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

Integrating AD RMS and SharePoint

By preparing SharePoint infrastructure to store IRM-protected documents, where the protection capabilities are embedded in the document, it will make these protected documents unsearchable since they cannot be tagged or indexed while the document contents are encrypted.  This is no longer the case with AD RMS and SharePoint 2007 since the IRM policies are only applied when the documents are downloaded and they are stored unencrypted in the libraries, hence making them index able and later searchable.

With SharePoint, IRM protection is available for files that are located in document libraries. SharePoint uses the access control list (ACL) on the library or list to determine the permissions that it applies to a document for the user downloading it. Protection includes the following options with integration of SharePoint with AD RMS:

·         Whether or not users can print documents that are rights managed.

·         Whether the user can run Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and other custom code in the file.

·         The number of days for which the license is valid; after the specified number of days, the license expires and the user must download the file again from the document library.

·         Whether to let users upload file types that do not support IRM.

·         Optionally, the date to stop restricting permissions to the document library; after the specified date passes, Office SharePoint Server removes all rights-management restrictions from the documents in the library.

There are basically three simple steps to integrate AD RMS with SharePoint 2007 as follows:

(Notes: If we are using Windows Server 2008, as it already includes AD RMS client, there is no need to install a separate Windows RMS client as in Windows Server 2003)

Add permissions for the SharePoint server to the AD RMS certification pipeline

·         Log on to the AD RMS server as a local administrator

·         Click Start, and then click Computer

·         Navigate to c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\_wmcs\Certification

·         Right-click ServerCertification.asmx, click Properties, and then click the Security tab

·         Click Advanced, click Edit, select the Include inheritable permissions from this object's parent check box, and then click OK two times

·         Click Edit

·         Click Add

·         Click Object Types, select the Computers check box, and then click OK

·         Type the name of the SharePoint web front-end server, and then click OK twice.

·         Repeat the above three steps for other web front-end servers

·         Click OK to close the ServerCertification.asmx Properties sheet. By default the Read & Execute and the Read permissions are configured

·         Reset IIS

Specify RMS server location in SharePoint using Central Administration

·         Open SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration site

·         Click Operations, and then click Information Rights Management

·         Select Use the default RMS server specified in Active Directory.

·         Click OK

Before installation of Windows Rights Management Services Client.

After installation of Windows Rights Management Services Client

Note:  Ensure that Windows Rights Management Services Client (WindowsRightsManagementServicesSP2-KB917275-Client-ENU-X64.exe) is installed on the server. It is very small installation and takes less time. It will come by default with Windows server 2008.

Enable IRM policy to control access to the contents of a document library

1.       Open a SharePoint site and go to the document library where we want to enable the IRM policy

2.       Click Settings, and then click Document Library Settings

3.       Under Permissions and Management, click Information Rights Management

4.       Select the Restrict permission to documents in this library on download check box

5.       In the Permissions policy title box, type in the policy title

6.       In the Permission policy description box, type in the policy description

7.       Click OK

SharePoint will now automatically apply AD RMS rights to the document when it is downloaded from the document library. These rights are determined by the user permission for that library. For example, a user who has Read permission will not be able to modify the document when it is downloaded from the document library.

Notes: When AD RMS protected documents (created outside SharePoint environment) are uploaded to the library with IRM policy enabled, the original document protection policy will supersede the library protection policy when those documents are downloaded or accessed by users.  AD RMS end-to-end security prevents SharePoint from decrypting documents created outside of the SharePoint environment, hence applying the SharePoint library IRM policy to those documents.

Cannot read from source file or disk error while using explorer view

The Explorer View is an excellent feature that is integrated with windows SharePoint Services that allows a user to access a document library as if you were accessing a file system through a Windows Explorer window.

Being end users, everyone might feel that this is very easy to use. But there are multiple complex interactions happening with different technologies to make documents which are not present in file systems to viewable using explorer.

Problem Description:

While trying to cut and paste files or folders from one document library to another using windows explorer view, the following error message may occur:

“Cannot read from source file or disk”.

This issue cannot be reproducible in a Windows XP environment; however this can be reproducible in Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 2008 / Windows 2008 R2. Here are some Scenarios when you do cut and paste of files / folders:

- MOVE between sites collections in the same web application works with XP

- MOVE between sites collections not in the same web application works with Vista and 7

- MOVE between two mapped drives (using net use command where one connected to site col1, and the second one connected to site col2) works with Vista and 7 (within a same web application, or between two webs application)

Resolutions:

Two workarounds are available so select anyone as per the flexibility.

1: COPY and PASTE the required data; then DELETE the files instead of using CUT and PASTE.

2: Create two mapped drives using "net use" command. Then complete CUT/PASTE between the mapped drives.  

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

The list or library contains a large number of items. Learn about managing a large list or library and ensuring that items display quickly.

Today we have received one incident ticket in which the user was facing the below mentioned error message:

The list or library contains a large number of items. Learn about managing a large list or library and ensuring that items display quickly.

Hmm…Pretty much enough to understand that the library or list consist of so many items and now it’s affecting the performance. If you wanna see the performance criteria which have been defined by Microsoft then please refer this link:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-sharepoint-services-help/manage-lists-and-libraries-with-many-items-HA010173667.aspx

Microsoft has given a very detailed description regarding the performance criteria:

Once you’ve exceeded the 2000 item limit, you may see this message on the list settings page (red exclamation point):

The list or library contains a large number of items.

Please keep one more msdn article handy with you to make the clear understanding of this point: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ecm/archive/2010/04/05/it-looks-like-you-re-building-a-large-library-would-you-like-help.aspx

If you still has any queries/questions then please let me know. I would be more than happy to discuss the problem and helps you to resolves your issues as soon as possible. Thank you.

Installation of WSS/SP2 package was failing

Problem Description:

To install the SP2 & April Update for MOSS

ERROR MESSAGE:

"Installation of this package failed." Error while installing the WSS package”

What is happening?

When we tried to install the WSS/Sp2 and WSS Hot fix package we get "Installation of this package failed" error

ULG logs digging:

“MSI (s) (60:44) [17:51:28:748]: Product: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Error 1921.Service 'Windows SharePoint Services Search' (SPSearch) could not be stopped. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to stop system services.”

Cause determined:

This package was trying to stop the "Windows SharePoint Service Search" and was failing.

Resolution provided:

1. Stopped manually SPSEARCH service from the services.msc console and found we were able to install the WSS package without any issue.

2. On Another server we were unable to stop this service and were showing some errors.

3. We manually set the status to "DISABLED" and rebooted the server

4. Found we were able to install the package successfully.

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 :-)