How to Open PDF files in a web browser -SharePoint 2010

One of my clients has reported an issue that they are facing some problems while opening PDF files. Further probing reflected the fact that PDF files are opening but they are getting the prompt of Open, Save and Cancel. In contradictory, the actual requirement is PDF files has to open in browser mode directly rather than saving it to the desktop.

Problem description: SharePoint 2010 prompts to save PDF documents when opening.

Now the question is: Is there a way to open a PDF in a web browser, just like Office Web Apps?

This problem is quite annoying as every time we need to save the documents to the desktop!

Started my troubleshooting to explore the options in central administration

Let me tell you the fact why this is happening? In SharePoint 2010, browser handling has been classified into 2 types:

1)   Strict

2)   Permissive

So the next obvious question will be- what are the differences between these above mentioned types? Here are the details:

Strict specifies the MIME types which are not listed in a Web Application’s AllowedInlineDownloadedMimeTypes property (more on this in a bit) are forced to be downloaded.

Permissive specifies that the HTML and other content types which might contain script are allowed to be displayed directly in the browser. In other words, no matter what the type of content, if it lives within SharePoint, the file will open in your browser.

By default, the option is strict in Central administration so that’s why getting prompt is quite obvious.

Resolution#1 / now the question is how to change this?

1)   Open the central administration

2)   Application management

3)   Under web applications- Manage web applications

4)   Select the web application for which you want to change the settings

5)   General Settings (Top-Ribbon section)

6)   This will be open web application general settings

7)   There is a section named as ‘Browser File Handling’

8)   You will see two radio buttons as Strict and Permissive

9)   Change it to Permissive and Click OK

 No needs to do any iisreset so please go ahead and check the results!

-You should be able to open the PDF files directly in browser-

Resolution#2 – Same functionality as Resolution1, only thing is by means of Power Shell:

$webApp = Get-SPWebApplication http://webapplication_URL

$webApp.BrowserFileHandling = "permissive"

$webApp.update()

If you have some security concerns and don’t want to change the option from strict to permissive then here is the resolution:

By means of Powershell:

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName(“Microsoft.SharePoint”)

$webapp = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication]::Lookup(“http://web application_URL”)

If ($webApp.AllowedInlineDownloadedMimeTypes -notcontains “application/pdf”)

{

Write-Host -ForegroundColor White “Adding Pdf MIME Type…”

$webApp.AllowedInlineDownloadedMimeTypes.Add(“application/pdf”)

$webApp.Update()

Write-Host -ForegroundColor White “Added and saved.”

} Else {

Write-Host -ForegroundColor White “Pdf MIME type is already added.”

}

Now your PDF documents will be displayed in the browser even if Browser File Handling is set to Strict.

One last point, in fact important point is you may face the problem with the list or site templates. How? – We are all aware that site as well as list/libraries can be saved as templates to transfer from one location to another.

I would like to thanks to Nico Martens for publishing this article for all of us:

http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Change-Browser-File-e60b46c9

Thank you.

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.

Happy SharePoint to all of you…

Product Applies to:

1)   SharePoint Server 2010

2)   SharePoint Foundation 2010

References:

Open PDF files in the browser from SharePoint: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULfIEmoq-F0

Installing Windows 2012 from Windows 7 (32-bit) failed.

Problem:  The version of this file is not compatible with the version of windows you’re running. Check your computer system information to see whether you need an x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit) versions of the program and then contact the software publisher. 

Background: I was trying to install windows 2012 on my Notebook the Dell Latitude Series E6230.   

However realized I came with the 32-bit Windows 7 operating system. As any normal IT Pro first I tried to run the setup.exe and then got the above error. Sooner or later I realized that 32 bit version O.S doesn't support 64 bit versions application. I was not having any DVD or CD drive where I can burn ISO of Windows 2012.

Resolution: I tried a new method; by converting my USB flash drive to bootable flash drive using Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool downloaded from MS store for free.

You just need to run the set-up.exe and rest the tool do everything for you.

Go to BIOS by pressing F10 or F12 and boot your PC from the Flash/Thumb Drive your set-up will automatically launch.

Thanks for Mr Bob hunt for his reference below:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/blainbar/archive/2012/09/05/step-by-step-booting-windows-server-2012-rtm-from-thumb-drive-creating-a-new-bootable-virtual-hard-disk-from-scratch-by-blain-barton.aspx

Other references:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/bobh/archive/2012/09/04/the-simplest-was-to-create-a-bootable-windows-server-2012-or-windows-8-usb-key.aspx

http://arstechnica.com/business/2009/12/the-usb-flash

-drive

Manual way to make bootable drive and install the O.S.

Applies to: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2012.

Unable to create a secure URL cache + site could not be created + Group cannot be found + Verify that the file exists in the Layouts directory - SharePoint 2010

Recently I worked on language packs requirement and faced some problems. I would like to share some reviews with all of you so that it would be beneficial to all of you. One of my business owner has requested me to install the language packs (French and German) so we have downloaded the language packs from the following links:

Plain language pack

http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=3411

Language pack with service pack1

http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=26621

So by this way we have successfully installed the language packs on every server of the farm i.e. on every app as well as on every WFE.

Note: Make sure you run the psconfig on every server of the farm.

till this point, we are good without any problems.

But the problem started after this- We start creating the site collection by using this installed language packs example French! and it failed with the following ERROR MESSAGE:

The site /sites/French could not be created.  The following exception occurred: Error adding custom access permissions. Group cannot be found. 
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPGroup.InitMember() 
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPGroup..ctor(SPWeb web, SPSecurableObject scope, SPUser user, String GroupName, Object[,] arrGroupsData, UInt32 index, Int32 iByParamId, SPGroupCollectionType groupCollectionType)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPGroupCollection.get_Item(String name) 
 at amolsharepoint.CustomPermission.Features.amolspCustomPermission.amolsharepointCustomPermissionEventReceiver.FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties).

So the problem is: not able to create the site collection

Tried creating the site collection by means of central administration as well as by PowerShell but got the same error as mentioned above.

From the error message, it’s quite clear that the problem is with specific solution/event receiver. Let me tell you that we have custom permissions in our environment and separate solution for that.

Involved developer and reviewed the specific solution and he has stated that the solution has been created & deployed with respect to English locale only so we need to make provisions for the other language packs.

Developer has made that provision and we deployed the solution again!

Tried creating the site again and it works this time.

So now one issue has been resolved regarding site creation! After this, we tried browsing the site collection and got the following error:

Unable to create a secure URL cache "1036/styles/customCOREV10_0020.CSS", file not found. Verify that the file exists in the Layouts directory.

From the error message, its quite clear what will be the next action plan!

What we did?

Simple copy the above mentioned .css file from english folder i.e. 1033 to French folder i.e. 1036.

That’s it- Try browsing the site now and it will open without any issues…

Thank you.

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 once again.

Product applies to:

1)   SharePoint Server 2010

2)   SharePoint Foundation 2010

References:

Language Packs for SharePoint Server 2013

http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=37140

Language packs in SharePoint Server 2013

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff463597.aspx

Language Packs for SharePoint Foundation 2013

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35492

Authentication provider disabled sharepoint 2010

While doing some deployments today, there was necessity to check the authentication provider section in central administration but unfortunately this section is greyed out or you can call it as disabled.

Problem description:

1)   Authentication provider is disabled in Central Administration

2)   Authentication provider is greyed out in Central Administration

Error Message:

This control is currently disabled.

Make sure you have right mode of access / the exact credentials by which you can access the Central Administration / login to the server with SharePoint domain admin rights.

Make sure you are trying to open the central administration in IE and not in any other browser.

There are two resolutions are available to access this path:

Resolutions:

Resolution#1:

1)   Login to the server-shift+right click on IE

2)   select ‘Run as a Administrator’

3)   Try opening the CA now and

4)   check the authentication provider section

5)   it should be enabled now.

Resolution#2: This will be workaround- follow these steps:

1)   Open the Central Administration

2)   Security

3)   Specify authentication providers

Product applies to:

-SharePoint Server 2010

-SharePoint Foundation 2010

Reference:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc709691%28WS.10%29.aspx

The server could not complete your request. For more specific information, click the Details button – SharePoint 2010

One of my user has reported an error that he is facing some problem while publishing the workflow. I probe this issue further and got the following details:

OS: Windows 7

IE version: 9,32-bit

Workflow type: reusable

Publishing at which level: Subsite

SP version: SharePoint 2010

Problem description: Trying to make a custom Publishing Approval workflow for a document library but whenever I try to make a copy I get this message ”The server could not complete your request”

Error message:

This workflow is read-only. Would you like to make a copy of this workflow to open or edit?

After pressing the yes button I get the following error message:

The server could not complete your request. For more specific information, click the Details button.

Details:

Below is the message that the server returned. For more information, contact your Internet service provider or web server administrator.

Troubleshooting done:

1)   Tried publishing the workflow at the root site- worked.

2)   Tried publishing on different site collection as well as in development environment- worked

3)   Checked the managed blocked file types by means of Central Administration-security- for the files .xoml & rules but there were not there.

4)   Checked in IIS by means of request filtering for the extensions .xoml and rules but there were not a part of it.

5)   Checked the OOTB workflow and no problems with the same.

Its been pretty much clear that it’s only occuring at the subsite level and using SharePoint Designer.

Resolution:

Million thanks to this Microsoft technet thread who helps me to understand the issue and design nature of this functionality.

Please refer this: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/sharepoint/en-US/1a241b83-56fc-499e-b4a3-be57b50da204/sp-designer-workflow-error-message-subsites-only

As per this thread- This is by design that we can only copy and modify the OOB global Reusable workflows from the top site. And it is because there is a limitation to create global reusable workflows from a subsite in SharePoint 2010, so we can't create and edit a global reusable workflow from subsites.

Thank you. Hope this article will helps you to get the insight on this issue.