Sharepoint2010 Troubleshooting Issues & Fixes

Sharepoint2010 Issues & Fixes:

Hands On Sharepoint2010 after a long time. Have been raring to go since a long time. I have been gaining lot of knowledge on this technology from nearly an year now but finally got chance to apply hands-on. And here are my learnings through some of the initial hick-ups I had.

I might not sound 100% correct and the fixes may not be the only way to solve the issue but these were the fixes that worked for my issues that I faced. So please feel free to refer to various other blogs that might help you fix your issue if the below fixes dont work

Issue:

In Sharepoint designer “Design Forms in InfoPath” option is greyed out in SP2010. Or Infopath Services disabled/not found and not functioning.

Fix:

For this to be enabled we need to enable Entriprise Edition of Office instead of Standard. To enable it go to Sharepoint Central Administration> Migration & Upgrade> Update to Enterprise

Select Enterprise edition and provide the key and this will enable all the services.

Sometimes this might throw an error. In such case check if the Sharepoint Adminstration service is running under domain account. If it still fails then try to repair the Sharepoint2010 services using the Configuration wizard.

Start>Sharepoint 2010 Products > Confugration Wizard

This will enable all the the enterprise features like excel services,infopath, fast search etc. to all your sites.

Error: Back-Up Full Sharepoint Farm:

Object Managed Metadata Service_71b701493b0245768a32d34805d80bf1 failed in event OnBackup. For more information, see the spbackup.log or sprestore.log file located in the backup directory.

SqlException: Cannot open backup device ‘\\servername\Backups\spbr000100000E4.bak’. Operating system error 5(Access is denied.).

BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

Fix:

Backup path changed to servers drive (C: drive worked for me) instead of D drive for which SP account doesnt have permissions to access the backup. Or else changing the user account of the DB’s to be domain/local account instead of network user should fix this.

Error:
Could Not Load Type IDataServiceUpdateProvider When Using Rest With Sharepoint 2010
Fix:
Install ADO.NET Data Services Update for .NET 3.5 SP1.

I will keep updating this post as I keep learning so keep an eye on this post.

All in all I am loving SharePoint 2010 J

Insight into the Future of Microsoft Products: Steve Ballmer Keynote at CES2011

Watched Steve Ballmer’s Keynote at the one of the awaited event CES2011 (Consumer Electronics Show).

I thought I will give you some highlights in this article accompanied by some pictures that will give you an idea on where Microsoft is heading towards in the coming years.

The keynote included not only demos of Microsoft products released in the recent times but also the future prospects of all those products including:

· Xbox live (Partnership with ESPN to feature live sports experience with family in XBOX and also connected social experience. Some other cool features have also been demoed. To know more about Xbox go to link)

· Xbox 360 Live with Kinect. (If you are a gamer and haven’t heard about Kinect then you better go bing more about this technology. It’s just so amazing experience to play games with your body as a controller. I had just 5mins experience of this in a store on one of my favorite games “Volley Ball” and I just loved it. I can keep going on and on talking about Kinect so let me get back to the main topic. So at CES the Next version of controller free Kinect in “Avatar Kinect” was demoed which also now recognizes facial expressions too. Looked really interesting and astounding on to where technology is moving forward to. To know more about Kinect go to link)

· Windows Phone 7 (Demo on the features of the phone along with future prospects of Xbox live games coming soon on WP7. To know more about WP7 go to the link)

· Windows7 Laptops and PC’s with increased GPU performance. (Demos of the new touch enabled windows7 laptops have been demoed)

· Surface2.0 – This is a wonderful touch screen device that has been further enhanced with build in Intel Core processor. Its already a wonderful device mostly used in schools and educational institutions/News channels as a touch device. The demo showed a much improved and lot sleeker version of the Surface and its introduces “Pixel Sense” in its latest version. If you don’t know what Surface is all about. You can imagine it as a Table top touchscreen device that can be used for various interactive scenarios. For more information on Microsoft Surface go to the link.

· Next version of Windows (An updated on what I would call it as “Windows8” was given and it will support the SOC architecture(System On Chip architecture). I am still new to what this architecture is all about. MS has already started engineering for the next version of windows partnering with Nvidia/Intel/Qualcomm/AMD etc. That will build products on this technology. This is a demo of just the platform support of the future windows OS and not the UI. High performance and easy portability on any device is the motive of the future windows. It’s also about enabling windows experiences to run natively on ARM extending windows commitment to SOC architectures.) For more information on SOC go to the link.

I should say to everyone’s surprise Microsoft is still mum about the Windows Tablet. Many expected there would be an announcement about the tablet at CES but there wasn’t any. Looks like MS fans have to wait more..!

These are just few of the key points and my personal thoughts from the keynote presentation.

For viewing the recorded keynote go to the link. Fast forward to the 2hrs:07 mins for Steve’s Talk to start.

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,900 times in 2010. That’s about 9 full 747s.

 

In 2010, there were 28 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 43 posts. There were 36 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 1mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was October 12th with 54 views. The most popular post that day was Windows Phone Press Conference at MWC – Windows Phone 7 Series Release.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were forums.silverlight.net, betaforums.silverlight.net, jeff.wilcox.name, google.co.in, and bigextracash.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for most beautiful flowers, silverlight install problems, silverlight data mining, silverlight resources installationfiles aspx, and silverlight installation problems.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Windows Phone Press Conference at MWC – Windows Phone 7 Series Release February 2010
1 comment

2

Silverlight Installation Problems / Troubleshooting Issues: August 2009
6 comments

3

Deploying Asp.net Websites on IIS7 April 2010

4

Interesting Silverlight Articles April 2010

5

Silverlight Out Of Browser – OOB Application with setup icons and everything else.. February 2010

Whose Mistake Was It Anyways?

Ok it’s been a while since I had done a paper boat..but today I thought I had something to share with one and all. An incident that really touched me to write this post and equally shocked me to hear. At the end of the story….hmmm not a story but infact a real life incident that took place as recent as Yesterday. Since this is an employee blog post I would expect a paper boat to be not only just be heart touching but give me a take away thought by reading this..So I just thought of comparing the incident to a real time project scenario and then ask the typical common question that would try to get some thought provoking responses on the topic…

With no delay i will jump into narrating the incident. This is about my aunts friends grandfather who should be around his 60+ or 70 age. A farmer by profession and very healthy comparing to his age. Still actively doing all his day today activities without being dependent. An example of him not being dependent is him not even borrowing his sons cars for travelling to close by places. So its a habit of his to daily go to a nearby cafe around 2km from his house in a village for an evening snack. Even though he has his sons 2 luxury cars he prefer to go by an auto (Most popular Shared Auto’s) to the place and he has been doing this for past 10-15 yrs. So as usual he was travelling in the auto to the cafe and the auto(TATA mini van) was almost carrying 15-20 people on the day. Which constituted of school/college going youngsters as well. You could easily imagine what would be the state of the auto with 20 people loaded in it. He was sharing the drivers seat with his legs partly out of the auto. Most common scene in our daily hectic lifes. You can see similar scenes in every auto around Hitec City. So here starts the problem. There was this speedy biker who was trying to overtake and catch a bus that he wanted to board. the bus was starting to take a turn to the right from a bus bay. To avoid contact with the bus the biker took a steep right all of sudden not realizing an overloaded auto coming from behind. The autowala had no time to react and in his condition where he was just riding the auto by virtually a single hand had no idea to escape. He tried to prevent accident with the biker and also took an immediate right turn that ended up rolling over of the auto. A disaster which he would not have expected. With the auto rolling over the entire auto coming on top of grandfather and with the people on top also being a part of accident. It was havoc all over the place. You can imagine the situation yourself as I wouldnt want to describe it anymore. So with everyone being rushed to the hospital the grandfather was miraculously found uttering these words "I am OK and nothing has happened to him". Irrespective every one were rushed to the closeby hospital and media also taking their gaurd at the hospital. The all famous news channel TV9 reporter coming to the grandfather who was yet to be medicalized asking him a quick question.."How are you feeling now with a leg cut?" The shocking question took grandfather by surprise and when he looked at his leg he didnt find his leg. He was stunned to death on the spot. What really happened was with the auto rolling all over him his leg got cut-off and he being a sugar patient couldnt feel anything. But when he was asked the question he was literally pertrified and had a heart stroke.

The condition of atleast 5 other youngester/children is very serious and doctors say they dont have any chances.

So before I ask you the question I would compare this with a project scenario.

Where the Bus can be compared to customer/client which every company want to bid for and get it. The biker can be the Sr.Management that wants to board it at any cost. The autowala can be the Project Manager who is trying to load in as many resources and be ready for the task. And the passengers/employee who dont have much vision of where they are heading to and the consequences just board any auto. Finally the reporter can be compared to the HR manager who gives the ultimate news. The incident could be the RISK that the PM should have monitored. In this case we can compare it with the recession or the cost cutting process.

So the big question is whose mistake was it anyways?

Case 1:

a) Should the bus/customer be blamed for taking such steep turns. In customer scenario it could be change of plans without notice.

b) Should the biker/Sr.Managers be blamed for being so aggressive as they need to win the bid or board the bus.

c) Should the autowala/PM be blamed for trying to build his livelihood. PM trying to get things ready at any cost. But not trying to think of consequences if something goes wrong. (In this case recession leading to ramp down of resources)

d) Should the passengers/employee be blamed for boarding an overloaded auto/project taking the risk.

e) Should the irresponsible HR/reporter be blamed for not taking the matter to the employee/grandfather in a positive manner. Or in case of HR doing their job in a rude manner.

f) Or the government be blamed for not imposing strict rules on autowalas/software companies. (Ex: Satyam Scandal)

At the end of the day there is a loss happening. But "WHOSE MISTAKE IS IT ANYWAYS"??

Future of Silverlight – Special Event Invite

You’re invited to a very special event on December 2nd, 2010 Learn about the future of Silverlight from Corporate Vice President, Scott Guthrie and other experts, direct from Microsoft’s HQ. Hear about our plans for the next version of Silverlight, the latest developments as well as in-depth sessions on building applications with Silverlight. Registration is free – take part in-person or online.

Firestarter Live Agenda Time (Pacific Time) Presenter Session Details 8:00 AM Breakfast 9:00 AM Scott Guthrie The Future of Silverlight 10:45 AM Jesse Liberty Data Binding Strategies with Silverlight and WP7 11:30 AM Yavor Georgiev Building Compelling Apps with WCF using REST and LINQ 12:15 PM Lunch 1:00 PM Dan Wahlin Building Feature Rich Business Apps Today with RIA Services 1:45 PM John Papa MVVM: Why and How? Tips and Patterns using MVVM and Service Patterns with Silverlight and WP7 2:45 PM Tim Heuer Tips and Tricks for a Great Installation Experience 3:30 PM Mike Cook & Jossef Goldberg Tune Your Application: Profiling and Performance Tips 4:30 PM Jaime Rodriguez Performance Tips for Silverlight Windows Phone 7 5:15 PM After Party! You can now view the recordings online at link.

Gartner comments on Microsoft cloud offerings

Interesting Blog post

http://blogs.pcmag.com/miller/2010/10/gartner_will_microsoft_and_vmw.php

ICC World Cup 2011 – Schedule Released

Windows Phone 7 Series Released Today

Ok the much awaited Windows Phone 7 finally makes its debut today.

I had earlier posted the announcement of Windows 7 way back in February and now it has finally released.

You can read the earlier email below or visit my blog link to know more about Windows Phone 7.

There are many updates and lot has changed since its announcement earlier this year.

Most interesting fact is you can build in mobile apps using Silverlight and if you are a .Net developer already you would be excited to build Mobile applications using Silverlight whose code-behind is .NET

You can read the press release at link.

Windows Phone Websites

http://www.windowsphone7.com/

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/default.aspx

.NET 1.1 Supportability Information

Due to feedback from customers, on June 21, 2010, the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Team (MSL) posted a notice, via the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Blog, stating that version 1.1 of the .NET Framework is not supported on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Click here to read the Blog announcement.

In order to address any remaining questions, the following information has been provided. Please let me know if you have any additional feedback.

Understanding the Lifecycle and Supportability

Below are the Support Lifecycle Dates for .NET 1.1

· Mainstream Support for the .NET Framework 1.1 ended on October 14th, 2008.

· Extended Support for the .NET Framework continues through October 8th, 2013. While support for .NET 1.1 issues is still available, non-security hotfix requests will require enrollment in the Extended Hotfix Support (EHS) program. Please note that security updates will still be provided through the end of support at no charge.

Different from Support Lifecycle Dates, “supportability” defines what software releases will be supported by Microsoft in combination with other software releases. Broadly speaking, supportability is determined by “System Requirements”.

As detailed by the Microsoft Download Center website, .NET 1.1 has the following System Requirements.

· Supported Operating Systems: Windows 2000; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 for Itanium-based Systems; Windows Server 2003 x64 editions; Windows Server 2008 Datacenter; Windows Server 2008 Enterprise; Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based Systems; Windows Server 2008 Standard; Windows Vista Business; Windows Vista Enterprise; Windows Vista Home Basic; Windows Vista Home Premium; Windows Vista Starter; Windows Vista Ultimate; Windows XP; Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

· Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 requires Service Pack 6a.

Based on this information, .NET 1.1 does not meet the system requirements for Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. For this reason, .NET 1.1 is not supported on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

The decision not to provide support is based on changes in the Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 Operating Systems that will not allow .NET 1.1 to be supported on these platforms.

The Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 builds on the success of the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0 and 1.1 to provide the best runtime environment for Web and Microsoft Windows client applications.

Microsoft’s compatibility goal for .NET Framework 1.1 applications is that they should work smoothly on the .NET Framework 2.0 except for a set of documented changes as provided here.

In addition, Microsoft recently announced that later versions of the .NET Framework (specifically .NET 3.5 SP1 and later) are now considered Components of the Windows OS. Customers can now be certain of support for the .NET Framework provided they are using a supported release of Windows.

The following links detail compatibility issues, testing scenarios, and other information related to .NET 1.1 compatibility. I hope you find these useful.

Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 and 2.0 Compatibility

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/ms994381.aspx

Compatibility Testing Scenarios

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/ms994387.aspx

List of Breaking Changes

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/ms994364.aspx

Runtime Breaking Changes

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/netframework/aa497239.aspx

Design-Time Breaking Changes

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/netframework/aa570327.aspx

Application compatibility MSDN forum

http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/default.aspx?siteid=1

Deploying Microsoft .NET Framework Version 3.0

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480198.aspx

Office Web Apps Cool Feature Update: Embedd Powerpoint, Excel & Word into your Blog Post

On 23rd Sep there was an important feature update from Office Web apps team that enables us to now embed the already popular Office Web Apps in your own Blog post.
This gives way to very interesting feature set where you can now embed the slides and spreadsheets in your blog itself.

What’s Office Web Apps:
If you don’t know what Office Web Apps is it’s just an online version of the most popular office product MS Office. Where you can actually create and make edits to your office applications without actually having the Software of MS Office in your machine. Off course it has limited feature set available but still very handy if you quickly need to make some last minute changes and all you have is a machine with internet connection then that is just you need to access your slides and make the changes and save them. In more simpler terms if you are already aware of Google Docs this is just what you get from Microsoft. But Microsoft Web Apps is way ahead to be compared with its very rich feature set of Office.
You can now visit http://office.com/webapps to know all the information you need to know about Office web apps.

Steps To Embed a PowerPoint or Excel into your Blog:

All you need to do is use your windows live login id (Hotmail etc.) to signin and then upload your ppt presentations, word documents or excel spreadsheets to your SkyDrive. Then you get an embed URL that you just have to embed in your html.

For ex: I have just placed this 1-2 lines code to embed a powerpoint and an excel webapp in this blog below.

Power Point:

<iframe src="http://r.office.microsoft.com/r/rlidPowerPointEmbed?p1=1&p2=1&p3=SD20F065AFC1ACDB2E!129&p4=" width="402" height="327" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Excel:
<iframe src="http://r.office.microsoft.com/r/rlidExcelEmbed?su=2373508809167264558&Fi=SD20F065AFC1ACDB2E!151&AllowTyping=True&ActiveCell=rngHeight&Item=BMICalculator" width="402" height="346" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>
That’s it you will be surprised to see that your blog will display the PowerPoint slides like a slide show and your excel spreadsheets embedded in your webpage with all the formula’s running which is really a very cool feature. you can try changing the weight and height in the above excel to see that BMI automatically gets calculated and updated in the excel sheet.

You should finally also visit this blog for a video demonstrating these features.

http://blogs.office.com/b/office_blog/archive/2010/09/23/office-web-apps-reach-20-million-new-features-today-7-more-countries.aspx

You might also be interested to read about Windows Live Essentials that I blogged couple of months back
http://fazal.wordpress.com/2010/06/26/windows-live-essentials-beta-wave-4-released/