| Mike Smith's Tech Training Notes <br> SharePoint, PowerShell and .Net!

5/07/2008

SharePoint: Create a What's New web part for a library or list (with no programming!)

Using Sort, Limit and Expand Folders is a great way create a "what's new" web part.

Add a web part to the page for the list or library
From the web part's dropdown menu select "Modify Shared Web Part" and from the properties panel click the "Edit the current view" (just below the "Selected View" dropdown)
In the Sort section select "Modified" and "descending"
Expand Folders and select "Show all items without folders" to show all of the documents in the library in a single list
Expand "Item Limit" and enter the number of items to display
Optionally select what to do if there are more than that number of items:

select "Display items in batches" so the users can click next / previous links to page through the data, or
select "Limit" to display just xx number of items and then display a More link to take the user to the library's page

Click OK to save the view and click OK to update the web part.

4/12/2008

SharePoint: Turn on more accessible mode???

Try this!

Go to a SharePoint page using a default master page, your own or a site such as http://www.wssdemo.com/.
Click as close to the top left corner of the page as possible (just in front of the crumb trail)
Press Tab - you should now see "Turn off more accessible mode" (if this is does not work, experiment with several tabs or shift-tabs)

What this is supposed to do is change how some navigation controls work. For example, if you are on your own site that has a Welcome menu, click the menu. Instead of a dropdown you will get a new window with all of the choices displayed. If you are testing this with the WSSDEMO site then display a page with a list or library that has an Action menu. Then turn "more accessible" on and click the Action menu. (you may get a warning from your popup blocker)

For more information on accessibility see: Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA).

For a great blog article on MOSS accessibility go here: http://www.21apps.com/2007/03/sharepoint-accessibility-is-moss-2007_4974.html

4/02/2008

SharePoint: Web part for a document library folder?

The following is one way to display the folder from a SharePoint library as a web part. While there are other approaches, the goal of the following approach to create this folder display with no code, no custom web parts, no access to the servers and no custom XML or HTML. This approach uses SharePoint Designer to create a new page with a single web part to display the folder. The challenge is not the web part, but displaying just a single folder out of the list. Once the new page has been created you can navigate to the folder and the copy the URL for this page and then use it to display the page in a Page Viewer web part. It of course would be ideal if the library's web part properties included a way to filter by URL or folder.

Create a View

Go to your document library (Example: Shared Documents)
Click Settings menu and select Create View
Click Standard View
Give the view a name (Example: Folder View)
Pick the columns to display - Type (icon linked to document) - Name (linked to document with edit menu)
Limit the number of items displayed by expanding "Item Limit" (Example: 10)
Click OK to create the view

Add a web part so we can have something to copy to our new page

Click Site Actions and Edit Page
Click Add a Web Part
Add the web part for your library (Example: Shared Documents)
From the web part's Edit menu select Modify Shared Web Part
Make these changes:

Select your newly created view
Change the Toolbar Type to None (unless you want the tool bar displayed - for exmple, to allow uploads)
Expand Appearance and
change Chrome Type to None

Click OK

Create the page to display the list

Open SharePoint Designer and open your site
Scroll down and double-click default.aspx to open your home page - make sure you are displaying the page in Design view (tabs at the bottom of the edit screen)
Click the web part that's displaying your new view, right-click and select Copy
Click File, New and select ASPX page
Rename the page to a useful name such as SharedDocumentsFolderView.aspx
Double-click the new page to open it in the editor - make sure you are displaying the page in Design view (tabs at the bottom of the edit screen)
Click in the form box and then right-click and select Paste
Click File, Save (you can close SharePoint Designer now)

Get the URL to the folder

Open a new browser and navigation to the new page. Probably something like: http://moss.litwareinc.com/sites/testsite/SharedDocumentsFolderView.aspx
Click on the folder you want displayed. The URL will now look something like:
http://moss.litwareinc.com/sites/testsite/SharedDocumentsFolderView.aspx?RootFolder=%2fsites%2ftest%2fShared%20Documents%2fsub1 &FolderCTID=&View=%7bE0AECBEA%2d20BB%2d4BC3%2d98BC%2dE65D4ADB9DB1%7d
Copy this URL

Add the web part to your home page

Return to a browser and display your web site's home page
Click Site Actions and Edit Page
Delete the web part you added earlier for your library
Click Add a Web Part
Add the Page Viewer web part
From this web part click Edit Shared Web Part
Paste the URL to your new custom page in the Link box
Change any other properties needed. Most likely are:

Appearance -> Title Appearance -> Chrome Type
Appearance -> Height Appearance -> Width
Advanced -> Title Url (most likely a link to the full library)
Advanced -> Description

Click OK

3/28/2008

SharePoint: Site Collection Administrator vs Site Owner (Full Control)

Updated 6/24/09

The words “administrator” and “owner” are a problem in SharePoint due to multiple “official” and “common” uses.

SharePoint Server (system?) Administrator – responsible for the physical servers, software installation, backup, etc.
SharePoint Site Collection Administrator – the user responsible for the entire site collection, has access to Site Collection wide features in several places including Site Settings, typically is the person responsible for a department or a group’s entire site collection.
SharePoint Site Owner – a user with “full control” rights to a single site, it’s lists, libraries and content, and any sub sites and workspaces created below it. I.e. responsible for a “branch” of a site collection.

Here's a list of what the Site Collection Administrator can see that the Site Owner (Full Control user) can not:

Site Actions -> Site Settings

-- Users and Permissions
---- Site collection administrators (only an option when at a top level site)

-- Galleries
---- Workflows

-- Site Administration
---- Content and structure logs

-- The entire Site Collection Administration column is missing
(which also means that the full control user can't access the 2nd level Recycle Bin)

And interestingly enough... we don't trust the Full Control user with all of these features, but they can delete the site!

Here’s the Site Actions –> Site Settings screens…

For the Site Collection Administrator, at a top level site:

(Circled items are not available to the Site Owner)

For the Site Owner, at a top level site:

For the Site Owner, at a sub site you will be missing “Save site as template” and many of the Galleries items:

For sub sites both the Site Collection Administrator and the Site Owner the Galleries column is reduced to these choices.

Also, the “Site collection administrators” link is only available at the top level site.

3/24/2008

SharePoint Articles

I have been a bit slow updating this index page, so you may want to take a look at the RSS feed to find the most recent articles: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/TechTrainingNotes

User Group? Cincinnati SharePoint User Group

Articles and links for:

And for everyone:

For Site Owners and Site Collection Administrators

How To's and Tips

My (old) collections of web resource links

For Server Admins

How To's and Tips

Other SharePoint Tools and Add-Ins

Replacement HTML Editor for SharePoint

My collections of web resource links

For Developers

How To's and Tips

My collections of web resource links

For Customizers

How To's and Tips

Old Stuff:

3/16/2008

Performance Point links

3/08/2008

links for spa401

Here are some additional web resources for the MX-SPA401 class: Service Pack 1

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841876

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936984

http://msmvps.com/blogs/shane/archive/2007/12/14/how-to-install-wss-and-moss-sp1.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261890.aspx

Version numbers: 12.0.0.4518 - RTM 12.0.0.6036 - Aug 24th Hotfix 12.0.0.6039 - Oct 9th Hotfix 12.0.0.6219 - SP1 12.0.0.6300 - SP1 with Security Hotfix More version number info, including database versions http://blogs.msdn.com/shaden/archive/2008/01/10/migrated-to-sp1-checking-your-database-schema-version.aspx Kerberos Authentication:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/security/kerberos/default.mspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/martinkearn/archive/2007/04/23/configuring-kerberos-for-sharepoint-2007-part-1-base-configuration-for-sharepoint.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/martinkearn/archive/2007/04/27/configuring-kerberos-for-sharepoint-2007-part-2-excel-services-and-sql-analysis-services.aspx

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=832769

http://ablog.apress.com/?p=1127

http://blogs.msdn.com/solutions/archive/2008/02/28/enterprise-portal-kerberos-delegation-for-connecting-to-reporting-analysis-services-on-a-different-box.aspx

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/b3a029a1-7ff0-4f6f-87d2-f2e70294a5761033.mspx?mfr=true

2/26/2008

SharePoint: If I had written SharePoint.......

We all have our gripe list, and I know SharePoint was created by a very large team, but .... I just have a short list of what I would have changed:

Calendars: when you enter a start date, automatically set the end date to match. This is always needed for one day meetings.
Calendars: I would have name the "Current Events" view something meaningful. To me "current" means today, this week, this month or some time frame. This view expands all recurring events and probably should have been named "Detailed event view".
Calendars: I would have put the All Day and Recurring checkboxes above date and time fields so users would not start to enter these and then find them gone after clicking the check boxes.
Make all the buttons consistent!!! Is the OK button at the top of the page, at the bottom, both or in the toolbar? Is it called OK, Save or Save and Exit???
Make the Delete and Remove buttons consitent and in places considered good user interface design! Too often you find these buttons: Delete, OK, Cancel all together, and your first instinct is to click the first button.
Wiki's would have had an Actions menu without having to click the out of sight (bottom of page) "View all pages" link. Wikis would also add "this list" to the search scopes dropdown without having to first click "View all pages".
The "Edit Item" button in Welcome, My Settings (userdisp.aspx) would let the user edit something, anything! (They can only update their profiles if My Sites is enabled, and a lot of companies have disabled My Sites until they figure out how to manage My Sites! [the first user who creates a "football betting pool" subsite under their My Site kills My Sites for everyone!])
Publishing and non-publishing features would be more consistent. Why do you have a "Navigation" option in a Team Site under a publishing site and "Top Links" and "Quick Launch" in a Team Site under a non-publishing site. (everyone wants dropdowns in the tabs, but can only get them with the "Navigation" option!!!)
I would have provided dropdown menus in the Top Link tabs to both WSS and MOSS Publishing users.
Site vs Site Collection vs Web? I would have used consistent naming of SharePoint sites in both Central Administration and the developer's API. (A single site is sometimes called a Site and sometimes a Web. A site collection is sometimes called a Site and sometimes a Site Collection)
The default view in Discussions would have been Threaded, not Flat.
Grouping in views would support more than two levels.
SharePoint Designer would be fast!!! (I can dream can't I?)
The Help files would be more helpful.

SharePoint: Using the Calendar to Schedule Meeting Rooms (multiple fields in a month view)

This is not a complete way to manage meeting rooms, but a tip on displaying multiple fields in a SharePoint Calendar view. In particular, you might want to see both the Location (Room 6B) and the meeting title (Staff Meeting) in the month view of the calendar. When displaying a Calendar in Month view you can only display the time (unchangeable) and a single field (your choice). To display more than one field you will need to add a calculated column to merge the two (or more) fields.

Display the calendar, click Settings, Create a column
Add a calculated column (I'll call it MonthData) with an equation to join the columns you want to display. Example: Location & " - " & Title (If you return to modify this equation it will have been reformatted as: =Location&" - "&Title )
Uncheckmark "Add to default view" and the click OK
Click the View menu and select Modify this view
In the Calendar Columns section of the page change "Month View Title:" to your new column (MonthData)
Click OK and check the results in the month view of the calendar

You could also add a new column name "reserved by" and use that in your calculated column to display the room and who has it reserved: =Location&" - "&[Reserved By]

Sorry, no tips here on how to find an available room or other "scheduling features"!

SharePoint: Excel 2003 Import and Outlook problems (Method 'Post' of object 'IOWSPostData' failed)

Updated… New version of Office, same old problem! If you get the IOWSPostData error the same fix for Office 2007 will also work for Office 2010.

Updated again 2/24/13… This time for SharePoint 2013 and Office 2010.

One of my VPC images for SharePoint is acting up. It has MOSS 2007 and Office 2003. The problems are: Import from Excel fails and Connect To Outlook fails. Another VPC created from the same original setup is fine. The only thing really different with this VPC is that it has SharePoint Designer installed.

Errors from Excel: "object doesn't support this property or method"
Errors from Outlook (not consistent) : "Method 'Post' of object 'IOWSPostData' failed"

What appears to have happened is that SharePoint Designer is an Office 2007 product, it installs a bunch of Office 12 files and must be updating default paths or registry entries to point to Office 12 instead of Office 11. For the Excel issue I think it is loading the Office 12 DLL and calling from an Office 11 Excel macro file. I have not found a workaround yet for the Outlook problem. It works sometime and not others. My research so far (thanks to all of the bloggers out there!) has found at least a fix for the Excel Import problem. This requires an edit to the macro used by SharePoint to perform the import.

Open the macro file in Excel (Excel 2003 is ok, or at least worked for me)
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 2007\Office12\1033\EXPTOOWS.XLA
For Office 2010 find the file here:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\1033\EXPTOOWS.XLA
or
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\1033\EXPTOOWS.XLA
Or just do a search of C: for EXPTOOWS.XLA

You find that this is a hidden file, so you many need to change Windows Explorer to “Show hidden files”
You may need administrator rights to save the file:
- Click Start, All Programs, Microsoft Office
- Hold down the Shift key and right-click Microsoft Excel
- Click Run as Administrator
- In Excel, click File, Open and navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\1033
and open the EXPTOOWS.XLA file.
Press Alt-F11 to display the Excel macro editor and the find the EXPTOOWS.XLA file
Find the line containing "lVer = Application.SharePointVersion(URL)" and change it "lVer = 2".
(That's LVer, not iVer or 1Ver)

Update: To play it safe, just add the lVer =2 at the end of the Initialize subroutine:
Save the file. Click “Save changed and discard signature” to overwrite the old file.

More info here: http://msmvps.com/blogs/obts/archive/2006/12/05/384536.aspx

The only problem with this fix is that when you save the change you lose the digital signature from Microsoft on the macro file.

Mike Smith's Tech Training Notes
SharePoint, PowerShell and .Net!

Pages

5/07/2008

SharePoint: Create a What's New web part for a library or list (with no programming!)

4/12/2008

SharePoint: Turn on more accessible mode???

4/02/2008

SharePoint: Web part for a document library folder?

3/28/2008

SharePoint: Site Collection Administrator vs Site Owner (Full Control)

3/24/2008

SharePoint Articles

And for everyone:

For Site Owners and Site Collection Administrators

For Server Admins

For Developers

For Customizers

Old Stuff:

3/16/2008

Performance Point links

3/08/2008

links for spa401

2/26/2008

SharePoint: If I had written SharePoint.......

SharePoint: Using the Calendar to Schedule Meeting Rooms (multiple fields in a month view)

SharePoint: Excel 2003 Import and Outlook problems (Method 'Post' of object 'IOWSPostData' failed)

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