All About SharePoint - S.S. Ahmed - MVP Microsoft SharePoint

XPath, XQuery, and XSLT Functions

2008-05-14T17:49:00Z

Some XML functions can be very useful in InfoPath, especially if you are an InfoPath developer. For example, suppose you are using data validation in your InfoPath form and you want the users to enter a value in one of the text boxes on your form. Of course, you can use the built-in data validation functions, for example, "If field is blank then show error alert" but users can dodge you by entering a space in the text box. In this case, InfoPath won't generate any error and will accept...(read more)

How to grant permissions to a custom assembly that is referenced in a report in Reporting Services

2008-05-06T20:09:00Z

It seems straight forward. Isn't it? but it may not be as simple and straight forward for the newbies as it seems at first. A colleague and a friend of mine recently was struggling with the same issue and he learnt the lesson after spending considerable amount of time experimenting with different solutions. You get a security exception when you write your own component to be used in a report in reporting services. My friend is working on a SharePoint project that involves reporting services....(read more)

MVP Summit experience

2008-04-20T10:12:00Z

Returned from the summit on friday night but my body was so sour that I spent whole saturday sleeping, relaxing, and watching TV. This was my first summit experience and undoubtedly it was the best experience I have had in recent times. This was the first time I met SharePoint MVPs in person. I have uploaded some pictures that I took during the summit, here are the URLs: http://picasaweb.google.com/saifullah.shafiq/Paintball2008 http://picasaweb.google.com/saifullah.shafiq/PartyWithPalermo http:...(read more)

MVP Renewed!

2008-04-02T03:32:00Z

My MVP award has been renewed for another year. I am very happy and very excited because I have lots of interesting plans this year. I would like to thank all my well wishers and readers who read my blog and articles and send positive feedback and comments. Thank you! -SSA Posted on SharePoint Blogs...(read more)

External Collaboration Toolkit for SharePoint released

2008-03-23T01:30:00Z

External Collaboration Toolkit for SharePoint has been released and can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/collabkit . The toolkit runs on MOSS 2007 and WSS 3.0. Posted on SharePoint Blogs...(read more)

SharePoint Capacity Planner Tool is now available for download

2008-02-05T18:02:00Z

You can read about the SharePoint Capacity Planner Tool on the following page: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb961988.aspx You can download the tool from the same page or download it directly from the following page: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DBEE0227-D4F7-48F8-85F0-E71493B2FD87&displaylang=en You can download the System Center Capacity Planner 2007 from the following link: http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/sccp/default.mspx The direct link to download...(read more)

SharePoint and MySQL

2008-01-27T20:31:00Z

SharePoint and MySQL Integrating SharePoint with MySQL using Business Data Catalog T his is another article of the same series that has been continuing for the last couple of weeks. Yep! SharePoint and the Business Data Catalog! Following are the recent articles that cover the SharePoint and the Business Data Catalog "Definition Editor Tool": 1. Working with Business Data Column 2. Importing BDC Data into SharePoint 3. Using Business Data Catalog Definition Editor 4. Few Issues With Microsoft...(read more)

Office SharePoint Designer 2007 Step by Step, is now in the book shops

2008-01-27T18:36:00Z

Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 Step by Step is now available in the market. The book targets the Information workers. Introduction of the book can be read on the author's (Penny Coventry) blog: http://mindsharpblogs.com/penny/archive/2008/01/20/4184.aspx Microsoft site also has some details on the book: http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/12083.aspx I will post a review of this book as soon as i get a copy. -SSA Posted on SharePoint Blogs...(read more)

Links for Workflow with VS 2008

2008-01-21T02:02:00Z

People have already started blogging about the workflow creation with VS 2008. Here are a couple of cool links that show how to create sequential workflows using VS 2008: SharePoint Workflow Feature in VS 2008 Screencast: How to Video: Building a basic Approval Workflow with SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and Visual Studio Webcast: Advanced SharePoint Document Workflow with Visual Studio 2008 Also, do read the following good article about VS 2008 written by Dino Esposito: Inside Visual Studio 2008 -SSA Posted...(read more)

InfoPath Error: The given key was not present in the dictionary.

2008-01-15T20:04:00Z

If this error occurs when you try to submit the form, then there can be two reasons for this. The data connection name is not correct or the URL used in the data connection is not correct. Sometimes, it is hard to pin point the problem because the URL will not be accepted if it has a problem, no matter how minor. An extra space, an illegal character, etc are the problems that are hard to locate and are the source of this error. This usually occurs when you try to submit the form programmatically...(read more)

Working with Business Data Column

2007-12-31T09:30:00Z

Working with Business Data Column Level: Beginners Business Data field type is a new type that enables users to add data from business applications registered in the Business Data Catalog to SharePoint lists and libraries. In the last two articles we saw how to create definition files using Business Data Catalog Definition Editor tool and how to import that definition file into SharePoint. Now we will see how one can make use of the BDC data in a SharePoint list. Following MSDN article has the details...(read more)

Importing BDC Data into SharePoint

2007-12-30T10:44:00Z

Importing BDC Data into SharePoint Level: Beginner As compared to the first part , this article is short and contains information on how to import the definition file into the SharePoint. 1. Go to SharePoint Central Administration and open SSP defined for the site where you want to display BDC data. Figure 1: Select SSP in SharePoint Central Administration 2. Click "Import application definition" (Business Data Catalog section). 3. Click "Browse" and select the definition file...(read more)

Using Business Data Catalog Definition Editor

2007-12-30T06:45:00Z

Using Business Data Catalog Definition Editor Category: SharePoint Level: Beginner Business Data Catalog is a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server feature that allows users to access external data from within SharePoint. SharePoint, as we know, is an excellent collaboration portal that can be used to create robust collaboration applications using Office products. Good thing about the new SharePoint portal is that it also allows you to create applications that involve non-MS products and allows you...(read more)

Few Issues with Microsoft Business Data Catalog Definition Editor

2007-12-28T05:17:00Z

Microsoft Business Data Catalog Definition Editor is a great tool that has made creating application definition file very easy. This tool is available in the latest SharePoint Server 2007 SDK . After installing the SDK, you can install this tool by running setup.exe from the following folder on your server: LocalDrive:\Program Files\2007 Office System Developer Resources\Tools\BDC Definition Editor I notice there are some issues with this first release of the tool. Of course, it works fine with the...(read more)

WS-FileConvertor 1.0c - Convert images to text and upload into SharePoint

2007-12-26T09:04:00Z

Version 1 Version 2 I have made some changes in the previous version and now users can also upload the original files along with the converted text files into the SharePoint. Click here to download this tool. For your convenience, you can create two different views in SharePoint library to show image and text files separately. For example, if the source image files are of GIF type, then you can create a view with the following filter settings: Show only items when the following is true: Column Name...(read more)

Inspecting Logic and Checking Design of InfoPath Form

2007-12-26T06:43:00Z

Inspecting Logic and Checking Design of InfoPath Form It is easier to inspect the logic manually in simple forms but companies use InfoPath not to create simple forms but to create forms in an easy and simple way. These forms can get quite complex and large. Once developed and deployed, there are different techniques that developers can use to track down errors but even at design time inspecting and fixing errors in the form can be a tedious job. Forms can have hundreds of nodes or may be 20-30 fields...(read more)

Renaming the changed Title field back to 'Title'

2007-12-25T11:26:00Z

Title field once changed can not be renamed back to 'Title' through UI. I had to make a change in the DB to forcefully rename the field but there is an easy solution also. Today while browsing the net, I found this interesting post that discusses in detail the cause and the solution for this problem: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/fromthefield/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=15 Title is a reserved word and once changed, can only be renamed back to 'Title' through programming. Posted...(read more)

SharePoint file uploading problem

2007-12-25T10:44:00Z

Sometimes strange things happen after applying security updates to the SharePoint server. Recently a friend told me that after applying a security update, users in his company complained that they were no longer able to upload files to the SharePoint. If this happens to you, make sure it's not because of transaction log. Usually when transaction log is full, users get these types of errors. Also, run following command and it should solve the problem: stsadm -o setsitelock -url http://yoursiteurl...(read more)

Enabling Anonymous access in surveys

2007-12-25T08:33:00Z

I am asked quite often about the anonymous access in surveys. This may be because I wrote a couple articles about surveys in MOSS 2007 some time ago. Creating a survey in MOSS 2007 Creating a survey in MOSS 2007 programmatically Writing an event handler for a survey If you have a subscription to Advisor magazine, you can read a more refined article here . Enabling anonymous access in surveys is easy. All you have to do is make some changes in the SharePoint Central Administration and the site where...(read more)

KB934525: Database issue!

2007-12-25T04:38:00Z

KB934525 is required to fix a vunerability in Sharepoint. Read security bulletin for more information. Information about KB934525 can be read at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934525 Many people have reported that their SharePoint broke after installing this security update. This can happen if the security update fails to install properly. People have reported different issues and errors. One of the common errors if this update fails is: 'SharePoint_AdminContent_GUID' on SQL Server instance...(read more)

Tip: SESSION_STATE_PASCAL_CASED is not configured properly

2007-12-25T03:21:00Z

Error Description: InfoPath Forms Services has detected a mismatch between the user's data in the browser and on the server. This may indicate the SESSION_STATE_PASCAL_CASED is not configured properly on a multiple front end farm or that a malicious user is trying to tamper with client data. Possible Fix: Clear browser's cache and try again and if that doesn't solve the problem then run the following command: stsadm -o reconvertallformtemplates Read more about this command. -SSA Posted...(read more)

WS-FileConvertor 1.0b - Tool for converting images into text readable format and uploading into SharePoint

2007-12-25T00:19:00Z

I have modified the first version . It can now upload converted files to the SharePoint. You can download it here . This application uses WSUploadService web service to upload files to the SharePoint. You can download WSUploadService here . Select Image Folder: This is the folder where source images are stored. Enter SharePoint Site: This is the library URL where converted files will be saved. If you are saving files to a document library, the URL will look like: http://server/sites/doclibrary ("http...(read more)

Seasons Greetings

2007-12-22T01:30:00Z

Seasons Greetings, I would like to wish a wonderful holiday season to all my blog readers. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! SSA Posted on SharePoint Blogs...(read more)

WS-FileConvertor 1.0a

2007-11-26T22:22:00Z

WS-FileConvertor 1.0a WS-FileConvertor is a .NET application that converts image files into text readable format. Currently, the output is TXT files. All image formats are supported including GIF, JPG, TIFF, etc. I have only tested major formats like GIF, BMP, etc. I am still working on this application. I am working on a feature that will allow users to upload the converted files (TXT) to SharePoint. You can download the setup package from here . I tested this application in development environment...(read more)

Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object

2007-11-26T04:30:00Z

Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object This is one of the common errors that you see during SharePoint development. There could be many reasons for this error to occur. Here I will discuss one scenario. I have noticed that sometimes calling SPContext throws this error. It seems to be a bug. The code works for the first time but throws an error if you run the same statement again (during the same session). For example, consider the following code: SPSecurity .RunWithElevatedPrivileges...(read more)