Web Services Uncovered: SharePoint 2007.

Today we are going to talk about the Web services in SharePoint. We all know SharePoint provide very extensive support for the web services, writing custom web services, we will try to compile some information on this. 

What is a web Service?

A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the Web (Internet).

The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format (specifically Web Services Description Language, known by the acronym WSDL). Other systems interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its description using SOAP messages, typically conveyed using HTTP with an XML serialization in conjunction with other Web-related standards.

What is SOAP? 

SOAP, originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks. It relies on Extensible Markup Language (XML) for its message format, and usually relies on other Application Layer protocols, most notably Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), for message negotiation and transmission.

Web services protocol stack?

A web service protocol stack is a protocol stack (a stack of computer networking protocols) that is used to define, locate, implement, and make Web services interact with each other. A Web service protocol stack typically stacks four protocols:

• (Service) Transport Protocol: responsible for transporting messages between network applications and includes protocols such as HTTP, SMTP, FTP, as well as the more recent Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (BEEP).
• (XML) Messaging Protocol: responsible for encoding messages in a common XML format so that they can be understood at either end of a network connection. Currently, this area includes such protocols as XML-RPC, WS-Addressing, and SOAP.
• (Service) Description Protocol: used for describing the public interface to a specific Web service. The WSDL interface format is typically used for this purpose.
• (Service) Discovery Protocol: centralizes services into a common registry such that network Web services can publish their location and description, and makes it easy to discover what services are available on the network.

Web Services in SharePoint?

The web service .asmx files are located at "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\ISAPI"

Every SharePoint Site has a virtual directory known as "_vti_bin" which maps to the above directory.  Don't believe me?  Open up your IIS management console, go to one of your web apps, and look where "_vti_bin" maps to in the file system.

Here is a list of the web services:

Name	URL
Administration	http://<AdminSite>/_vti_adm/Admin.asmx
Alerts	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/Alerts.asmx
Authentication	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/Authentication.asmx
Copy	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/Copy.asmx
Document Workspace	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/Dws.asmx
Forms	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/Forms.asmx
Imaging	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/Imaging.asmx
List Data Retrieval	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/DspSts.asmx
Lists	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/Lists.asmx
Meetings	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/Meetings.asmx
People	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/People.asmx
Permissions	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/Permissions.asmx
SharePoint Directory Management	(in stssoap.dll)
Site Data	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/SiteData.asmx
Sites	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/Sites.asmx
Search	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/spsearch.asmx
Users and Groups	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/usergroup.asmx
Versions	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/Versions.asmx
Views	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/Views.asmx
Web Part Pages	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/WebPartPages.asmx
Webs	http://<Site>/_vti_bin/Webs.asmx

SharePoint has a rich list of Web Services it support so it is always good to keep handy the SharePoint Web Services Link provided by Microsoft, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms445292.aspx

 

A nice reference to the well explained Architecture of Web services by Trent Swanson: http://www.infoq.com/articles/swanson-moss-web-services.

You nice video on calling web services  using silver light application: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-Z30-1sdXY

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know. Thank you. 

SHAREPOINT LIBRARIES 2010

Library:

·         Container for creating, organizing, managing different document types (Word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms etc).

·         To store files, Meta information about the files.

·         Used among different team members.

·         By default a Shared Library is created when a site is created.

·         Additionally any number of different types of libraries can be created.

Specialized library types in SP 2010

To store specific content  types.

·         Asset Library:

To create a rich media library.

To create, browse, share, organize and manage images, audio and video files.

·         Data Connection Library:

To create, browse, share, organize and manage files that contain information about connecting to external data connections.

Document Library:

To create, browse, share, organize, and manage documents or other files.

For creating folders, versioning of documents and check-in/check-out of files.

Form Library:

To store and manage Microsoft Office InfoPath forms/ XML files for use with Microsoft Office InfoPath(business forms like a status report, purchase orders, etc).

Picture Library:

To upload, share pictures with others.

Includes a built-in image viewer.

Report Library:

To create web pages, reports to track business metrics, goals, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and business intelligence information.

Slide Library:

To create a library for storing and sharing Microsoft PowerPoint slides.

Wiki Page Library:

To create, store customizable pages of content that are linked together and can be edited by several people

Error: Cannot complete this action.

Error:  Cannot complete this action.
          Please try again.
          Troubleshoot issues with Windows SharePoint Services. 

      

What is the cause of this error? 

The short answer is that the page is trying to access something that doesn’t exist, or thinks does not exist.

Resolution:

1). To check which webpart is having the issue, open the site with SharePoint Designer  and double click on the page. The webpart which shows the ‘server error’ is the culprit one.

2). Right click on the webpart to visit its properties and to find its name.

3). Go to web part maintenance page by using http://xyz.com/sites/default.aspx?contents=1  and

4). Closed the offending web part.

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issue. Thank you

Cannot restore from recycle bin

The Recycle Bin provides a safety net when deleting documents, list items, lists, folders and files. When you or site visitors delete any of these items from a Web site, the items are placed in the Recycle Bin.

Problem Description:

Unable to restore files/folders from Site Collection Recycle Bin

When we try to restore we get the following exception:

Error Message: Unable to restore ‘file name’

Troubleshooting Steps:

1)   Checked on the path from where the Folder was deleted and confirmed that it was not modified or deleted i.e. all the top-level folders/sites where intact to get to the folder.

2)   Checked for the available quota on site by means of storman.aspx

·         Open the site

·         Site actions

·         Site settings

·         Site collection administration

·         Storage allocation (storman.aspx)

All looked fine still unable to restore

Resolution:

·         Checked the Document Library where the folder had to be restored and found a folder named similar to the folder which was to be restored. E.g. RC PHASETEST4 as to RC PHASETEST3

·         So, renamed the similar folder to something else and tried restore, it worked. Once restored reverted the renamed folder to original.

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues, Thank you

The folder may be located in an unavailable location, protected with a password, or the filename contain illegal characters

Different users…different issues but all are using the same product i.e. SharePoint

And we are here to resolves the issues and guide them in right directions.

This time-I am sharing in interesting issues which is based on sharepoint designer. User opened a ticket by mentioning that she is getting the following error message while opening the site in sharepoint designer.

The folder 'http://localhost' isn't accessible. The folder may be located in an unavailable location, protected with a password, or the filename contains a / or \.

What needs to be done if we encounter such issues? If we notice carefully then we will come to know that the error message is self explanatory. Ok-what exactly?

Here are the guidelines by which you can check the parameters one by one and get back to me in case of any questions/queries/information required:

1)   There is no such site or folder?

2)   This location is inaccessible because you are using FORM Authentication? You need to extend the web application on another port to connect to SPD.

3)   URL contains illegal characters?

4)   URL contains file names i.e. default.aspx

5)   Check in Central Administration > Application Management > Authentication Providers. Make sure "Enable Client Integration" is set to "Yes".

Thank you. Please feel free to contact/any queries/any questions, I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues.

SharePoint 2010: Site Collection Administrator does not receive storage quota alerts

To help manage site and server resources, an administrator of the local server computer can specify quotas that are used to limit the amount of storage available on a site and the number of users that are added to a site collection. These quotas help to ensure that one site cannot deplete so many resources that other sites can no longer function.

The server administrator can use locks to stop sites from exceeding the storage quota limits, and to block all users from accessing a site if necessary.

A user is a SharePoint Site Collection Administrator. The Site Collection reaches its quota, and has passed the warning limit. However, the user does not receive a warning email message. 

Probable causes:

This issue occurs because the warning email message only goes to the Site Owner.

Resolution:

To resolve this issue, validate that the user is not the Site Owner. To do this, follow these steps: 

1)      Log on to any server of the farm. 

2)      Open Central Administration. 

3)      Application Management, and then

4)      Click View All Site Collections.  

5)      Find the site in question.  

6)   Notice the "Primary administrator." 

The primary site collection administrator will be the user who receives quota alerts. If the customer has to change this, we can run the following cmdlet:

stsadm -o siteOwner -url <Site Collection> -ownerLogin <Domain\Alias>

If you have any queries/questions/doubts regarding the mentioned information then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues :)

This page has been modified since you opened it. You must open the page again.

After applying branding to a site workflows could not start.

Attempting to start an OOB Approval workflow got error in web browser:

Error Message:

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

This Page has been modified since you opened it. You must open the page again.

Refresh page.

Correlation ID: [guid]

Date and Time: [time stamp]

ULS logs for the correlation ID:

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

[Date and Time] w3wp.exe (0x12DC) 0x29D8 SharePoint Foundation General 8e1f High Failed to find the XML file at location '14\Template\Features\[feature folder]\feature.xml'  

[Date and Time] w3wp.exe (0x12DC) 0x29D8 SharePoint Foundation Feature Infrastructure fs74 Medium Feature definition missing for Feature 'feature name' (Id: 'GUID')  

[Date and Time] w3wp.exe (0x12DC) 0x29D8 SharePoint Foundation Runtime tkau Unexpected System.Web.UI.ViewStateException: Invalid viewstate. Client IP:198.160.1 Port: 2939 User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET4.0C; .NET4.0E; InfoPath.3; MS-RTC EA 2) ViewState: /wEWCQKTxNo5AryysZ0GAruysZ0GApaN/GMCgY20+QMC9b+X7gcCjMXT7gMClM2Y+QoCmf228gyP9P9GzAGZMS28bkyo8CD9kfR56A== Referer: https://siteUrl/_layouts/AddWrkfl.aspx?List=1d68c04b-30d2-4fbe-9455-e125c2727b1f Path: /_layouts/DstWrkflIP.aspx

Clicking the "Refresh page" link in the web browser's error box generates another error:  

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

Error

List does not exist.

The page you selected contains a list that does not exist. It may have been deleted by another user.

Correlation ID: [guid]

Date and Time: [time stamp]

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

ULS for the correlation:

[Date and Time] w3wp.exe (0x12DC) 0x29D8 SharePoint Foundation General 8kh7 High List does not exist. The page you selected contains a list that does not exist. It may have been deleted by another user.  

[Date and Time] w3wp.exe (0x12DC) 0x29D8 SharePoint Foundation General 8kh7 High Stack trace: onetutil.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=00000000000A2291)  

at 0x000007FEEFD02291 onetutil.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=00000000000A3451)

at 0x000007FEEFD03451 owssvr.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=000000000000925A)

at 0x000007FEEEE9925A owssvr.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=000000000003CFF4)

at 0x000007FEEEECCFF4 mscorwks.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=00000000002BE497)

at 0x000007FEF9B8E497 Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=00000000000DB2A0)

at 0x000007FEEFB9B2A0 Microsoft.SharePoint.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=0000000001AE0746)

at 0x000007FEF40A0746 Microsoft.SharePoint.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=0000000001AC568F)

at 0x000007FEF408568F Microsoft.SharePoint.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=0000000001AC4EFB)

at 0x000007FEF4084EFB Microsoft.SharePoint.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=0000000002200127)

at 0x000007FEF47C0127 Microsoft.SharePoint.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=0000000001FAB92C)

at 0x000007FEF456B92C System.Web.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=00000000002759B0)

at 0x000007FEF04C59B0 System.Web.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=000000000026671B)

at 0x000007FEF04B671B System.Web.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=0000000000953971)

at 0x000007FEF0BA3971 System.Web.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=00000000009443B2)

at 0x000007FEF0B943B2 System.Web.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=0000000000925DF9)

at 0x000007FEF0B75DF9 System.Web.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=0000000000A4DDE1)

at 0x000007FEF0C9DDE1 System.Web.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=0000000000A4D9AB)

at 0x000007FEF0C9D9AB System.Web.ni.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=0000000000A4CC14)

at 0x000007FEF0C9CC14 mscorwks.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=00000000002BDDFA)

at 0x000007FEF9B8DDFA webengine.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=00000000000851C7)

at 0x000007FEE88651C7 webengine.dll: (unresolved symbol, module offset=000000000008628

[Date and Time] w3wp.exe (0x12DC) 0x29D8 SharePoint Foundation General 8e1f High Failed to find the XML file at location '14\Template\Features\[feature folder]\feature.xml'  

[Date and Time] w3wp.exe (0x12DC) 0x29D8 SharePoint Foundation Feature Infrastructure fs74 Medium Feature definition missing for Feature 'feature name' (Id: '1bf89c1b-18e3-4b9b-ad0a-6e9fc917cedd')  

[Date and Time] w3wp.exe (0x12DC) 0x29D8 SharePoint Foundation General 8nca Verbose Application error when access /_layouts/CstWrkflIP.aspx, Error=List does not exist. The page you selected contains a list that does not exist. It may have been deleted by another user.  

System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException: List does not exist. The page you selected contains a list that does not exist. It may have been deleted by another user.

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequestInternalClass.GetListsWithCallback(String bstrUrl, Guid foreignWebId, String bstrListInternalName, Int32 dwBaseType, Int32 dwBaseTypeAlt, Int32 dwServerTemplate, UInt32 dwGetListFlags, UInt32 dwListFilterFlags, Boolean bPrefetchMetaData, Boolean bSecurityTrimmed, Boolean bGetSecurityData, Boolean bPrefetchRelatedFields, ISP2DSafeArrayWriter p2DWriter, Int32& plRecycleBinCount)  

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.GetListsWithCallback(String bstrUrl, Guid foreignWebId, String bstrListInternalName, Int32 dwBaseType, Int32 dwBaseTypeAlt, Int32 dwServerTemplate, UInt32 dwGetListFlags, UInt32 dwListFilterFlags, Boolean bPrefetchMetaData, Boolean bSecurityTrimmed, Boolean bGetSecurityData, Boolean bPrefetchRelatedFields, ISP2DSafeArrayWriter p2DWriter, Int32& plRecycleBinCount)  

[Date and Time] w3wp.exe (0x12DC) 0x29D8 SharePoint Foundation Runtime tkau Unexpected System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException: List does not exist. The page you selected contains a list that does not exist. It may have been deleted by another user.  

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequestInternalClass.GetListsWithCallback(String bstrUrl, Guid foreignWebId, String bstrListInternalName, Int32 dwBaseType, Int32 dwBaseTypeAlt, Int32 dwServerTemplate, UInt32 dwGetListFlags, UInt32 dwListFilterFlags, Boolean bPrefetchMetaData, Boolean bSecurityTrimmed, Boolean bGetSecurityData, Boolean bPrefetchRelatedFields, ISP2DSafeArrayWriter p2DWriter, Int32& plRecycleBinCount)  

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.GetListsWithCallback(String bstrUrl, Guid foreignWebId, String bstrListInternalName, Int32 dwBaseType, Int32 dwBaseTypeAlt, Int32 dwServerTemplate, UInt32 dwGetListFlags, UInt32 dwListFilterFlags, Boolean bPrefetchMetaData, Boolean bSecurityTrimmed, Boolean bGetSecurityData, Boolean bPrefetchRelatedFields, ISP2DSafeArrayWriter p2DWriter, Int32& plRecycleBinCount)

We are also getting an error browsing to "Site Actions > Site Settings > Workflows which had same errors as the ULS log errors when starting a workflow:  

Error Message:

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

Failed to find the XML file at location '14\Template\Features\[feature folder]\feature.xml'  

Correlation ID: [guid]

Date and Time: [time stamp]

This site also experienced issues with creating / adding columns to lists / libraries.

Cause:

---------

The custom master page included customizations and code in the area of the search box. 

Resolution:

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

Adjust the custom master page so that it was no longer able to add branding to the search box.

Please let me know in case of any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information, Thank you.