SharePoint 2010

Managed Metadata in 2010

Jan 6th

Let us see how we can use the new managed Metadata features, on a SharePoint List.

Managed Metadata service has to be activated and configured at the central administration site. Once on the Central Admin navigate to the Managed Metadata Services settings.

Central Administration ->Application Management->Manage Service Applications ->Managed Metadata Service

The screen will look like this.

Before proceeding further, we must add the Term Store Administrator(s).

Now, let’s create a new term store, by clicking on the Managed Metadata Services->New Group, and give the Group name “Departments”

Then start adding Term Sets to it.

After you have added a few term sets your screen will look something like this. Alternatively you can even import them.

Now let’s add Other labels, or Synonyms to the terms we already created.for example for the Operating Systems we can add OS, Windows etc.

Now let’s go to our site and see this in action.

We will create a new list or add a column to an existing list.

You can now select the Departments Term Set we just created.

And Hit Ok!

Now create a New Item in your list.

You can see the Suggestions in the column.

We have now accomplished, the Metadata structure throughout the farm!

ECM, Metadata, Taxonomy, Term Sets

Working with Sandboxed Solutions on a Domain Controller

Dec 17th

Posted by kris in Installation

1 comment

The sandbox solutions are a great way to develop. But, most of us might be working on a VM, which also happens to be a DC. And one thing about having a SharePoint 2010 server as a DC is that additional steps have to be taken to enable the sandboxed solutions.

Step 1 , is Starting the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation
User Code Service or the SPUserCodev4 from Central admin page.(http://<server:port>/_admin/Server.aspx)

Step 2, actually this step should be done before Step 1, this should become the part of installation process, if you are using a DC as a web front end run the following Power Shell script.



$acl = Get-Acl HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ComputerName

$person = [System.Security.Principal.NTAccount]"Users"

$access = [System.Security.AccessControl.RegistryRights]::FullControl

$inheritance = [System.Security.AccessControl.InheritanceFlags]"ContainerInherit, ObjectInherit"

$propagation = [System.Security.AccessControl.PropagationFlags]::None

$type = [System.Security.AccessControl.AccessControlType]::Allow

$rule = New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.RegistryAccessRule($person, $access, $inheritance, $propagation, $type)

$acl.AddAccessRule($rule)

Set-Acl HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ComputerName $acl

This Script will add an access rule, which will enable the code to be attached to the Sandbox worker process (SPUCworkerprocess), otherwise your VS2010 debugging session will throw up an error complaining about not being able to be attach to the process.

DomainController, Sandbox, UserCodeService

Coding in the Sandbox

Dec 16th

Posted by kris in Development

No comments

In my Last post we had some introduction to Sandbox solutions in SharePoint 2010.

Open Visual Studio 2010 and create an empty project, under the SharePoint Node.

You will now be prompted to define the solution.The Web site which you want to use for debugging, and the type of solution farm or sandboxed.

Now, from the solution explorer, add a new webpart to your feature, which you must scope to site.

Put some code in the web part, like a label.


 protected
override
void CreateChildControls()

 {



Label message = new
Label();


 Controls.Add(message); Controls.Add(new
WebControl(HtmlTextWriterTag.Br));


 message.Text = String.Format("This site contains {0} lists", SPContext.Current.Web.Lists.Count);

 }

Build the Code, and hit the debug button. The code will be automatically deployed.
Now add the web part to your page.

And you will see it in action!

Object Model, Resource, Sandbox, WebPart

Sandboxed Solutions In 2010

Dec 15th

Posted by Sarath in Development

No comments

There is a lot of buzz about creating sandboxed solutions in the new 2010 environment. In the previous versions, you could not directly develop on production boxes, without risking the performance/existence of the environment! This innovative way of developing sand boxed solutions gives a lot of scope to develop, at the same time making sure that the developers don’t bring the house down. Now the admins can monitor the developers code, allocate points, and stop code from running if it exceeds limits, on a per site basis. This is done by

Having a separate process for the Sandbox solutions.
Exposing a subset of Microsoft.Sharepoint
CAS policies, Site collection Solution Gallery for deployment and Managing on a per site Basis on Central Admin.

From the Central Admin web site a Farm administrator can limit the point usage of a site for its sand boxed solutions.

A Separate process is used to run these solutions, on the server, not affecting the primary processes of SharePoint.

User Code Service
(SPUCHostService.exe)

Sandbox Worker Process
(SPUCWorkerProcess.exe)

Sandbox Worker Process Proxy
(SPUCWorkerProcessProxy.exe)

A team site Owner can go to his Site galleries page and monitor the usage of his solutions.

http://<servername>/sites/teamsite/_catalogs/solutions/Forms/AllItems.aspx

The artifacts available are

Content Types, Site Columns
Custom Actions
Declarative Workflows
Event Receivers, Feature Receivers
InfoPath Forms Services (not admin-appr)
JavaScript, AJAX, jQuery, Silverlight
List Definitions
Non-visual web parts
Site Pages

The Objects/methods which are not available are,

SPSite constructor
SPSecurity object
SPUtility.SendEmail method
SPUtility.GetNTFullNameandEmailFromLogin method
SPWebPartManager object
SPWebPartConnection object
WebPartZone object
WebPartPage object
ToolPane object
ToolPart object

Microsoft Concept of Sandbox Architecture

We will kick the tires, in my next post.

Administration, Resource, Sandbox, Solutions

Working with Client Object Model

Dec 9th

Posted by Sarath in Development

No comments

The great new feature added to SharePoint 2010 is the Client Object Model. This extends the server side object model to the client. The .Net objects can be used in .net console apps, windows apps or the silver light applications. Another flavor offered is helpful for JavaScript client side coding.

1. Create a new Project (Windows forms) using Visual Studio 2010.

2. Add references to the Client Object Model, from the project references tab, browse to

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\14\ISAPI and select the following assemblies, then click OK to add the references to the project:

Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll

Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll

3. Let us add a text box to the form, so that a URL can be supplied by the user.

A Button to submit the URL.

A tab control with 2 tabs, Site and Lists

A tree view control in each tab.

4.Now double click the button to view code and start coding!



private

void buttonGo_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

using (ClientOM.ClientContext ctx = new ClientOM.ClientContext(textBoxURL.Text))

{

ClientOM.Web site = ctx.Web;

ctx.Load(site);

ctx.Load(site.Lists);

ctx.Load(site, x => x.Lists.Where(l => l.Title != null));

ctx.ExecuteQuery();

labelInfo.Text = site.Id.ToString();

foreach (ClientOM.List list in site.Lists)

{

treeViewLists.Nodes.Add(list.Title);

}

ctx.Load(site, x => x.Webs.Where(l => l.Title != null));

ctx.ExecuteQuery();

if (site.Webs.Count != 0)

{

foreach (ClientOM.Web wsite in site.Webs)

{

treeViewSite.Nodes.Add(wsite.Title);

}

}

else

{

treeViewSite.Nodes.Add("No webs found");

}

}

}

}

}

5. Build your Code , and run it.

The Client OM gives a great abstraction layer to work with.

The Artifacts available are

Site Collections and Webs.
Lists, List Schema/Items/Views.
Files and Folders
Property Bags
Web parts
Security
Content types
Site templates
Site Collection Operations

The locations for Client OM resources are

Server	Microsoft.SharePoint –ISAPI
.NET	Microsoft.SharePoint.Client – ISAPI
Silverlight	Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Silverlight - LAYOUTS\ClientBin
JavaScript	SP.js – LAYOUTS

Client, Object Model

Charting in 2010

Dec 3rd

Posted by Sarath in 2010

No comments

Most of us have had to deal with Charting at some point on SharePoint. In 2003 you could use the office web parts to do some of it.

In 2007 there was no easy way of dealing with it. You could get the chart part from codeplex, or buy some from other third party vendors.

If you were a large enterprise and decided not to implement custom coded web parts, you could just upload images on your pages, or

get funky using XSLT and data view web parts. Now 2010 offers a new Charting web part out of the box!

Here are a few ways you can use it

Open the home page of your site, on the ribbon make sure you are on the “Insert” tab.

Then select the “Webpart” tab. Select the “Chart Web Part” from the Miscellaneous web parts.

And add it onto your page.

You will see the web part on your page, you can now save the page.

You will notice 2 links on the web part “Data & Appearance” and “Advanced Properties”.

Click on Data And Appearance and you will notice 2 options

You can make your chart pretty, and you can also add data to it.

Now let us display some info on the chart, coming from a list.
You can add Data from various sources for starters, let’s use a list on the site.

Create a list of your choice, add some data.

Now select your list

You can even add filters, to your columns too.

You then bind the Chart,

Click Finish!

You are now able to represent the data on your list using a chart web part!

Charts, Lists, WebPart

Large Lists In SharePoint 2010

Dec 1st

Posted by Sarath in Administration

No comments

If you have worked with large lists in SharePoint 2007, you understand how difficult it is to manage them. If not the magic wand, 2010 is definitely the easy button on managing these large lists.V4 claims to be able to withstand 50mil. items/list. It took me a moment to gulp that number. But v4 tries to be a true enterprise class product.You can now configure the list so that

The results returned in a user query can be limited, saving your content db gridlocks!
You can now warn your site admins that their list is close to a threshold limit.
You can now configure the query result sets higher for Site admins than other users.
Configure the maximum # of unique scopes in a list.
By default the # of look up columns in a list is 6, but you can change it.

If you are developer, hitting these list using custom code, and do not like the limits, additional settings in a web application can be configured to override the above settings for OM calls.

You can override the threshold limits for a query, hitting the list programmatically.
You can now enable a time window when the dev can run his queries, and not apply thresholds, more like the thanksgiving door busters.
A Power Shell command which will restrict specific lists from being queried via OM.

Enterprise, Lists, Thresholds

Creating a New Web application

Nov 24th

Posted by Sarath in Administration

No comments

It was fairly simple in 2007 to create a new web app, so is it now with the New Ajaxian Interface 2010 has improved over 2007.

Going to application management

http://<servername:port>/_admin/WebApplicationList.aspx

All the web application are listed on this page.

New Ribbon Interface, has all the features, which were once in a list format

Clicking on New will now take you to the popup box, unlike a new page in 2007.

There are a bunch of fields, which need to be filled, in order to get a new web app.

A few new fields have been added.

Authentication

You can now select the type of authentication a specific web app can use.

Fail Over server

You can choose to associate a Failover server.

Services Configuration

You can enable services on demand per web app.

The fields which are used on the form are,

Field	Old/New
Authentication	New
IIS Web Site(settings)	Old
Security Configuration	Old
Public URL	Old
Application Pool(Settings)	Old
Database Name and Authentication	Old
Failover Server	New
Search Server	New
Service Application Connections	New
Customer Experience Improvement Program	New

After you are done you will receive the following message

That’s it!

Create, Failover, Services, Web Application

Installed 2010 Finally!

Nov 23rd

Posted by Sarath in 2010

No comments

After a few issues, I was finally able to move on with Installation.

2. After the set up has prepared the necessary files, it prompted me for the product key.

3. After entering the Product Key I noticed the, Software License agreement.

4. After accepting the terms and conditions. I was prompted to choose the type of Installation,

Between Stand Alone and Server Farm. (I will be choosing the server farm. But standalone should be no difficult.)

5. After choosing the server farm, I was prompted to choose between “Complete”, and “Standalone”.
Cool thing I saw here is that there is a tab called “File Location” where you can specify the folders you want the installation to be done in.

I decided to leave the default location as is.

6. After clicking the Install now button, I saw the installation progress screen.

7. After the installation was completed, I was prompted with this screen for running the configuration wizard to complete the deployment.
This completes the Installation of the SharePoint software bits.

Now is the next part configuring the deployment, running the “configuration wizard”

8. Now, clicking on the config wizard. It prompted me with this screen.

9. SharePoint wanted to know where the config Db should be installed, and of course the admin credentials for the db.
Clicking on Next gave me a prompt saying IIS, SharePoint Timer Service, SharePoint Admin Service will be restarted.

10. Similar to 2007, it then prompted me to connect to an existing farm, or create a new one.
Then, I was prompted to enter the DB server, and the admin account credentials.

11. The wizard then kicked me out! I was running an older version of SQL 2008!

12. I then went on to upgrade the SQL server 2008 instance to SP1 cu1.You can get them from Microsoft web site.
After SQL server upgrade, I started my configuration again. This time I was able to successfully create the SharePoint config database.
2010 now offers a new passphrase feature, which is required to be used to add new servers to a farm.

13. After entering the Pass Phrase, I was asked to configure the port on which I wanted to run the Central administration web application.
And also configure security Settings for the central admin web app, for which I planned to use NTLM.

14. After, the security settings, the wizard then prompted me what I was doing, and confirmed if I wanted to move ahead.I noticed the “Advanced” settings tab, this can be used when Sharepoint is configured to create new active directory accounts. Notice a warning

“If you enable this option, you might not be able to upgrade from SharePoint Foundation to other products based on SharePoint Products and Technologies.

If you have trouble installing products based on SharePoint Products and Technologies on this computer, run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard again to clear this option.”

15. The next screen I saw, mentioned that the configuration was now underway, and it had 10 steps.
It took longer for the step 3, which was creating a config Database.

16. After successful configuration, the screen then showed me the options I saw on step 17 again.

Clicking on Finish completed my configuration.

Now I am ready to roll, with SharePoint 2010  . I then went on to open the central admin site.
After being prompted for credentials, I was prompted with a screen asking me to participate in helping make SharePoint better.
After finishing up with that, I was then led to the page which asked me how I would like to configure my farm!

http://<Servername>/_admin/adminconfigintro.aspx?scenarioid=adminconfig&welcomestringid=farmconfigurationwizard_welcome

At this point I thought, I should take a break and save the rest for a new post!

Update, If you are installing on a Domain Controller and want Sand boxed solutions enabled, then 2 more steps are required.