24 October, 2012

SharePoint 2010 - Loading the Document Information Panel in MS Word throws a warning when 'Run ActiveX controls & PlugIns' for internet zone is set to 'Administrator Approved'


What is Document Information Panel in Microsoft Word?
A document information panel is a form that is displayed within the client application, and which contains fields for the document metadata. Document information panels enable users to enter important metadata about a file anytime they want, without having to leave the client application.

Document information panels are available in Microsoft Word 2010, Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, and Microsoft Excel 2010. For SharePoint documents, these client applications auto generate the document information panels for a document, based on the metadata schema of the content type assigned to the document.

Problem Description:
If a site falls in the intranet zone and the internet security setting “Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins” for the internet zone is configured to “Administrator Approved” and a user tries to create a new document within a document library, they gets the following warning

Microsoft InfoPath
One or more ActiveX controls could not be displayed because either:

Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page, or
You have blocked a publisher of one of the controls.

As a result, the page might not display correctly.

While troubleshooting the issue, I came across multiple resolutions as well as workarounds and would like to share with all of you.

Resolution
Option 1: Change the IE security setting from Administrator Approved to Enable for internet zone.

Option 2: Customize the Document Information Panel using InfoPath so you can modify the security setting in InfoPath from “Restricted” to “Domain” and re-publish the XSN back to your content type. This will now cause InfoPath to adhere to the “Local Intranet” security settings in Internet Explorer.

Note: Once you publish the Document Information Panel using InfoPath every user must have InfoPath installed on their machines for the Document Information Panel to display.

Option 3: Add the Managed Metadata Control to the list of approved controls. To do this there are two options:

Roll out the following registry modification to all users:

·         HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\AllowedControls
·         Create a new DWORD value that is the GUID for the Managed Metadata control, which is: {64247C52-5C34-4597-B2A3-17BF5617F17F}
- Set this value to: 0

How to reproduce the issue:

1)      Add site to intranet zone in Internet Explorer.
2)      Configure the “Run ActiveX Controls and PlugIns” settings to Administrator approved for the internet zone and enabled for intranet zone.
3)      Open a SharePoint 2010 site and then a document library that has at least one managed metadata column.
4)      On the ribbon, click on Documents and then New Document.
5)      Word opens, and then we get a warning dialog

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.

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


Exception occurred during request processing. (User: Form Name: , IP: , Request: Form ID: , Type: ThreadAbortException, Exception Message: Thread was being aborted.): Infopath


Issue:
Today in our environment we saw an SCOM alert which was continuously getting triggered.

SCOM Alert: Exception occurred while processing an InfoPath form template request
Source: spmwprodweb3
Path: spmwprodweb3.nam.nsroot.net
Alert Raised Time: 10/23/2012 3:21:06 PM Last modified by: System Last modified time: 10/23/2012 3:21:07 PM Alert description: Event ID 5367 from Source Office SharePoint Server on agent computer spmwprodweb3.nam.nsroot.net has triggered this Alert Description : Exception occurred during request processing. (User: Domain\User ID, Form Name: , IP: , Request: https://infopathformlib.site.url, Form ID: , Type: ThreadAbortException, Exception Message: Thread was being aborted.)

In Event logs

Event Type:  Error
Event Source:          Office SharePoint Server
Event Category:     Forms Services Runtime
Event ID:       5367
Date:              10/23/2012
Time:              2:21:55 PM
User:              N/A
Computer:    SPMWPRODWEB1
Description:
Exception occurred during request processing. (User: Domain\User ID, Form Name: , IP: , Request: https://infopathformlib.site.url, Form ID: , Type: ThreadAbortException, Exception Message: Thread was being aborted.)

In ULS logs

10/23/2012 14:28:19.68            w3wp.exe (0x2080)                                  0x327C          Forms Server                              Forms Services Runtime               82fp   Critical           Exception occurred during request processing. (User: Domain\User ID, Form Name: , IP: , Request: https://infopathformlib.site.url, Form ID: , Type: ThreadAbortException, Exception Message: Thread was being aborted.)          

Troubleshooting:
Checked on Google and it refers to the issue with anonymous access on the site http://vettekerry.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/login-required-on-anonymous-site.
MSDN community refers to the issue with “NT AUTHORITY\autenticated user" access on the site http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/pl/sharepointinfopath/thread/e0312df4-b950-4e42-ba49-a648055c8934.

In our environment we are neither using anonymous access on the site nor client have added “NT AUTHORITY\autenticated user" on the site.

Resolution:
The above article was referring to the permissions related issue. Hence tried to find the if the user is added on the site from “All People” group and no reference was found. Since there were 100 users it was very difficult to check them one by one. Asked the site admin if he has any reference list of users and he also confirmed that these users are yet to be permissioned on the site. Confirmed with the client they all treid to access the site before they were permissioned on the site resulting in SCOM Alert trigger for the InfoPath.

As alert was so huge in nature only a small portion of it was a cause of the issue i.e. user identified was not permissioned on the site. 

If you have any questions do let me know.

Duplicates entries in SharePoint Datasheet view Export to Spreadsheet


ISSUE:
Duplicate items appear when viewing items in Datasheet view in SharePoint.  This also happens when using the Export to Spreadsheet (Excel).  If duplicates appear in Datasheet view, they will also appear during Export to Spreadsheet and vice versa.

DESCRIPTION:
The list has got versioning switched off, and views fine in standard list view. However, when you switch to either datasheet view or Excel Export it shows the same rows up to three times in sequential rows.

WORAROUND/SOLUTION:
The affected lists have a REQUIRED lookup field which allows multiple values.
If you have a view that does NOT include this field and it is either a datasheet or you "Switch to Datasheet" then datasheet shows duplicate items depending on how many multi-values are selected.   

Our work-around was to create a specific Datasheet view with the field included.  The multi-value field does not show in datasheet, because multi-value lookup fields don't seem to work in datasheet.  However, it's important to include the field in the view to avoid duplicates.

Unfortunately, if you have a view that does not include the field and then "Switch to Datasheet" you will encounter the same problem.

The duplicates appear also when you try to Export to Excel.  If you have a view that would be affected by the "Switch to Datasheet" duplicates problem, when you try to Export to Excel, it will also appear.

So before you uncheck multiple values make sure you do it with the consent of the user.

Reference:


Specified argument was out of the range of valid values/Provisioning did not succeed/The feature failed to activate

Most of the SharePoint problems revolves around features, activations, publishing, enterprise, solutions and so on…Today I was working with one user and he was facing some error message while activating publishing feature at the site level.

What exactly those error messages: (3 different error messages)

Specified argument was out of the range of valid values.
Parameter name: ContentTypeId   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPContentTypeBindingElement.EnsureContentTypeExists(SPWeb web)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPContentTypeBindingElement.ElementActivated(SPFeaturePropertyCollection props, SPSqlCommand sqlcmdAppendOnly, SPWebApplication webApp, SPSite site, SPWeb web, Boolean fForce)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPElementDefinitionCollection.ProvisionContentTypeAndEventReceiverBindings(SPFeaturePropertyCollection props, SPSite site, SPWeb web, Boolean fForce)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPElementDefinitionCollection.ProvisionElements(SPFeaturePropertyCollection props, SPWebApplication webapp, SPSite site, SPWeb web, Boolean fForce)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeature.ProvisionElements(SPFeaturePropertyCollection props, SPWebApplication webapp, SPSite site, SPWeb web, Boolean fForce)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeature.Activate(SPSite siteParent, SPWeb webParent, SPFeaturePropertyCollection props, Boolean fForce)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeatureCollection.AddInternal(Guid featureId, SPFeaturePropertyCollection properties, Boolean force, Boolean fMarkOnly)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeatureCollection.Add(Guid featureId, Boolean force)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeatureCollection.CheckSameScopeDependency(SPFeatureDefinition featdefDependant, SPFeatureDefinition featdefDependency, Boolean fActivateHidden, Boolean fForce)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeatureCollection.CheckFeatureDependency(SPFeatureDefinition featdefDependant, SPFeatureDependency featdep, Boolean fActivateHidden, Boolean fForce)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeatureCollection.CheckFeatureDependencies(Guid featidDependee, Boolean fActivateHidden, Boolean fForce)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeatureCollection.AddInternal(Guid featureId, SPFeaturePropertyCollection properties, Boolean force, Boolean fMarkOnly)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeatureCollection.Add(Guid featureId)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.FeatureActivator.BtnActivateFeature_Click(Object objSender, EventArgs evtargs)
   at System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument)
   at System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(IPostBackEventHandler sourceControl, String eventArgument)
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)

Provisioning did not succeed. Details: Failed to create the 'Pages' library. Ori
ginalException: Content type '0x010100C568DB52D9D0A14D9B2FDCC96666E9F2007948130E
C3DB064584E219954237AF39' not found in web 'https://sharepointknowledgemanagement.net/sites/DemoSite'.

The feature failed to activate because a list at 'Documents' already exists in this site.  Delete or rename the list and try activating the feature again.    at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Internal.ProvisioningHelper.AddList(SPListCollection lists, String urlName, String title, String description, Guid featureId, Int32 templateType, Boolean& newListCreated)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Internal.ProvisioningHelper.AddList(SPListCollection lists, String urlName, String title, String description, Guid featureId, SPListTemplateType templateType, Boolean& newListCreated)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Internal.AreaProvisioner.CreateDocumentsDocumentLibrary(SPList approvalTaskList)

Troubleshooting steps:

Try activating the publishing feature at the site collection level. If it’s successful then forthcoming issues will also gets resolved and you can successfully activates the feature at the subsite level too.

If the error message stated that the list is already exist then open the site (on which you are facing problems) in SPD (SharePoint Designer). You will see the same list that was reflected in the error message. Either delete it or rename it and then try to activate the feature. It will be successful.

If you are facing problems by means of GUI then try to activate the same by means of stsadm command.

Check the ULS logs for detail error messages

Check event logs for any specific event ID’s

Isolate the problem specific to a site, site collection, list, and particular feature at which level. 

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