you already have SP2 installed and THEN create and delete a hairball, it might work, but I'm not going to try it . Let me know how it goes.

The second choice was to restore the offending library, which contained one folder holding over 100,000 documents, and then delete each document manually, flushing the recycle bin(s) every few hundred documents. I can tell you from personal experience that this works, although the clerical folks who were drafted into doing this grunt work still won't speak to me and have all retired on disability with terminal carpal tunnel syndrome. If you want to try this at home, I suggest you select "Edit in datasheet view", which at least lets you select and delete a bunch of documents at one time. Also allow yourself plenty of time. Lots of time.