SharePoint 2010 Recovery/ Restore Options

In my last post i had mentioned some sneak peak regarding SharePoint backups. By means of sharePoint 2010, Microsoft has comes up with great options in terms of recovery also.

I would like to highlight some key information which is shared by Microsoft that will be usefull to all of you:

1. Restore a farm (SharePoint Server 2010)http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee428314.aspx

2. Restore a farm configuration (SharePoint Server 2010)http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee428326.aspx

3. Document farm configuration settings (SharePoint Server 2010) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff645391.aspx

4. Copy configuration settings from one farm to another (SharePoint Server 2010) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff627859.aspx

5. Restore a Web application (SharePoint Server 2010)http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748647.aspx

6. Restore a service application (SharePoint Server 2010)http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee428305.aspx

7. Restore search (SharePoint Server 2010)http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748654.aspx

8. Restore secure store services (SharePoint Server 2010)http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748602.aspx

9. Restore a content database (SharePoint Server 2010)http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748604.aspx

10. Attach and restore a read-only content database (SharePoint Server 2010) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748633.aspx

11. Restore customizations (SharePoint Server 2010)http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748613.aspx

12. Restore a site collection (SharePoint Server 2010)http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748655.aspx

13. Import a list or document library (SharePoint Server 2010) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee428322.aspx

Three Cheers to Microsoft 4 sharing such valuable information, Thanks...

SharePoint 2010 Recycle Bin Settings

Recycle Bin Settings in SharePoint 2010

Recycle Bins are one of the key features which are mandotory from business requirements.They are used to protect and recover data.Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 as well as SharePoint Server 2010 supports two stages of Recycle Bins:First-stage Recycle Bin and Second-stage Recycle Bin.
To configure Recycle Bin settings by using Central Administration

1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is a member of the Farm Administrators SharePoint group.
2. On the SharePoint Central Administration Web site, click Application Management.
3. On the Application Management page, click Manage Web Applications.
4. Click the Web application for which you want to configure Recycle Bin settings. The ribbon becomes active.
5. On the ribbon, click the General Settings drop-down menu, and then click General Settings.
6. On the Web Application General Settings page, in the Recycle Bin section, you can configure the following settings:
->You can specify a time after which items in the Recycle Bins are deleted, or you can specify that these items should never be deleted. By default, items are deleted after 30 days.
->You can set the Recycle Bins for the Web application to be On or Off. By default, Recycle Bins are turned on.

Note:
If you turn off the Recycle Bins, any existing items in both the first and second-stage Recycle Bins are deleted. Depending on how much data is contained in the Recycle Bins, deleting these items can take a long time.

Please let me know in case of any issues,Thanks !!

SharePoint 2010 Granular Backups

Today, I have analyzed as well as tested sharepoint 2010 granular backups strategies. If we compare to SharePoint 2007 then we need to perform every task by using stsadm n GUI doesnt have any support. But in SharePoint 2010, Microsoft has introduced this functionality by which we can implement the granular backups by using GUI i.e. Central Administration as well as by using POWERSHELL.

Explored two options as follows:
1. Perform a site collection Backup
2. Export a list

Please refer the following steps as how i have executed these operations:

Backing up a site collection:
1.Central Administration
2.Select Backup and Restore
3.From the UI select Perform a site collection backup
4.Select the appropriate site collection from the pull down menu
5.Include proper UNC path including backup file named like: filename.bak
6.Selecting Start backup redirects to _admin/sitebackuporexportstatus.aspx page.

Backing up a Site, Library, or List

Exporting a Site/sub-site

Export a specific site using Central Administrator:
1. Select Backup and Restore
2. From the UI select Export a site or list
3. Select Site Collection\Site "leave list drop down clear"
4. Optional categories is to export full security or export versioning history
5. Selecting Start export redirects to _admin/sitebackuporexportstatus.aspx page.

Export a specific list or library:

1. Select Backup and Restore
2. From the UI select Export a site or list
3. Select Site Collection\Site
4. Select a list
5. Optional categories “export full security or export versioning history”
6. Selecting Start export redirects to _admin/sitebackuporexportstatus.aspx page.

I hope the above information will helps you to understand the granular backups present in sharepoint 2010. If you face any issues then please let me know....I would be more than happy to help you and resolve your issues.. Thanks !!!

SharePoint 2010 Templates

SharePoint 2010 provides a great variety templates for creating new sites. Most companies will decide for you which SharePoint templates you're going to use; it’s usually either a Team Site template or a Publishing Site template.

Please refer the below mentioned brief description regarding some site templates that belongs to SP2010.

This copy of Microsoft office is not genuine

Hey Guys, this is not related with sharepoint but testing sp-applications in reff. to office 2007 documents. Till yesterday, The office documents are working fine but after some patching on my windows 2003 OS, I am getting the prompt:This copy of Microsoft office is not genuine.

After installing Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) Notifications (KB949810) from Windows Update, OGA Validation will perform genuine test on installed Microsoft Office XP, Office 2003, Office 2007 and Office 2010 software.
KB949810 OGA Notifications update is designed so that end-user cannot uninstall or removed the update using “Add and Remove Programs” or “Program and Features” in the Control Panel.

Disable and Remove OGAAddin from within Office Applications:
Please follow these following steps:

1.Run one of the Office app such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint as administrator.
2.Open Windows Explorer, go to %SystemDrive%\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12
3.Right click on Office app executable, e.g. winword.exe, excel.exe, powerpnt.exe to run as administrator.
4.Go to Options--> Add-Ins.
5.3.Select COM Add-ins under Manage drop menu list, and click Go.
6.Disable or remoev the OGAAdmin.
7.Repeat above steps for each and every Office applications installed.

Please check the results and your issue will be resolved!!
Please let me know in case of any queries,Thanks !!

Reff: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949810

SharePoint Mobile Views !!

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 as well as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides in-built support for mobile access to SharePoint list data. Mobile devices access a site through URL that simply adds an "m" folder to the regular URL. http://Server/sites/SiteCollection/Site/m/, with "m" appended to the regular Web site URL, they are redirected to a mobile default.aspx page.

As soon as we enters the above URL in the browser then it will redirects to this URL: http://Server/sites/SiteCollection/Site/_layouts/mobile/mbllists.aspx. which is a actual mobile home page (mbllists.aspx) to display the list of contents.

After digging out more and little RnD on my Sharepoint Server, Found out an internal mechanism that supports Mobile Views. Basically, there are 2-main components that supports mobile views or you will get your mobile aspx page.
1. Templates:The Template which is used for Mobile views is called as "MobileDefaultTemplates.ascx"
You can find the same from this location: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\CONTROLTEMPLATES directory.

2. Features:
The Feature for redirecting users to the mobile home page is located in the following directory:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\MobilityRedirect
Note: As per Microsoft recommendations/ Best Practices--Modifying the contents of the MobileDefaultTemplates.ascx file is not supported..
Please let me know in case of any queries !! I hope the above information will helps you to get some insight regarding Mobile Views,Thanks !!

Explorer View Problems: SharePoint 2010

http://site_name is not accessible. Either this location does not exist or you might not have permission to use this network resource.

Your client does not support opening this list with Windows Explorer.

Whenever we face such kind of issues, one thing should be important that you have already installed a valid copy of Office application on your client machine becuase Explorer view is windows feature provided by means of sharepoint that uses client functionalty i.e. Office 2010

-As per the SP 2010 functionality, ensure you have Office Professional PLUS installed on your client machine.
-Integration features of Office client Applications and SharePoint uses WebClient service running on the client machine.

The problem where i faced this problem was belongs to OS-Windows Server 2008 R2. So i started searching for this WebClient Service to see if it was running or not. I went to Start
->Administrative Tools->Services i browsed through all the services but could not find it.

Generally, we found this service in services console but the mystery became complicated and i started exploring the features of Windows Server 2008 R2......n yes, i got it !!

The name of the feature which supports this functionality called as Desktop Experience.
Note: The WebClient service is installed only when you install the Desktop Experience feature on you Server 2008 machine.

Here are the steps that i have taken to resolve this issue:

1) Go to Start->Administrative Tools->Server Manager
2)In Server manager Click on Features and the click Add Features
3)Select the Desktop Experience Feature and install it. Then Restart the Server (Required for installation of the feature)
4)Go to Start->Administrative Tools->Services
5)Select the Web Client Service and Start it.

I hope, the above information will helps you to resolve your issues...
Please let me know in case of any issues,Thanks !!

SharePoint Management Shell

One of the most important feature present in sharepoint 2010 is called as "sharepoint Management shell/sharepoint Powershell " Which contains the Powershell cmdlets for SharePoint, by using this we control and manage the SharePoint operations like we done in STSADM command.

It will take some time to understand but start rolling with all new 652 power shell cmdlets in SharePoint 2010 as compared to STSADM based 182 commands in SharePoint 2007.


To Install feature,
PS> Install -SPFeature

To activate the feature for the site,
PS> Enable -SPFeature -Url http://server/site_name

I hope the above information will helps you to gain some insight of Sharepoint management shell. Please let me know in case of any queries,Thanks !!

SharePoint 2010 Site Templates

Site templates are a great feature in SharePoint that allow us to build a Web Site, customise it then save it as a template so that you can use the same template for other Sites. It is continued in this new feature also i.e. SP2010 but little bit in different manner !!

There are still Site Template in SharePoint 2010, but they're no longer .STP files. Instead, they're bundeled in the form of .WSP files just like web parts and features.

To create a Site Template, browse to the Site you want to create from.
->Go to Site Actions
–>Site Settings
–>Save site as template (under the Site Actions heading).
->Give your template a name, and don't forget to check the "Include Content" box if you want to include library and list content in the template.

This will create a new site template in your Solutions Gallery, which you can then use when creating new sites. You can also download directly from the Solutions Gallery to a .WSP file.

To upload a Site Template to the Solutions Gallery,
->go to Site Actions
–>Site Settings
–>Solutions Gallery (under the Galleries heading).
->On the Solutions tab of the ribbon, click "Upload Solution".
Before you close that dialog, you'll need to click "Activate" to activate it if you want your Site Template to appear in the "New Site" dialog later.

To use the Site Template, go to Site Actions –> New Site. You'll find your Site Template in the list of Installed Items, in the All Categories or Blank & Custom filters.

I hope the above the information will helps you to clear your doubts between the templates present in SP2007 & SP2010.
Please let me know in case of any queries,Thanks !!

SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard Errors

While running the SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard you may experience the errors:

Error 1: An exception of type Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileException was thrown. Additional exception information: Unrecognized attribute 'allowInsecureTransport'. Note that attribute names are case-sensitive. (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\WebClients\Profile\client.config line 56).

To resolve the issue you can perform the following steps:

Download and install KB976462 from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976462 for Windows Server 2008 R2 or

KB971831 from http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Project/Download/FileDownload.aspx?ProjectName=KB971831&DownloadId=7285 for Windows Server 2008

Now,Run the SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard and your issue will be resolved !! Thanks !!

Error 2:Failed to register SharePoint services.
An exception of type System.ServiceProcess.TimeoutException was thrown. Additional exception information: Time out has expired and the operation has not been completed.

System.ServiceProcess.TimeoutException: Time out has expired and the operation has not been completed.
at System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController.WaitForStatus(ServiceControllerStatus desiredStatus, TimeSpan timeout)

Run Setup.exe when the steps above have been completed.

To resolve the issue you can perform the following steps:

Download and install KB976462 from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976462 for Windows Server 2008 R2 or KB971831 from http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Project/Download/FileDownload.aspx?ProjectName=KB971831&DownloadId=7285 for Windows Server 2008

Now,Run the SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard and your issue will be resolved !!

Please let me know in case of any issues,Thanks !!

Installing SharePoint 2010 Beta on Windows Server 2008

Hey Guys, finally i have installed the most awaited Microsoft product which is more powerfull from Office SharePoint Server 2007 i.e. SharePoint server 2010 beta

I will try best to supply a step by step tutorial as detailed as possible which demonstrates how to install 2010 SharePoint Bêta on Windows server 2008 R2.

You can download SharePoint Server 2010 beta from this link:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee391660.aspx

List of Prerequisites Software
---------------------------------
1.Windows server 2008 with SP 2 / Windows 7 / Vista (All OS must be 64bit)
2.Windows 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 KB971831
3.WCF Fix article for Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7 KB976462
4.Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Native Client
5.Microsoft "Geneva" Framework Runtime
6.Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.0 (x64)
7.Microsoft Chart Controls for Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
8.Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services ADOMD.NET
9.PowerShell V2 RTM
10.SQL Server 2008 SP1
11..NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (Full Package) KB959209 KB967190

Run > SharePoint Server 2010 Application file, system will extract files and show the above screen, under Install > click Install Software prerequisites…

System will run for few moments and display a following error message as mentioned below:

Install the pre-requisites that you have downloaded one by one

Once you get the above screen then the installation complete and click on the Install SharePoint Sever Link

1.SharePoint 2010 Installation screen prompts for Product Key get beta key
U can get the Beta Key from this link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee391660.aspx

2.Read your License terms and click I accept and start Installation:

3.Select Standalone option, if you are installing with SQL Express 2008 server. If you are installing SQL Server 2008 and SharePoint 2010 farm servers, then select Server Farm option.

4.System will start the Installation progress…

5.System would take several minutes to complete installation and prompt for Configuration Wizard.

6.Run your Configuration wizard and click next >

7. Configuration wizard click “Yes” to start IIS and SharePoint Admin, Timer service.

8. Configuration wizard continue 2 of 10 tasks and if everything is ok, the system will display the following screen. (Please note that it will take several minutes to complete. It's not as fast as SharePoint 2007 configuration wizard)

9. Congratulations… you successfully Installed SharePoint 2010.

Yee..Yeappy !! Office 14/SP2010 has been successfully installed !!

Please let me know in case of any queries,Thanks !!

Verfification error-An error occured during the signature verification.

Something to share about infopath forms functionality using digital signatures. Everybody knows as how to customized the infopath forms,using controlls on that as well as publishing forms on document libraries. The certificate works fine when I open the form in thick client and then sign it. If I try to digitally sign the browser enabled form (with same certificate), it fails with the following error message:

one or more digital signatures in this form could not be verified.To Modify parts of the form tat have been digitally signed, removed the associated signatures. click on a signature to view its details.
OR
There is a problem with this signature.
For the certificate to work with browser enabled forms, the certificate should have a trust chain. Without a chain of authority to tell the Operating System where this certificate came from, the computer will have no way to verify the authenticity of the certificate.

Please follow this steps to resolve this issue:

To Export the certificate (To be performed on the client machine where you have installed the certificate:

• On the machine where you have downloaded and installed the VeriSign Class 1 certificate go to StartàRun and type certmgr.msc and press OK button to launch Certificate Manger console.
• Expand the Personal store,, you would see on child node of Personal store called Certificates.
• Click on the Certificates node.
• On the right hand side pane, locate certificate with your name issued by VeriSign Class 1 Individual Subscriber CA - G2.
• Right Click the certificate and select Export from All Tasks option to Launch certificate export Wizard and Click Next button.
• In the Export Private Key prompt, select “Yes, export the private key”
• In the Export File Format , Under Personal Information Exchange - PKCS #12 (.PFX), check “Include all certificates in the certification path if possible” and click Next
• Enter the password and click on the Next
• Click on Browse button and select the location where you want to export the certificate.
• Click on Finish to complete the Wizard.
To Import the Certificate.(To be performed on the SharePoint server
Copy the *.pfx file on the machine where your SharePoint server is Installed.
• Right click your PFX file and select “Install PFX” option to launch Certificate Import Wizard, click next to continue.
• Verify the location of your PFX file in “File to Import Screen” and click on Next
• Enter your password and click on Next.
• In the “Certificate Store” prompt, select “Place all certificates in the following store” and click on browse button.
• In the “Select Certificate Store”, select “Trusted Root Certification Authorities” and Click on OK.
• Click Finish to Complete the wizard.

I hope the above steps will helps you to resolve your issue,thanks !!

The converter failed to save the file

Computer running office 2007 try to open an excel file from SharePoint site for edit. Error: (Save as) The converter failed to save the file. However, if user start the Excel program before opening the file from SharePoint, no problem at all, no error message and file saving fine. 

The fix is to do the following:

- Open Word
- Click the Office button (Top-left in the window)
- Click Word Options
- Click Resources
- Click the Diagnose button
- Click through the wizard until it’s finished
- Close all browser windows

I hope the above information will helps u to resolve the issue!!

In case of any queries/questions then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues. Thank you.

Excel cannot open the file 'filename.xlsx' because the file format for the file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file

When you try to open a workbook that you receive in an e-mail message for review in Microsoft Office Excel 2007, the workbook does not open. Additionally, you receive the following error message:
Excel cannot open the file 'filename.xlsx' because the file format for the file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file.
This issue occurs only when you send a workbook for review. The workbook file is saved as an Excel binary workbook. However, the workbook has an .xlsx extension that is appended to the file.

To work around this issue, save the workbook as one of the following file formats before you send the workbook for review:
--Excel Binary Workbook (*.xlsb)
--Excel 97-2003 Workbook (*.xls)

The document information panel was unable to load. The document will continue to open. For more information, contact your sys admin.

I have a custom field type as a dropdownlist which displays the no. of users from the web site. Now I have a document library with this custom field type. When I tries to create a item it opens the MS Word instance and it gives a message as Document Information Panel is unable to load.

After lots of research and debugging the issue on my dev-env, i was able to resolve the issue.
The Steps taken for resolution:

1. Open this location- C:\Program Files\Microsoft Web Designer Tools\Office12\1033\IPEDINTL.DLL
2. copy IPEDINTL.DLL
3. paste it here- C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\1033\IPEDINTL.DLL
4. Close all the applications that are presently open as well as all the browsers
5. Open the sharepoint site in a new browser and check the results !!

Please let me know in case of any issues.. Thanks !! I hope, the above steps will helps you to resolve your issue regarding the same !!

Publishing and Synchronizing Excel 2007 Tables to SharePoint Lists

1. Install the excel 2007 add-in on your machine.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=25836E52-1892-4E17-AC08-5DF13CFC5295&displaylang=en

2. When you will start the setup then it will ask you where to install the data excetely, so please save at this location on your machine:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\ADDINS

3. Open the excel sheet in which you have the data that you wants to synchronise in sharepoint.

4.Click the Microsoft Office Button, click Excel Options, and then click the Add-Ins tab.

5. Select Excel Add-ins in the Manage drop-down list and click Go.

6. In the Add-Ins dialog box, click Browse, navigate to the Excel 2007 SharePoint List Synchronizing Add-in, and then click OK.

7. In the Add-Ins dialog box, verify that the SynchronizeWSSandExcel option is selected and then click OK.


To add the add-in to a workbook

1. Save the workbook in the Excel 97-2003 (BIFF8) file format by clicking the Microsoft Office Button, pointing to Save As, and then clicking Excel 97-2003 Workbook.

2. Specify a file name, and then click Save.

To publish the table to a SharePoint list1. Highlight the table. The Table Tools label is displayed above the Design tab.

2. Click the Design tab.

3. In the SharePoint group, click Publish and allow Sync.

4. When you will click on click Publish and allow Sync. then all the data will be disappeared from the excel sheet and transferred to SharePoint List.

5.In the Export Table to SharePoint R/W List dialog box, in the Address text box, type in the page address onthe SharePoint site where you want to publish the list.

6. In the address, Please enter your site link without default.aspx

7. Type the name of the list that you want.

8.When you will click on Publish then the internal process will create a list by the name that you specified and all the data will be transferred to sharepoint site.

Note: When you will click on Publish then you will get some error message.. Dont worry abt that as the data has been transferred to sp-site.
If you have any questions or queries regarding the above procedure then please let me know..