Rich Finn - Monday, July 02, 2007

Welcome

Codeplex Projects

Ajaxify MOSS
SPilverlight
SPSource
stsadm.webconfig
WSP Project Template for VS
Telerik RADEditor Resuable Content fix

Blogroll

About

Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.

dasBlog MOSS template

Stats

Rich Finn > sharepointer

Please Note:
This blog has recently been recovered from a failure and as a result, the URL has changed from http://blog.richfinn.net to http://blog.richfinn.net/blog/. Because of this, references to old posts will need to be changed.

for example:

old - http://blog.richfinn.net/2007/10/19/InstallAndConfigureTheCommunityKitForSharePointInternetExtranetEdition.aspx

new - http://blog.richfinn.net/blog/2007/10/19/InstallAndConfigureTheCommunityKitForSharePointInternetExtranetEdition.aspx

Thanks for your understanding,
Rich

Monday, July 02, 2007

Creating MOSS Solutions (WSP Files)

One of the greatest development features in MOSS is the ability to create solution files which can be managed and deployed across your development landscape as you moved towards production. When a solution is deployed, all files inside are deployed to the correct locations, which is extremely helpful in a load balanced environment.

I'll demonstrate here what it takes to get a solution up and running from scratch. This is the template I use for all my new WSP files.

Create a class library project in Visual Studio. I'll name mine 'SampleWSSSolution'. Once the project has loaded, right click on the project name in the project explorer, and click 'Properties'. On the 'Signing' tab, click the checkbox 'Sign the assembly' and in the drop down choose '<new>'. In the 'Create Strong Name Key' popup, enter 'SampleWSSSolution' in the 'Key file name:' text box, and uncheck the 'Protect my key file with a password' checkbox.

In the same project properties screen, click the 'Build Events' tab, and enter the following into the 'Post-build event command line:' text area:

cd $(ProjectDir)
makecab /f CreateSolutionCAB.ddf

This code will create the WSP file in the root directory of the project.

Now, create four files in the VS project:
- CreateSolutionCAB.ddf
- manifest.xml
- Deploy.cmd
- Upgrade.cmd

Here's what the contents of the files should look like:

CreateSolutionCAB.ddf
This file tells makecab.exe what files to put into the CAB file
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

.OPTION EXPLICIT ;generate errors
.Set CabinetNameTemplate=SOLUTIONNAME.wsp
.Set DiskDirectoryTemplate=CDROM ;All cabinets go into a single directory
.Set CompressionType=MSZIP ;** All files are compressed in cabinet files
.Set UniqueFiles="ON"
.Set Cabinet=on
.Set DiskDirectory1= 

;Here's the way it works...
;FileToCopyFromInProject NewFileInCABFile 

;manifest file
manifest.xml manifest.xml 

;features
FeatureName\feature.xml FeatureName\feature.xml
FeatureName\elements.xml FeatureName\elements.xml 

;aspx pages
CustomPageDirectoryName/default.aspx LAYOUTS\CustomPageDirectoryName\default.aspx
FeatureName\FeaturePageName.aspx LAYTOUS\DirectoryName\FeaturePageName.aspx 

;web parts
WebPartDirectoryName\feature.xml WebPartDirectryNameInFEATURES\feature.xml
WebPartDirectoryName\elementmanifest.xml WebPartDirectryNameInFEATURES\elementmanifest.xml
WebPartDirectoryName\WebPartName.webpart WebPartDirectryNameInFEATURES\WebPartName.webpart 

;assemblies
bin\debug\SampleWSSSolution.dll SampleWSSSolution.dll

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

manifest.xml
This file is the manifest of the solution and tells WSS the contents and where to put them once it is deployed
----------------------------------------------------

<Solution SolutionId="GUID" xmlns=http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/ 
ResetWebServer="TRUE">
    <FeatureManifests>
        <FeatureManifest Location="WebPartDirectryNameInFEATURES\feature.xml"/>
        <FeatureManifest Location="FeatureName\feature.xml"/>
    </FeatureManifests> 

    <TemplateFiles>
        <TemplateFile Location="LAYOUTS\CustomPageDirectoryName\default.aspx"/>
        <TemplateFile Location="LAYTOUS\DirectoryName\FeaturePageName.aspx"/>
    </TemplateFiles> 

    <Assemblies>
        <Assembly DeploymentTarget="GlobalAssemblyCache" Location="SampleWSSSolution.dll">
            <SafeControls>
                <SafeControl Assembly="SampleWSSSolution, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=Neutral, 
PublicKeyToken=assembyPublicKeyToken" 
                  Namespace="SampleWSSSolution" TypeName="*"/>
            </SafeControls>
        </Assembly>
    </Assemblies>
</Solution>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Deploy.cmd
----------------------------------------------------

REM ----- Deactivate the feature(s) -----
stsadm -o deactivatefeature -name FEATURENAME -url "http://www.sitecollectionurl.com" -force 

REM ----- Remove the features and solution -----
stsadm -o retractsolution -name SampleWSSSolution.wsp -immediate -url 
"http://www.sitecollectionurl.com" 

ECHO OFF 

ECHO .
ECHO .
ECHO -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ECHO Verify that the correct solutions have been completly retracted and then press ENTER
ECHO -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ECHO . 

pause 

ECHO ON 

REM ----- Delete the solution -----
stsadm -o deletesolution -name SampleWSSSolution.wsp 

REM ----- Add and depoly the solution -----
stsadm -addsolution -filename SampleWSSSolution.wsp
stsadm -deploysolution -n SampleWSSSolution.wsp 
   -immediate -allowgacdeployment 
   -url "http://www.sitecollectionurl.com" 

ECHO OFF
ECHO .
ECHO .
ECHO -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ECHO Solution deployment complete, press ENTER to activate features, if any
ECHO ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

pause 

ECHO ON
REM ----- Active features -----
stsadm -o activatefeature -name FEATURENAME -url "http://www.sitecollectionurl.com" -force 

REM ----- Remove the following comment if features are present
REM pause

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Upgrade.cmd
-------------------------------------------------

cls
REM ----- Deactivate the feature(s) -----
stsadm -o deactivatefeature -name FEATURENAME -url "http://www.sitecollectionurl.com" -force 

ECHO OFF 

ECHO .
ECHO .
ECHO -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ECHO Verify that the correct solutions have been completly retracted and then press ENTER
ECHO -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ECHO . 

pause 

ECHO ON 

REM ----- Upgrade the solution -----
stsadm -upgradesolution -n SOLUTIONNAME.wsp 
   -filename SOLUTIONNAME.wsp 
   -immediate -allowgacdeployment 
   -url "http://www.sitecollectionurl.com" 

ECHO OFF
ECHO .
ECHO .
ECHO -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ECHO Solution deployment complete, press ENTER to activate features, if any
ECHO ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

pause 

ECHO ON
REM ----- Active features -----
stsadm -o activatefeature -name FEATURENAME -url "http://www.sitecollectionurl.com" -force 

REM ----- Remove the following comment if features are present
REM pause

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you have features in the solution, make sure you add the following line to the <assemblies> section of the web.config of your web application

Now you can create features, web parts, web services, etc. Just make sure you change the placeholder content in the different files to the correct names of the features you create. Once you're finished creating the solution, run the Deploy.cmd file and the solution will be added to the Solution Management section of the Operations tab in Central Admin

So, when do you use Deploy.cmd and when do you use Upgrade.cmd?

Use deploy for the first deployment of the solution, or for local development deployments where you need to deactivate the features as well as remove the solution for a clean install. Upgrade will run -upgradesolution which updates deployed files, such as the assembly and aspx files. This works great for re-deploying Page Layout files that are already being used in production. I'll most likely post on the Publishing deployment process soon...

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server | WSP Development

7/2/2007 2:50 PM Mountain Daylight Time

Disclaimer | Comments [0] |

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Seraching PDF documents in MOSS using Adobe's IFilter v6.0

Wow - just got PDF documents to show up in the search results. What a pain! Here's a good post on how to get the set-up done, but after I finished the steps, it still wasn't working.

Here's a couple of the things that I was worried about:

I didn't want only new documents to show up, which seemed to be what some people were seeing
We're using x64 Windows for our SQL box
I'm an admin on the web front ends, but Regex is turned of by the client's policies

Here's what I did that the post wasn't too clear on:

I installed the IFilter on all WFEs
Restared both the Windows SharePoint Server Search AND the Office SharePoint Server Search services

Looks to be working fine, now!

Total time: 2.5 hours

5/17/2007 2:50 PM Mountain Daylight Time

Disclaimer | Comments [0] |

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Programatically get workflow history for a given workflow instance on an SPListItem

Here's how you can programatically get the workflow history for a given workflow instance on an SPListItem. The data returned is the same seen on the Wokflow Status page.

Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflow workflow = 
    spListItem.Workflows[0];//0 is most recent
SPList historyList = workflow.HistoryList;

string notesQuery = "<Where><Eq><FieldRef Name=\"WorkflowInstance\"/><Value Type=\"Text\">" 
    + workflow.InstanceId.ToString() + "</Value></Eq></Where>";
SPQuery qHistory = new SPQuery();
qHistory.Query = notesQuery;
SPListItemCollection historyItems = historyList.GetItems(qHistory);

1/9/2007 2:50 PM Mountain Standard Time

Disclaimer | Comments [0] |

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Get value from SharePoint list

Update 10/8/2007 - This code is obsolete, as the SPFieldLookupValue object is a much better way to go

Here's some code that I use to get values out of a field in a SharePoint 2007 list since the id is sometimes imbedded into the value.

public static string ListValue(object listValue)
{
    string[] splitter = new string[1];
    splitter[0] = ";#";

    if (listValue != null && listValue != string.Empty)
    {

        string[] checkListValue = listValue.ToString().Split(splitter, 
               StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
        if (checkListValue.Length > 1)
            return checkListValue[1];
        else
            return checkListValue[0];
    }
    else
    {
        return string.Empty;
    }
}

12/19/2006 2:50 PM Mountain Standard Time

Disclaimer | Comments [0] |

Get user who last modified a SharePoint 2007 ListItem

Here's some code that returns a Contact object - reference Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Tasks - for the user who last modified a SPListItem.

public static Contact GetLastModifyingUser(SPWeb web, SPList list, int listItemId)
{
    SPListItem taskItem = list.Items.GetItemById(listItemId);
    return GetLastModifyingUser(web, list, taskItem);
}

public static Contact GetLastModifyingUser(SPWeb web, SPList list, SPListItem listItem)
{
    string modifiedBy = listItem["Modified By"].ToString();
    Contact modifyingUser = Contact.FromSharePointUserString(modifiedBy, web);
    return modifyingUser;
}

12/19/2006 2:50 PM Mountain Standard Time

Disclaimer | Comments [0] |

Grant list item access to a user

Here's code which will grant rights for a user to a specific list item in SharePoint 2007.

One thing you might notice - if you aren't already used to it - is the Contact object parameter. This is an AWSOME object from the Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Tasks assembly in the Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Utility namespace. I use it all the time in my SharePoint 2007 coding, as it really makes working with a user use so much easier.

/// <summary>
/// Grants access to a list item for a user.  
/// If the user already can edit the item, the new role will not be applied.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="web">SPWeb object which contains the list item</param>
/// <param name="listItem">SPListItem to grant access to</param>
/// <param name="user">User to grant access to SPListItem</param>
/// <param name="roleType">Role to grant user</param>
/// <param name="overrideEditRights">If the user already has edit rights, this will </param>
public static void GrantListItemAccessToUser(SPWeb web, SPListItem listItem, Contact user, 
    SPRoleType roleType, bool overrideEditRights)
{
    SPUser spuUser = null;//container for user when we check to see if they have rights
    
    //if it is a SPUser object then we know we can populate the SPUser container object
    if (user.IsSPUser)
    {
        try
        {
            spuUser = web.AllUsers[user.LoginName];
        }
        catch
        {
            spuUser = null;
        }
    }

    bool grantAccess = true;//bool to check if they need to be provided access - default to true
    
    //if we have the SPUser object, then we know they are already a member of the site, 
    //and we can check if they can edit the item already are the owner of the object
    if (spuUser != null)
    {
        if (listItem.DoesUserHavePermissions(spuUser, SPBasePermissions.EditListItems))
            grantAccess = false;
    }

    if (overrideEditRights)
        grantAccess = true;

    if (grantAccess)
    {
        SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(
            delegate()
            {
                using (web.Site)
                {
                    try
                    {
                        web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;
                        SPRoleDefinition RoleDefinition = 
                            web.RoleDefinitions.GetByType(roleType);

                        SPRoleAssignment RoleAssignment = new SPRoleAssignment(user.LoginName, 
                            user.EmailAddress, user.DisplayName, string.Empty);
                        RoleAssignment.RoleDefinitionBindings.Add(RoleDefinition);

                        //Check for permission inheritance, and break if necessary
                        if (!listItem.HasUniqueRoleAssignments)
                        {
                            listItem.BreakRoleInheritance(true);
                        }

                        //Add Role Assignment to SPListItem's Role Assignment Collection
                        listItem.RoleAssignments.Add(RoleAssignment);

                        /*
                         * This block sucks, I know
                         * The only way around the dreaded 'Save Conflict' error is to wrap 
                         * this up in a try/catch block
                         */
                        try
                        {
                            listItem.Update();
                        }
                        catch (SPException ex) { }
                    }
                    catch (Exception ex)
                    {
                        throw ex;
                    }
                }
            }
        );
    }
}

12/19/2006 2:50 PM Mountain Standard Time

Disclaimer | Comments [0] |

Get user profile property values

Here's a cool little bit of code that keep in my common class library which I use to get all the profile values for a user and load it up into a Generic Dictionary object for retrieval.

Make sure you have a reference to Microsoft.Office.Server

public static Dictionary<string, string> GetUserInfo(string loginName, SPSite site)
{
     Dictionary<string, string> dProfileProps = new Dictionary<string, string>();
     SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(
         delegate()
         {
             using (site)
             {
                  ServerContext serverContext = ServerContext.GetContext(site);
                  UserProfileManager profileManager = new UserProfileManager(serverContext);
                  UserProfile userProfile = profileManager.GetUserProfile(loginName);

                  foreach (Property property in profileManager.Properties)
                  {
                      string userProfileValue = string.Empty;
                      if(userProfile[property.Name].Value != null)
                           userProfileValue = userProfile[property.Name].Value.ToString();
                      dProfileProps.Add(property.Name, userProfileValue);
                  }
              }
          }
      );

      return dProfileProps;
 }

12/19/2006 2:50 PM Mountain Standard Time

Disclaimer | Comments [0] |

SPFieldLookupValue object - makes life easy

Just started using the SPFieldLookupValue object. It makes life so much easier for retrieving values from SPFields when the field type is a lookup type.

There's a couple of constructors, but the one that takes the cake is the second one: SPFieldLookupValue(string fieldValue).

In SharePoint 2007, lookups field types (and user field types, as well) store their values as strings like this: 'FIELDLOOKUPID;#FIELDVALUE'. The FIELDLOOKUPID integer is the unique id of the SPListItem in the lookup list. If you have this value, it makes it really easy to retreive the SPListItem by calling the GetItemByID(int) method of SPList. Once you have the SPFieldLookupValue object instantiated, there are two properties - LookupId, and LookupValue.

There's a object called SPFieldUserValue which is derived from SPFieldLookupValue which is great for retrieving the SPUser object for the user selected in the user field type. The constructor I like to use is SPFieldUserValue(SPWeb, string). In this case, the LookupId property value is in fact the user's SharePoint principle id, so it makes it very easy to construct a Contact object for this user by calling the Contact.FromPrincipalID(int) method.

12/19/2006 2:50 PM Mountain Standard Time

Disclaimer | Comments [0] |

Sunday, December 10, 2006

SharePoint DateTimeControl does not render styles.

When using the DatePickerControl in a custom SharePoint page, I found there's an issue with the rendering of the calendar when you click on the The calendar renders like there are no styles - because there aren't. For some reason, there is no stylesheet reference to the datepicker stylesheet when you use the control for your own use, but the control works fine when rendered dynamically in a list edit form.

To fix the problem, drop the following line of code into %programfiles%\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\templates\layouts\iframe.aspx

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"href="/_layouts/1033/styles/datepicker.css"/>

Put it right below the <HEAD> tag at the top, and the calendar should render correctly from now on..

12/10/2006 2:50 PM Mountain Standard Time

Disclaimer | Comments [0] |

Monday, December 04, 2006

Workflow Feature Files

...Moving this post from my old blog as a reminder to myself...

Here's the XML for the workflow feature files since the snippets don't seem to ever work.

Feature.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>



<Feature Id="GUID" Title="FEATURE_TITLE" Description="FEATURE_DESCRIPTION."Version="12.0.0.0" Scope="Site" ReceiverAssembly="Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" ReceiverClass="Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature.WorkflowFeatureReceiver" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
   <ElementManifests>
<ElementManifest Location="workflow.xml" />
   </ElementManifests>
   <Properties>
<Property Key="GloballyAvailable" Value="true" />


<Property Key="RegisterForms" Value="*.xsn" />
   </Properties>
</Feature>

Workflow.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>



<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<Workflow Name="WORKFLOW_NAME" Description="WORKFLOW_DESCRIPTION" Id="GUID" CodeBesideClass="ASSEMBLY_NAME.PRIMARY_WORKFLOW_CLASS_NAME"
CodeBesideAssembly="ASSEMBLY_NAME, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=PUBLICKEYTOKEN"
TaskListContentTypeId="0x01080100C9C9515DE4E24001905074F980F93160"
AssociationUrl="_layouts/CstWrkflIP.aspx"
InstantiationUrl="_layouts/IniWrkflIP.aspx"
ModificationUrl="_layouts/ModWrkflIP.aspx">
   <Categories/>
   
   <MetaData>
<Task0_FormURN></Task0_FormURN>
<StatusPageUrl>_layouts/WrkStat.aspx</StatusPageUrl>
   </MetaData>
</Workflow>
</Elements>

12/4/2006 3:05 PM Mountain Standard Time

Disclaimer | Comments [0] |