17 April, 2013

How to Customize Windows Explorer Search Connections for SharePoint Server 2010


One of the best improvements in SharePoint from version to version has been with Search. Search Server Express was added for SharePoint WSS 2007. Fast Search was introduced in SharePoint Server 2010 among other great feature improvements around the search service. In SharePoint Server 2013, Fast Search technology is now included in the standard search service and a new feature known as continuous search has been added. SharePoint's Search service is far superior to list views to locating documents and item information in SharePoint. There are so many features of search that can be easily utilized or extended upon so much so that each deserves its own article. One feature that this article will focus on is searching SharePoint content from your computer using Windows Explorer and how to extend its capabilities.

16 April, 2013

Can I send Email Alerts From SharePoint 2010 To Distribution Lists

Yes we can send Email alerts From SharePoint 2010 To Distribution Lists.

How ?

The answer is First you need to convert the DL into a security group for the DL to get resolved in Sharepoint . As Sharepoint doesnt recognise DL`s

After that is done .

1. Log in to your SharePoint site and navigate to Site Actions > Site Permissions

2. Add this distribution list to the site as a member of an existing SharePoint permission   
    group . you can give Read permissions no Higher permissions needed .

3. Navigate to Settings > Group Settings and make sure that the following is true

  • Who can view the membership of the group: Everyone.
  • Group permissions level: at least,Read permissions

  • 4.  Navigate to the library or list and click Library (List) > Tools > Set alert on this library (list)

    5.  Add the distribution list in the field Send alerts to

    The alerts now will be sent to the members of this distribution list.

    The Managed Metadata Service or Connection is currently not available. The Application Pool or Managed Metadata Web Service may not have been started. Please Contact your Administrator

    We have created a new UAT environment for the deployment purposes and everything is new. Suddenly the requirement comes up for managed metadata. As this environment is newly built so we have not created all the service applications and work/create as per the requirement arises.

    Note:
    If you find a different solution, please report it as a comment to this post. Be sure to double-verify it: undo your solution and verify that the problem comes back, then redo it and verify that the problem goes away.

    Problem Description:
    Creation of new service application named as ‘managed metadata’

    I have created a new service application by providing the following data:
    1.   Name of the service application Example. Managedmetedata_DEVSP
    2.   Name of the application pool
    3.   Selecting the appropriate service account from the dropdown which has sufficient privileges to create the SA.
    4.   Click OK

    Now the service application is created without any issues.

    As soon as I clicked on it then I got the following ERROR MESSAGE:
    The Managed Metadata Service or Connection is currently not available. The Application Pool or Managed Metadata Web Service may not have been started. Please Contact your Administrator.

    Resolution:
    Make sure the managed metadata service is already started.
    How to check this:
    a)   Central Administration
    b)   Manage services on server
    c)   Managed metadata service
    d)   Start

    Once the service is in started mode then check the results again by clicking on the managed metadata service application, it has to open the page without any errors\exceptions.

    If you face the same error message as mentioned above then please execute IISRESET once and that’s it.

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

    15 April, 2013

    Your backup is from a different version of Microsoft SharePoint Foundation and cannot be restored to a server running the current version

    Problem Description:
    Requirement comes up to transfer the backup of one site collection from production to development environment.

    -          Took the backup of the site collection by using PowerShell command without any issues
    -          As soon as I tried restoring the backup then I faced the following error message

    Error Message:
    Your backup is from a different version of Microsoft SharePoint Foundation and cannot be restored to a server running the current version. The backup file should be restored to a server with version '14.0.0.6134' or later.

    Checkpoints:
    -Compare the development SP version with the production version and found out the following info:
    Development- 14.0.6123.5006
    Production- 14.0.6120.5006

    -it’s quite obvious from the above versions that it’s not going to work L and we should be ready to hear the answer “It seems that you need to update your development server with the same patch which is running in production and then you can restore the backup” / upgrade your destination farm to the same version of the source farm, After your farms are at the same product version, the restore will succeed.

    Resolution:
    You must be wondering as How exactly I have achieved this resolution?

    Here are the details:
    -Restored Production backup to staging application but in a separate database

    -Took that database and restored to development environment – which automatically place that DB to the same version

    -Attached the database to default application, that’s it- issue resolved J

    Site is up and running, easily restored to the development environment without any waiting time.

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

    The SharePoint Health Analyzer detected an error. One or more services have started or stopped unexpectedly

    Problem Description:
    The SharePoint Health Analyzer detected an error. One or more services have started or stopped unexpectedly.

    Error Message:
    The following services are managed by SharePoint, but their running state does not match what SharePoint expects: SPAdminV4. This can happen if a service crashes or if an administrator starts or stops a service using a non-SharePoint interface. If SharePoint-managed services do not match their expected running state, SharePoint will be unable to correctly distribute work to the service.

    SharePoint was unable to automatically repair this error.

    To stop or start a service managed by SharePoint, use the SharePoint service management interface in the SharePoint Central Administration Site. If a service has crashed, restart the service manually on the affected servers by running "net start [service name]" from a command prompt. For more information about this rule, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=142683.

    Checkpoints:
    - All services are running fine.
    - All SharePoint sites as well as web applications are running without any issues.

    Reason:
    Basically it’s a clear cut indication that the one of the required service is un-reachable.

    Resolutions you can try as there are multiple things by which we can resolve this issue:
    - Check the administration service is running or not in services console. if its stopped/disable then please restart it.
    - try to reboot the server and check the results again.
    - try restarting the services by using command prompt
    - after the above things and if you are still facing the problem then please check the SP logs and surely you will find the  exact error which will tell you the root cause behind it.

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

    Product applies to:
    - SP2010
    - SP2013
    - SharePoint Foundation 2010