Showing posts with label SharePoint 2007. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SharePoint 2007. Show all posts

24 October, 2012

Unable to “Edit series” for an event in calendar list in SharePoint


ISSUE:
Unable to “Edit series” for an event in calendar list

DESCRIPTION:
There is a repeating event (event series) in SharePoint calendar list with “All day event” selected and no specific start and end time. When someone opens an event and then clicks on "Edit series", it opens up the series in edit mode. But after making any type of changes, page can’t be saved and clicking “Ok” returns to same edit page reflecting some validation errors which doesn't allow us to commit the changes.

WORKAROUND/SOLUTION:
Solution for this problem issue is extremely simple very obviousness.

Whether we make changes to the series or not, we must unchecked the box for “All day event” and then select the check box again


11 October, 2012

How can you set up RMS-based protection to the documents users store in SharePoint?


You can use Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) to protect SharePoint documents in the two most recent releases of SharePoint; SharePoint Server 2010 and SharePoint Server 2007 both include RMS support. However, there are some restrictions and complexities you should be aware of if you plan to set up RMS with your SharePoint installations.

An important thing to know is that RMS can only encrypt SharePoint documents and subject them to RMS access control restrictions when they are downloaded from a SharePoint 2010 or SharePoint 2007 document library. RMS doesn't leave SharePoint documents encrypted while they're stored on the SharePoint server. This restriction exists so that SharePoint can index and scan the documents on a SharePoint storage provider. RMS applies its restrictions to a document only right before it's downloaded to a client computer. Similarly, when an RMS-protected document is uploaded to a SharePoint site, RMS removes all protection from the document until a new download request is received.

SharePoint-RMS integration ensures that security restrictions are enforced even after a document has left a SharePoint server, which is something that can't be achieved using the standard SharePoint permissions. SharePoint-RMS integration also automatically enforces an organization's RMS document security policies. A SharePoint administrator can centrally define different RMS policies for the document libraries hosted on a SharePoint server. Therefore, individual users don't have to decide what protection they need to apply to documents they post in SharePoint libraries. RMS permissions are defined at the SharePoint document library level: Documents in a library automatically inherit the library's RMS permissions. This protection applies to both existing and new documents in the SharePoint library.

The RMS protection of SharePoint data is, just like the RMS protection that's bundled with Windows and Microsoft Office, only possible for certain file formats. Out of the box, it supports Word, Excel, PowerPoint, InfoPath, and XPS files. Extensions to apply RMS protection to other file formats (e.g., .pdf, .cad) can be added through special software from Microsoft partners such as Liquid Machines (now part of Check Point Software Technologies) and GigaTrust.

RMS support for SharePoint can be set up using either RMS SP2 or RMS V2, which is bundled with Windows Server 2008. Provided you already have a functioning RMS infrastructure, enabling RMS protection in SharePoint is relatively straightforward. The main configuration actions are
  • enabling RMS support on the SharePoint server
  • setting the actual RMS restrictions in the configuration of a given document library
You can enable RMS support in SharePoint by selecting either the Use the default RMS server specified in Active Directory or Use this RMS server option in the Information Rights Management section of the SharePoint Central Administration\Operations configuration section.

To set RMS restrictions on a SharePoint document library you must use the Information Rights Management section in the Permissions and Management configuration section of the document library. When you select the Restrict permission to documents in this library on download check box, you can further refine the RMS protection as follows:
  • Allow users to print documents.
  • Enforce users to verify their credentials every x number of days. This setting can be useful when someone who has access to RMS-protected confidential data leaves your organization; the individual will retain access to the data only for x days after his or her last successful authentication to an RMS server.
  • Reject files that don't support Microsoft Information Rights Management (IRM). Selecting this option results in SharePoint rejecting the upload of document formats that don't support RMS.
  • Remove RMS protection on a particular date. This setting is useful for publishing company financial results, for instance. After the quarterly results are published, the RMS protection policy on the quarterly results SharePoint library automatically changes -- meaning that the RMS restrictions are removed.
Microsoft provides more detailed guidance on how to set up SharePoint-RMS integration in the article "Deploying Windows Rights Management Services with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Step-By-Step Guide," which is available from Microsoft's website.

Courtesy: www.sharepointpromag.com

24 September, 2012

SharePoint Help - http 403 forbidden Error / hiding SharePoint help Icon.

Today one of my client stated that he could not open the ‘Set Blog Permissions’ link on one of this Blogs and got the error message. 



I checked the same on my test site and see the same behavior. Now question is why this is happening?

To give you background: We have SharePoint Help disallowed in our environment due to loop whole for the vulnerability attach with the Help.aspx page as per the MS security Bulletin release.   http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/MS10-039

Just going a bit out of track from here, to suggest some other methods to disallow the help in SharePoint.  To Disallowing access to the help content page can be manually done need to run a small SharePoint farm. Follow the steps.
  • open up IIS management console
  • find the web application responsible for the public portal
  • find the _layouts virtual folder
  • find the file help.aspx and open the Properties window for that file
  • Change the access permissions for that file.
  • repeat these steps for "HelpSearch.aspx", too
You'll have to repeat these steps on all servers in your web farm.
If you even don’t want the users to see the Help icon on the site then commenting out the following lines in the master pages does the trick for the icon.


The MS Security Bulletin given above also suggests the automated workaround for this. 

You can easily test whether or not your site is prone to the breach, by using below url on your site:

If your site is prone, you will see a JavaScript popup stating your site is hacked.

Hot fixes to resolve the vulnerabilities: WSS 3.0 hotfix: KB983444, MOSS hotfix: KB979445

Coming back to original question why ‘Set Blog Permissions’ link was not working for the client is that when we click the Set blog permissions link in the Admin web art page of the blog site. It tried to call the java script method/functions 

“javascript:HelpWindowsKey(%27MS_WSS_SetBlogPermissions%27)”. 

This script tries to call the Help.aspx, helpcontent.aspx page using HelpWindowsKey function. Since the Help doesn’t work so does this window.
 

13 September, 2012

Integration of InfoPath with SharePoint

InfoPath?
InfoPath is based on industry-standard Extensible Markup Language (XML). Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a condensed form of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) that enables developers to create customized tags that offer flexibility in organizing and presenting information. When you design a form, InfoPath creates a form template (.xsn) file, with an .xsn extension. When someone fills out a form in InfoPath, the data in that form is saved in XML format. This makes it easy for organizations to reuse the data elsewhere, perhaps in an existing process that relies on XML, such as an expense reporting process.

However, you don't need to understand XML in order to design or fill out an InfoPath form. The important point is that the form's XML format makes it easy to repurpose and share the data you collect.

In InfoPath, you can do two things:

Design forms:
You can design and publish interactive, user-friendly forms in design mode. In addition to inserting standard controls into a form, InfoPath lets you insert controls that offer users the flexibility to add, remove, or hide sections of a form. The forms you design can range from simple forms for collecting data to complex forms that are part of a larger business process. You don't need programming or scripting expertise to design an effective form. However, if you know how to write script, you can use Microsoft JScript or Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript)  in your forms by accessing the Microsoft Script Editor (MSE) from within design mode.

Fill out forms:
Users who have InfoPath installed on their computer can fill out forms using familiar, document-like features, such as the spelling checker and rich text formatting. Depending on the form's design, users may also be able to merge data from multiple forms into a single form, or export data to other programs. Users can also save forms to their computer, work on them offline, and then submit them to the corporate network when they are reconnected. This is especially useful for people who have intermittent or limited access to network resources, such as employees who travel frequently.

Why to Use InfoPath?
InfoPath forms can be straightforward, simple forms that are used by a few people in a small workgroup For example, a 10-person sales team can use InfoPath to fill out and share information in sales call forms. These forms can be published to and accessed from a common location on the company network, such as a form library located on a Microsoft Windows® SharePoint™ Services site. Alternatively, the sales call form can be designed so that data is submitted directly to an existing database of customer information.

InfoPath forms can also be more sophisticated forms that are integrated into the existing business processes of a large organization. For example, if a company uses Microsoft BizTalk Server to manage the process of expense claim reporting, developers in the company's IT department might design an InfoPath expense claim form that submits data to BizTalk, which then routes that data to the appropriate department for approval or processing.

The following lists are some of the most important benefits of using InfoPath:

Reusable data: The data stored in an InfoPath form doesn't have to remain locked in the form forever; it can be easily separated from the form and reformatted or reused in a variety of ways. This enables form designers to integrate form data into existing business processes.

Accurate data:   As a user fills out an InfoPath form, the data they enter can be checked for data validation errors. If your form is connected to a database or Web service, users won't be able to submit data until they fix these errors. This helps you ensure that the data you collect is accurate and error-free, and that it conforms to whatever standards you specify.

Offline support:  Unlike Web-based forms, InfoPath forms don't have to be filled out while a user is connected to a network. Users can fill out forms offline, and then submit them later, when they are reconnected.

Flexible controls: In addition to standard controls, such as text boxes and list boxes, InfoPath also includes a number of new controls, such as repeating tables and optional sections these types of controls let you create a flexible form that is designed to accommodate your users. For example, in an expense report form, you can use a repeating table to allow users to enter only as many expense items as necessary.

Tablet PC support:  InfoPath allows you to design forms for Tablet PC users. In particular, you can include special controls, called ink picture controls, in your form. Tablet PC users can then add handwritten words or drawings inside these controls.

SharePoint?
Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 connects people, teams, and knowledge across business processes. It unifies disparate information, facilitates easy collaboration on documents, projects, and other efforts, and presents specific applications and customized content based on a user’s functional group and organizational role. SharePoint Portal Server works with Microsoft Windows Explorer, Microsoft Office applications, and Web browsers to help you create, manage and share content throughout your organization.

Integration

Form Library
The InfoPath form library is the primary integration point between Windows SharePoint Services and InfoPath. An InfoPath form library is a special type of document library that can contain and promote any information from any XML file. All documents stored within it are based on a specified InfoPath form template.

The form library is the main distribution point for a specified InfoPath form template; it allows the form to be maintained, deployed, and shared for use by the members of an organization. The form library can display columns of information extracted from the forms. With these columns, the user can create custom views to organize the forms and their content, called property promotion.

The form library also makes the extracted information available for searching as part of the SharePoint site. A form designer can use InfoPath to publish a form template directly to the form library and to define custom views for the forms.

Scenario
You can use SharePoint Products and Technologies in combination with InfoPath to improve status reporting with a project team.

Members of a project team compose and submit project status reports on a weekly basis. The status report covers topics such as tasks, progress, issues, hours logged, and budget expended. The project manager reviews the status report submission for each team member and consolidates relevant information from all team members into a single report, which is then specified to the project sponsor.

Existing Process
Project teams use a generic status report document and store all status reports on a file share. The status report process typically operates as follows:
·         Team Member Creates a Status Report   The team member opens a local, possibly outdated, copy of the generic status report document. The team member types new information for the current reporting period.
·         Team Member Submits a Status Report   The team member posts the completed status report to a file share and sends an e-mail message to the project manager; alternately, the team member mails the status report to the project manager.
·         Project Manager Collects Individual Status Reports   The project manager checks both the file share and e-mail periodically, looking for new status reports.
·         Project Manager Browses Status Reports   The project manager must open a specific report to examine its contents, even if the project manager wants only a quick summary of the status report.
·         Project Manager Searches Status Reports   The file share is not included in an index by a search engine, so searches against the contents of the status reports are not possible.
·         Project Manager Creates the Consolidated Status Report   Once all reports are submitted, the project manager goes through a time-consuming, manual process to generate the consolidated status report for the project sponsor.
·         Project Manager Submits the Consolidated Status Report   The project manager posts the completed status report to a file share and sends an e-mail message to the project sponsor; alternately, the project manager mails the status report to the project sponsor.

12 September, 2012

SSRS SharePoint Data Extension

Introduction:
Data processing extensions in Reporting Services enable you to connect to a data source and retrieve data. They also serve as a bridge between a data source and a dataset(used in SSRS )  If required custom data extensions  can be developed by using  .Net framework  and the unique extensibility architecture of Reporting Services  which enables  us to extend specific features of the product and its components.

SSRS SharePoint Data Extension is  a custom SSRS data processing extension that makes it possible to use Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 /2008 for building reports over SharePoint data . This let us build sophisticated reports over SharePoint list, library, and InfoPath and document library. This lets you leverage all the power of Microsoft's reporting platform like exporting list data in multiple formats (Excel, PDF, CSV, XML  ... image), SSRS subscriptions to deliver report to email and file system.



Benefits of Extension
·         Many organizations use SharePoint lists /libraries  to keep track of critical business processes / enterprise data  and these data can be useful  for  business analysis and reporting , un fortunately there is no  out of box  data extension in SSRS 2005/2008  to support  SharePoint as an data source. This custom data extension helps in transform your SharePoint site into a fully fledged application by building sophisticated and customized reports 
·         With the help 0f this extension  SharePoint data can be exported to other formats  , use Reporting Services features to export the data into excel , word(SSRS 2008), XML .etc
·         This provides options to configure access permission to specific SharePoint data. You can build reports that will display data from sites and lists for which users do not have permissions because report can execute using the credentials you specify and if required it can be configured to use credentials of the user running the report.
·         This extension development in one time investment with approximate efforts of 2- 3 weeks. Later can be reused in all those projects which need reports to be generated from SharePoint data.
·         This extension can be extended / customized based on business requirement with fewer efforts.
·         This data extension has can use CAML (Collaborative Application Markup Languages)to query on SharePoint data which leads to increase in performance because only selected rows and column will be fetched from SharePoint
·         This support easy to design query and let the developer concentrate on report layout design. Because it abstracts complex web service API of SharePoint from SSRS report designer
·         This also can query on SharePoint user profile data

Alternative of SSRS SharePoint Data Extension

Out of Box XML- Data Processing Extension
Disadvantages 
·         Design of complex  xml structure 
·         No intelligence support
·         Doesn't Support CAML Query ,Fetches  all the Data from List/ library
·         Unable to do  Join, Union, Group
Third Party Data Extension  like  Enesys RS Data Extension
·         Costly alternative

11 September, 2012

Retain look up column values in export list template


It is known issues that on exporting list items, look up column values are lost.
If the list is very big, it might not be possible to fix that manually. This problem occurs since list template does look up on a table using GUID, on creating a list template and exporting to a different site, this GUID changes, hence it is no longer able to retain the values.


Suppose I have a list “Category” which has a look up column “sub category” which refers to list “Sub Categories”. I assume you have already created a look up listSub Categories” in the destination web.

  1. Browse to the source Web’s lookup list “Sub Category” and choose Modify settings and columns.
  2. Copy the source lookup list GUID from the URL.It should be a sequence of numbers and letters similar to:  %7BFFA47BF8%2D849C%2D4F20%2D9C50%2D173D2F5B6725%7D
  3. Browse to the destination Web’s lookup list and choose Modify settings and columns.
  4. Copy the destination lookup list GUID from the URL.Similar as point 2.
  5. Delete %2D from the string and replace with a dash sign (-). There should be no dash sign (-) at the start and the end. GUID should be in the following format: FA47BF8-849C-4F20-9C50-173D2F5B6725
  6. Save the source Web’s list that contains a lookup column “Category” to the lookup list as a list template called category.stp.
  7. Export the list template STP from the source list template gallery to the file system.
  8. Rename the category.stp file to category.cab so Windows can open it.
  9. Open the file, right click on the manifest.xml file and export it to the file system.
  10. Edit the manifest.xml file; find the source Web’s lookup list GUID and replace it with the destination Web’s lookup list GUID.
  11. Save the manifest.xml file.
  12. Open a VS.NET command prompt.
  13. Run the makecab command as: makecab manifest.xml category.stp
  14. Import the new STP into the destination Web’s list template gallery. You will need to delete it if it has previously been imported.

Auditing User Activities in SharePoint 2007

Scope
This documentation is to find or trace user activities on SharePoint website

Purpose
When we enable Audit Logs in SharePoint, we can track all the events related to additions and deletions of users/groups in SharePoint.

We can trace the same events using SQL queries queried on site content database as a SharePoint Administrator in more detailed manner.

Steps for Auditing
Below are the queries which have been used to trace the user deletions:
1.       Get the group ID and Site ID from below query
SELECT * from Groups with (nolock) where Title=’GroupName’;

2.       Get all deleted instances of that particular site scope from the below query…
SELECT * from AuditData with (nolock) where EventData like '<roleid>-1</roleid><principalid>’Principal ID’</principalid>%' and ItemType=6 and Event=’Event Id’;

3.       Get the User details with the ID ‘Owner ID’ using the below query...
SELECT * from UserInfo with (nolock) where tp_ID=’Owner ID’;

4.       Get the permissions which are deleted in the above Site Scope by USER from below Query…
SELECT * from dbo.Perms with (nolock) where ScopeId=’Scope ID';