Tuesday, April 29, 2014

PowerPoint Web App cannot open this document due to an unknown error. if the problem persists, try opening the file in microsoft word

Hopefully it will be useful to someone who is struggling to resolve this issue.

Following is Checklist points to resolve this issue

1. Verify the PowerPoint Services is started on OWA Server.

2. Verify that PowerPoint Service App and their proxies are created

Go to Central Admin -> Application Management -> Manage Service Application 

3. Verify the Service Application proxies are configured to the default proxies of the Web Application 

Manage Web Application -> Select Web Application -> Click on Service Connections on the ribbon -> Verify OWA Service Apps are checked.

4. Verify the App Pool account that is configured for the PowerPoint service is added as login account with DB Owner Permissions to the Content database of the Web Application

5. Run the PSConfig on all the servers. Use either SharePoint Configuration wizard or powershell psconfig command to perform this operation

6. Re-create the PowerPoint Service app if they are already created.

7. Restart IIS on all servers

8. Finally Restart all servers in farm

Word Web App cannot open this document due to an unknown error. If the problem persists, try opening the file in Microsoft Word

Hopefully it will be useful to someone who is struggling to resolve this issue.

Following is Checklist points to resolve this issue

1. Verify the Word View Services and PowerPoint Services are started on OWA Server.

2. Verify that Word View Service Application and PowerPoint Services and their proxies are created

Go to Central Admin -> Application Management -> Manage Service Application 

3. Verify the Service Application proxies are configured to the dfault proxies of the Web Applicaion 

Manage Web Application -> Select Web Application -> Click on Service Connections on the ribon -> Verify OWA Service Apps are checked.

4. Verify the App Pool account that is configured for the Word Viewing Service and PowerPoint service is added as login account with DB Owner Permissions to the Content database of the Web Application

5. Run the PSConfig on all the servers. Use either SharePoint Configuration wizard or powershell psconfig command to perform this operation

6. Re-create the PowerPoint Service app and Word Viewing Service App if they are already created.

7. Restart IIS on all servers

8. Finally Restart all servers in farm

Friday, April 25, 2014

List View, XSLT List View and Data View Web Parts in SharePoint


Differences are listed Below:

List View Web Part - A normal Custom List is added as web part to the Page. There is no web part called List View Web Part. It is same as custom list or library. The web part just displays the data of the custom list.

XSLT List View Web Part - If we want to customize the web part, use XSLT to format the data present in the custom list with the help of SharePoint designer. It is available in SharePoint 2010. Right Click on the web part in SP Designer in design mode, Convert it into XSLT Data View. Add your functionality according to your requirement.

Data View Web Part - It was used in moss 2007 and it has limited features.

Data Form Web Part is used to connect to any data source or database and displays the data.




How to create public facing website in SharePoint 2013

Its Simple.


Go Site Collections -> New Public Web Site

Enter Title, Address, Administrator, etc into the form

Click on OK to create a website




Difference between Clustering and Mirroring in SQL Server

Both are High Availability features and provides automatic failover in SQL Server environment.

Clustering provides high availability at Instance Level.  If one instance fails, the other instance will take care of the operation.

Mirroring provides high availability at Database Level.High-availability database mirroring involves three server instances: a principal, a mirror, and a witness. The witness server enables SQL Server to automatically fail over from the principal server to the mirror server. 

The project cannot be opened from source control because it was created by a version of Microsoft Visual Studio that is incompatible with this one


Visual Studio 2012 to Visual Studio 2010

Open your Project solution file (.sln file) in notepad.

Change the Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 12.00 to Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 11.00

Save the file. Open the Project in VS 2010


Visual Studio 2010 to Visual Studio 2008

Open your Project solution file (.sln file) in notepad.

Change the Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 11.00 to Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 10.00

Save the file. Open the Project in VS 2008

User is not a farm Administrator error message in PowerPivot Server

After installing the PowerPivot components on your SharePoint environment by someone and if you try to open the PowerPivot configuration tool, You may get an error like "User is not a farm Administrator"

We may think that if we add our domain account, we can solve  the problem. Even if you add your doman account to farm administrator group, the problem will not be solved.

Resolution:
Login to the PowerPivot server using farm account and try to open PowerPivot config tool. Problem will be solved. You can configure or repair your powerpivot configurations.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

PowerPivot Problems in SharePoint Environment - CheckList - Solutions


Please verify the following checklist if you are having any problems with your PowerPivot configurations.

1. Central Administration -> Manage Services -> Go to PowerPivot Server -> SQL Server Analysis services is started

2. Verify if we can able to repair the powerpivot using PowerPivot Configuration Tool

3. SQL Browser service and SQL Analysis Service is started in PowerPivot Server

4. Check  SQL Server Analysis Services is using Domain Account?

5. Check whether PowerPivot solutions (PowerPivotFarm.wsp and PowerPivotWebApp.wsp) solutions are deployed properly in CA -> Manage Solutions

6. Can you able to open PowerPivot Service Application without any issues? CA -> Manage Service Applications -> PowerPivot Service Application

7. Please verify whether Claims to windows token service is started in PowerPivot servers?

8. Please verify whether UnattendedPowerPivot data refresh account is created in Secure Store Service. If  not create it. Otherwise you will get data refresh problems.

Common HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable in SharePoint


Solution:

Check whether Application pool is stopped in IIS Manager. 

InetMgr -> Application Pools -> Verify the status of your App Pool

App Pool might be stopped for some reason. Try to start the App Pool.

If you cant able to restart, check whether App pool Account  password is expired or changed.

It takes a while to get the changes into effect. Wait for some time to open your website.

Fiddler Tool in SharePoint

This tool is very useful in analyzing the Web Traffic of your SharePoint site. You can record the web site performance and tune it accordingly.

You can download it from:

http://www.fiddler2.com/fiddler2/

SharePoint Server 2013 known issues

What is DocIcon.xml file in SharePoint


If you want specify icon for a given file type, you need to configure this file. It exists in all WFE servers at the following location:

C:\ProgramFiles\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\14\TEMPLATE\XML\DocIcon.xml

Result Sources in SharePoint 2013

Result Sources are nothing but a search scope in SharePoint 2010 which are deprecated in SharePoint 2013

By default, SharePoint 2013 provides 16 predefined Result Sources

We can create the Result Source at Site collection or Site Level and we can attach the result source to web part to query the results.

CA -> Manage Service Applications -> Search Service Application -> Result Sources -> New Result Source -> Configure it and use it in your application




How to upgrade or update SharePoint Solutions

Use following PowerShell script to update your WSP:

# Name of your solution
$SolName = "TestSolution.wsp"

#Location of your solution
$SolPath  = "E:\TestSolution\TestSolution.wsp"

# Command to upgrade your soltion
Update-SPSolution -Identity $SolName -LiteralPath $SolPath -GACDeployment -Local

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Open PDF files in SharePoint 2010


In SharePoint 2010, you cant open files directly, instead you can save it somewhere. SharePoint does not allow the PDF files to be opened directly in Browser. If you want to open it Browser, here is the approach:

Go to Central Admin -> Manage Web Applications -> Select your Web application -> Click on General Settings in ribbon -> Set the value of Browser File Handling to Permissive.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Alerts in SharePoint 2013


Browse your SP 2013 site.

Select Document Library or List for applying Alerts

In ribbon, Library Tab -> Click on Alert Me button

Enter user names to Send Alerts To section

Click on Ok button to receive the Alerts.

Sandbox solutions in SharePoint

An interesting feature of SharePoint 2010 is the introduction of Sandboxed solutions

A components that will be developed to test it in site collection environment without the need for an farm admin access. Due to certain limitations in farm solutions, A sandbox solution concept is introduced.

A site collection admin can upload the solution into Solution gallery section and test the environment. But it access the limited resources.

We can monitor a usage of sandbox solution with the help of farm admin.If something goes wrong at Site collection level, it will effect to that particular site collection and we can remove the solution without affecting the rest of the farm environment.

IISReset is not required to run the solution.

Using Visual studio, we can create the sandbox solution and deploy it




Convert C# to Java

There are various tools available in the market. But no tool is perfect. If it is simple code, you can use the following tool to convert your piece of code.

http://www.cs2j.com/

How to use PHP code to convert any text to PDF file

Managed Accounts in SharePoint


One of the Best features of SharePoint 2010 is the introduction of Managed Accounts concept. Earlier in MOSS 2007, changing the password is bit painful job especially when the service accounts passwords got expired. 

Now, Admins can easily maintain the passwords at central location in central admin app and need not change the password everywhere on SharePoint. 

Once we register service account as Managed Account, We need not enter or remember the password for this account when configuring the the account for any Web app  or Service application.

You need to have Active Directory permissions to change the passwords for the Managed Accounts


Site Template versus Site Definition in SharePoint


Site Definition

It is set of core definition files that resides on the server. A collection of ASPX and XML files are stored the WFE Server and they will be located under 14 hive structure of the system

Site definitions will have all the information about list and web parts etc.

It can be packaged as WSP and deployed elsewhere

Main components of site definitions : WebTemp.xml and Onet.xml 

They can provision multiple webs

Site Template

Customize your site according to your requirements. Save it a template. Go to another site collection. Upload the site template. Create sites based on this template. A new site will be ready with same look as feel as template.

They are stored in the content databases. Easy to create

They can provision single web only

Monday, April 14, 2014

How to Upload a Large Files into SharePoint environment?

By default, sharepoint supports file size upto 50 MB. If you want to increse the limit do the following settings.Max limit for file or document is 2 GB

Central Administration -> Application Management -> Manage Web Applications -> Select Web Application -> Web Application General Settings. 

Find Maximum Upload Size item in the screen and Enter the value to increase the Limit

Unable to refresh data for a data connection in the workbook - Fix

Unable to refresh data for a data connection in the workbook. Try again or contact your system administrator. The following connections failed to refresh: PowerPivot Data
Target application not found unable to refresh data powerpivot excel

You might have encountered this problem while opening the excel file in your powerpivot gallery

Resolution:

Verify the Claims to Windows Token Service running on your PowerPivot server

Verify the PowerPivot Unattended account is created in the Secure Store Application. If not run the powerpivot configuration tool to create the unattended account.

If you are not using Kerberos, We need to create manually the PowerPivot Unattended Account

 Go to Central Administration > Manage Service Application > Secure Store Service 

 Create New Secure Store Target Application with Target Application ID  as PowerPivotUnattendedAccount and Run PowerPivot configuration tool 

Restart all SQL Server Analysis Service

Restart SQL Browser Service

Restart IIS 


Saturday, April 12, 2014

Populate User data into InfoPath form


Open your InfoPath form

Tools menu -> Data connection > Click on Add button

Add new data connection 

Select Web Service

Enter web service URL http://site/_vti_bin/userprofileservice.asmx Click Next.

Select GetUserProfileByName method and select the Property for ex: WorkEmail and save and close

Select field(WorkEmail) where you want to populate the data. Go to properties

Click on Fx button. Select a field or group button. Select the created datasource and click on value field and then click on filter data button.

Filter condition is : Name is equal to WorkEmail. Close all the windows.

Preview InfoPath and see the result.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Cross Site Publishing in SharePoint 2013


Overview:

It is the process of getting the content in one site collection and displaying the same in Another site collection.

Getting the content from Authorized site collections and publishing this content to the Publishing site collections

Web Content Management in SharePoint 2013

Web Content Management revolves around following 3 concepts:


  • Content Authoring
  • Content Publishing
  • User Experience


SharePoint 2013 WCM features are listed below:


  • Cross-site publishing
  • Image Renditions
  • Friendly URLs
  • Content Search Web Part
  • Device-specific targeting


Ref Article:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219688(v=office.15).aspx




Declarative Workflows in SharePoint


Workflows which are created by using SharePoint Designer.

Install Cumulative Updates on SharePoint in minutes


Do you want to install CU on SharePoint farm quickly. Here is the solution:

An excellent article from the below link:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/russmax/archive/2013/04/01/why-sharepoint-2013-cumulative-update-takes-5-hours-to-install.aspx

How to get the Central Admin Site URL in SharePoint Farm

Method1:

Get-ItemProperty -Path ‘HKLM:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\14.0\WSS\’ -Name CentralAdministrationURL | select CentralAdministrationURL

Method2:

Get-SPWebApplication -includecentraladministration | where {$_.DisplayName -eq "SharePoint Central Administration v4"} | select Url

Method3:

$caApp = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAdministrationWebApplication]::Local
$caurl = $caApp.Sites[0].Url

What is difference between Authentication and Authorization?


Authentication is the process of verifying user credentials. To determine whether the user is a valid user with username and password. Ex: Login page to a website

Authorization is the verifying the permissions of a valid user. So once the user is authenticated, his permissions are assigned using authorization so the access over resources is controlled.What are the applications or pieces of components one can access.(Ex: Links inside Web Site)

MSOCAF Tool


MSOCAF - MICROSOFT SHAREPOINT ONLINE CODE ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK

Its a excellent code review tool developed by Microsoft.It accepts the WSP file as an input and  It identifies all bugs in the code and prepare a summary of report based on the rules.. We need to analyse the rules and modify the code accordingly.

Download the tool from 

https://caf.sharepoint.microsoftonline.com/Default.aspx

Install it in your server

Browse the WSP file from the folder

Click on Analyse button. That's it. A report will be ready and start analyzing the report

Missing operation name or the operation name is invalid - stsadm.exe -o preupgradecheck

stsadm.exe -o preupgradecheck is not available in SharePoint 2010. It is available in MOSS 2007.

AAM Mapping for SharePoint

AAM - Alternate Access Mappings

Want to add another URL for your SharePoint site? Simple..Use AAM

Step1:

Go Central Admin site -> Application Management -> Configure AAM -> Select site url -> Click on Edit URL -> Provide a new URL

Step2:

Start -> Run -> Inetmgr -> Select your site -> Click on Binding -> Click on Add button -> Enter the URL

Start browsing the site with your latest url that you have configured.

ULS Viewer Tool in SharePoint

A very helpful and handy tool to easily figure out the bugs in the SharePoint environment

Download link:

http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/ULSViewer/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=3308

SharePoint 2013 with SQL Server 2014

Very soon, SharePoint 2013 platform can be integrated with SQL Server 2014 server

How to create Page Layout in SharePoint 2010


A Page layout is creating a pages using existing layout page. It is based on the content type.

Simple Steps to create page layout:

First create a new content type

Open SharePoint Designer -> Open your website

Click on Page Layouts ->  Select New Page Layout button > Enter the details with url, title and content type that is created earlier.

Now, A page layout will be created. Customize the page layout according to your requirements and add the controls for your design and save the publish the page layout to your site.


Enable Audience Target to Custom List or Library in SharePoint


List Settings

Click on Audience Targeting Settings

Enable Audience Targeting


Add permissions to Custom List in SharePoint


Click on Custom List in your SharePoint site where you want to apply permissions

Click on List Permissions -> Click on Stop Inherting Permissions -> Add your Permissions to apply the permissions to Custom List

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

How to shut down SharePoint farm?

First perform Quiescing the farm and it will prevent accessing the sites from end-users

The Quiesce option isn't available anymore in SharePoint 2010 Central Administration. You need to make use of the stsadm command in order to quiesce farm

       Use  stsadm -o unquiescefarm 

Stop the following services:


  • SharePoint 2010 Administration
  • SharePoint 2010 Timer
  • SharePoint 2010 Tracing
  • SharePoint 2010 User Code Host
  • SharePoint 2010 VSS Writer
  • SharePoint Foundation Search V4
  • World Wide Web Publishing Service

Attach single custom workflow to multiple Lists in SharePoint

Use Visual Studio custom workflow, you can attach single workflow to many lists
Using SharePoint Designer workflow, we can only attach it to one list.


Thursday, April 3, 2014

Upgrading from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013 - Resolve Test-SPcontentDatabase Errors

Solution:

Try to install all custom solution in your new SharePoint 2013 environment before running the Test-SPcontentDatabase command.

Run Test-SPcontentDatabase command and generate a report.

Use SharePoint Feature Administration from Codeplex to clean up all MissingFeatures. You can do it by clicking here.

You  can also use PowerShell and link is available  here.