Mirjam's thoughts on SharePoint

Setting a Default Value for a Managed Metadata Column

2012-01-07T00:17:06Z

Some of the cool new features of SharePoint 2010 are the features related to the Managed Metadata Service Application. A lot of these features were things that companies have been asking for for a while now. For instance the ability to manage hierarchical metadata in a central location, instead of having to create choice lists in every site collection is something that is probably going to be used in the document management solutions of most larger companies. This automatically means that it will be used in a lot of custom solutions as well. At first glance this doesn’t seem like a problem. After all, why would using a managed metadata (site) column in your custom solution be any different then using any other (site) column. To be honest, I’m not sure about the why, although I could think of a few reasons, but using managed metadata columns in a custom solution is vastly different than using any other column.

Personally I had to set a default value of a Managed Metadata Site Column from my custom web part. The step is to add a taxonomy field to my web part, so a user can select a default term. The way to do this is by adding a TaxonomyWebTaggingControl to the web part and setting its properties. We use the current site to setup a session to the Managed Metadata Service Application. Internally the Web Application of the current site is used for this, as Service Applications are linked to Web Applications by Service Application Proxies. Once we’ve got a TaxonomySession we can choose whether we want to get all term stores (TaxonomySession.TermStores), the term store that is selected as the default term store for keywords (TaxomomySession.DefaultKeywordsTermStore), or the default term store for the site collection (TaxonomySession.DefaultSiteCollectionTermStore). Once we’ve got a term store we’ve got to make sure that it’s online and when it is we can request the term group and the term set that we want to use for the site column from it. To assign a term store to a TaxonomyWebTaggingControl we have to assign the term store guid as a string to the SSPList property.

   1: SPSite currentSite = SPContext.Current.Site;

   2: // Instantiates a taxonomy session for the current site

   3: TaxonomySession taxonomySession = new TaxonomySession(currentSite);

   4: TermStore termStore = taxonomySession.DefaultKeywordsTermStore;

   5: if (termStore.IsOnline)

   6: {

   7:     termGroup = termStore.Groups["MyTaxonomyGroup"];

   8:     termSet = termGroup.TermSets["MyTermSet for instance Country"];

   9: }

  10: TaxonomyWebTaggingControl taggingControl = new TaxonomyWebTaggingControl();

  11: taggingControl.SSPList = termStore.Id.ToString();

  12: taggingControl.GroupId = termGroup.Id;

  13: taggingControl.TermSetList = termSet.Id.ToString();

  14: // This controls whether you can add new terms to the term set

  15: taggingControl.AllowFillIn = false;

  16: // This controls whether unresolved terms will just be added to the termset or not

  17: taggingControl.IsAddTerms = false;

  18: // This setting allows you to browse the term set

  19: taggingControl.IsDisplayPickerButton = true;

  20: // This setting enables/disables validation highlighting

  21: taggingControl.IsIgnoreFormatting = false;

  22: taggingControl.IsIncludeDeprecated = false;

  23: taggingControl.IsIncludeUnavailable = false;

  24: // This setting modifies what is stored/returned from the control

  25: // if you want the GUIDS of parent terms then set this to true

  26: taggingControl.IsIncludePathData = true;

  27: // This setting will include term set name resolution as well if set

  28: taggingControl.IsIncludeTermSetName = false;

  29: taggingControl.ID = "MyCustomMetadataControl";

30:

Now a user can select a default value. By after a user clicks a button we can store the value the user selected as the default value of the site column. Be aware that if you let non-Site Owner users select a default value that you will have to use impersonation as only Site Owners can set default values for site columns.

The way we have to save a default value for a taxomony column is very specific. You can leave some of these steps out and it will seem like it works. If you go into the Site Column management user interface via the Site Settings page in your site you will probably see that a default value has been selected and it will seem like SharePoint resolves the value without a problem. However if you are using the column in a document library and you are trying to create a new document in Word 2010 the document information panel will indicate that the default value is a value that doesn’t exist in the term store. Pretty tricky that!

The value of a Managed Metadata Column is build op from three parts:

The Id of the term as it is stored in the TaxonomyHiddenList . The TaxonomyHiddenList caches all terms from the term store in the site collection. The link is referred to as the WssId.
The label of the term
The guid of the term

The format of the value looks like this:
<WssId>;#<TermLabel>|<TermGuid>

In order to set a value for a TaxonomyField we have to use a TaxnomomyFieldValue.
We can use the PopulateFromLabelGuidPair method to convert the Text value of the TaxonomyWebTaggingControl on our web part into a valid Label/Guid pair.
We are setting the WssId to –1. We could try to retrieve the actual Id of the term from the TaxonomyHiddenList by using the TaxonomyField.GetWssIdsOfTerm method, but if we set it to –1 SharePoint will resolve it for us and will even add the term to the TaxonomyHiddenList if it’s not already in there.
Another oddifity is that we have to convert the guid of the selected term to a lower case guid, or the Document Information Panel in Office 2010 won’t recognize the term.

   1: TaxonomyField taxonomyField = SPContext.Current.Site.RootWeb.Fields.
          GetFieldByInternalName(["MyManagedMetadataSiteColumn"]) as TaxonomyField;

   2: TaxonomyFieldValue defaultValue = new TaxonomyFieldValue(taxonomyField);

   3: try

   4: {

   5:     defaultValue.PopulateFromLabelGuidPair(taggingControl.Text);

   6:     defaultValue.WssId = -1;

   7:     // GUID should be stored lowercase, otherwise it will not work in Office 2010

   8:     defaultValue.TermGuid = defaultValue.TermGuid.ToLower();

   9:     // Set the selected default value for the site column

  10:     taxonomyField.DefaultValue = defaultValue.ValidatedString;

11:

  12: }

  13: catch

  14: {

  15:     ErrorMessage.Text = "Creating a new term is not allowed, please select an existing term.";

  16:     taxonomyField.DefaultValue = String.Empty;

  17: }

18:

  19: taxonomyField.UserCreated = false;

  20: taxonomyField.Update(true);

I think I would still be looking for a solution for this if it wasn’t for Donald Hessing’s answer on the SharePoint Forums, so thanks Donald!

I hope this post will save others some time, just like Donald’s post saved me some time.

Finding the application pool account for a web application

2011-10-29T16:51:51Z

I get a lot of questions from people who read my post on Configuring claims and forms based authentication for use with a SQL provider in SharePoint 2010 about how to find the application pool account for a certain web application.

The first thing you have to do is to find out what application pool is being used for you web application. In order to find this out we need to open up IIS (Internet Information Services) Manager. Click on “Start” – “Administrative Tools” – “Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager”.

Open up the drop down on the left and look for your web application in the “Sites” list.
Select the web application you want to find the application pool account for and click “Basic Settings’ in the panel on the right.

In my case the application pool for my web application is “SharePoint – Web Apps”.

Now we have to find the application pool account and we have two ways in which we can do this.
We can find the application pool account in IIS by selecting “Application Pools” in the left panel. This will show the list of application pools in the middle.
Find the application pool that you found in the basic settings of your web application. Right of the name of the application pool the application pool account is displayed. If you are looking for the application pool account of your Central Administration web application you can simply look to the right of the “SharePoint Central Administration v4” application pool. In my case the application pool account of my Central Administration web application is “SOLUTIONS\spfarm”.

If you know the application pool of your web application you can also find the application pool account from the SharePoint user interface.
In order to do this open up Central Administration and click on “Security”.
Now click on “Configure service accounts”.

In the drop down select the application pool of your web application. This will display the application pool account in the text box.

If you are looking for the application pool account of your Central Administration web application you have to select “Farm Account” in the drop down box. The farm account is also the application pool account of your Central Administration web application and selecting farm account in the drop down will make the account show up in the text box.

That’s all there is to it!

SharePoint Connections Amsterdam 2011

2011-10-28T15:35:34Z

Just a few more weeks before SharePoint Connections will be back in Amsterdam. I have the pleasure of speaking again. I’m looking forward to meeting and talking to many of you there again on November 22nd and 23rd in De Meervaart in Amsterdam.
The conference web site can be found here. DIWUG members can ping me for a discount code that will let you register for the full conference for only €359,-, which means you save €140,-.
The stuff I’ll be speaking on:

SharePoint 2010 Developer’s Mythbusters
This session will talk about common misconceptions on developing custom solutions for SharePoint. The session will provide best practices, point out gotchas and dive into some IT Pro stuff a developer has to know about in order to be able to build solid SharePoint solutions.

Upgrading User Profiles and My Sites from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010
This session will demonstrate how to upgrade User Profiles and My Sites from a SharePoint 2007 environment to a SharePoint 2010 environment. The slides will explain the pre-requisites and the pit falls and the demos will show the exact steps that you need to take in order to upgrade your User Profiles and My Sites successfully.

We will also be doing a pre-conference DIWUG evening again on Monday November 21st. Keep an eye on twitter and the DIWUG web site to find out when registration for the DIWUG event opens.

New DIWUG SharePoint eMagazine published

2011-09-13T20:55:10Z

The fifth DIWUG SharePoint eMagazine is finished and has now been published on the DIWUG web site. The new magazine again contains eight high quality articles, an extensive SharePoint tip and two DIWUG discount codes for SharePoint conferences this autumn.

I myself wrote an article on “SharePoint Decisions: When to create a site and when to create a site collection” for this magazine. This is a write up that I promised several people at the TechDays and DevDays in Den Haag in April of this year. It has taken me quite some time, but I finally finished it.

Below is the full list of articles in the magazine:

Content aggregation in SharePoint 2010 - Brett Lonsdale
SharePoint status update control and Social Media integration - Erwin Koens
Tips and Tricks for Improved Performance with SharePoint 2010 - Rob Foster
SharePoint Decisions: When to create a site and when to create a site collection - Mirjam van Olst
SharePoint operational capability - Chandima Kulathilake
Tip: Hiding the Save and Close button in a Survey - Jan Ligtenberg
Creating and managing SharePoint 2010 sites and content with PowerShell - Jesper M. Christensen
SharePoint 2010 WCM site based on search - Stephan van der Knijff & Amancio Quant
Visio Services application development - Bram de Jager

Just like the previous edition this magazine has a pretty good chance of being printed again as well. If it is we will be handing it out at the upcoming SharePoint Conferences around the world.

Obviously I would like to thank our sponsors Logica, Avanade, Macaw, Imtech, SharePoint Connections Amsterdam, Lightning Tools and XComplica for making this fifth edition of the DIWUG SharePoint eMagazine possible.

Use trusted sites when opening a document with the Document ID static Url

2011-09-03T01:45:56Z

Document IDs are new in SharePoint 2010. By enabling the site collection scoped “Document ID Service” feature unique IDs will be added to all documents within the site collection. When the feature is activated a custom prefix is generated that is unique to the site collection.

As a site owner you can change the prefix, however you have to make sure that the prefix is unique. The document ID format is [prefix]-[0-9]-[0-9] and SharePoint will simply start numbering at 0-0, which means that using the same prefix in two site collections will definitely get you duplicate document IDs. To see the document ID for a document choose View properties for that document, or add the document ID column to a list view.

After activating the feature there are two document ID timer jobs that will have to run in order for IDs to be assigned to documents. The same is true if you decide to change the document ID prefix for a site collection. The timer jobs are the “Document ID Enable/Disable job” and the “Document ID Assignment job”. Both jobs are targeted at a specific web application and by default they both run once a day.

If you move a document around in your environment, even if you move it to another site collection, the document ID will stay the same. A copy operation will of course create a new document ID, as it creates a new document as well. In order to move a document to another site collection you will have to use the Content Organizer feature. Downloading a document to your computer and uploading it again into SharePoint will generate a new document ID. Document IDs only work on documents and on document sets, they don’t work on pages and list items.When searching for a document ID from anywhere in the farm SharePoint will always directly open the document for you. This means that you don’t have to remember where a document is stored and you don’t have to remember the complete url, if you know what the document ID of your document is you can always find your document within your farm.

There is one thing that I ran into while using the document ID static url. The url of the web application that you are using seems to have to be in your trusted sites in order for the document to open correctly. If it’s not then Office will open the document, but it won’t remember where the document was opened from. I won’t get the pop up asking me whether I want to open the document in Read-Only mode or Edit mode, but instead I’m asked whether I want to open or save the document.

Normal message displayed when opening a document from SharePoint:

Message I get when trying to open a document using the document ID link when the web application is not in my trusted sites:

Depending on what version of Office you are using it will open the document as a read-only document, or it might open it from a temp location. This means that when saving the document I don’t get to automatically save it as a new version of the existing document, but Office will ask me where I want to save the document, which of course can be very confusing for end users.

If you have your environment configured to open documents in the browser using Office Web Applications by default you won’t run into this, it only occurs when opening the document in an Office client application.

DotNed PodCast on SharePoint Development [Dutch]

2011-09-02T23:58:31Z

I recently recorded a PodCast with Maurice de Beijer for the DotNed podcast series from the Dutch DotNed user group. We talked about SharePoint development, what you need to start development for SharePoint, some of the pitfalls for a .Net developer might run into when starting SharePoint and a lot of other chatter. The podcast is in Dutch, so some of my SharePoint friends can use it to improve their Dutch by listening to it .

http://www.dotned.nl/PodCasts.aspx?id=13

I’ll be speaking at the European SharePoint Conference

2011-06-28T00:20:30Z

I’m very pleased to let you know that I will be speaking at the European SharePoint Conference in Berlin 17-20 October of this year. I will be presenting two sessions, a keynote and a normal break out session.

The key note on October 19 will be a joined session with Spencer Harbar (@harbars) and the title of this session will be “Successful Deployment: Lessons Learned From the Field “.
This is what the keynote will be all about:
Take a whirlwind tour of lessons from the field since the release of SharePoint Server 2010 to understand the key factors of a successful roll out in the enterprise across planning, architecture, implementation, deployment and operations. Based upon some of the most common pitfalls and worst practices of early adopters and the key challenges they have faced, the keynote will detail the lessons learnt alongside best practices to help ensure a successful deployment. Ideal for all disciplines, including Information Workers, Business Decision Makers, Developers and IT Professionals.

The break out session will be about “Office 365: Delivering the Power of Cloud Productivity”.
Understand the key components of Office 365 and how they deliver the power of cloud productivity to organizations of all sizes. Focus on the key benefits, different editions, planning considerations, how to move to the cloud, integration with on premise. The content will be targeted at a broad audience across all SharePoint disciplines (information workers, business decision makers, developers and IT Pros).

In a way it’s full circle for me, as the SharePoint Conference in Berlin in 2007 was the first conference for me as a speaker.

I’m really looking forward to the conference in Berlin and I hope to meet many of you there!

SharePoint Publishing Features Functionality

2011-06-23T23:06:19Z

In the past couple of days I had three separate people asking me if I knew what you get when you activate the Publishing Features in a site collection or site. That probably means that it’s time for me to write the last part of this three part series. Part one described the Enterprise Features and part two described the Standard Features. This is the third part and it will describe the SharePoint 2010 Publishing Features.

SharePoint Enterprise Features Functionality
SharePoint Standard Features Functionality
SharePoint Publishing Features Functionality

SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure

In a SharePoint Server 2010 environment with Standard CALs you can activate the SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure. This feature will activate the site collection scoped SharePoint Server Publishing features.
Folder: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\PublishingSite
Feature Id: F6924D36-2FA8-4f0b-B16D-06B7250180FA

Below the (mostly hidden) features that get activated when you activate the SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure are listed.

Name:Publishing Prerequisites
Description: Enable Publishing prerequisites for site collection
Folder name: PublishingPrerequisites
Feature Id: A392DA98-270B-4e85-9769-04C0FDE267AA
Functionality:

This feature enables the publishing prerequisites for a site collection. It doesn’t activate any other features, it just runs the code in the feature receiver to set up a site so it can use the publishing features.

Name:Publishing Resources
Description: Enable Publishing for site collection
Folder name: PublishingResources
Feature Id: AEBC918D-B20F-4a11-A1DB-9ED84D79C87E
Functionality:

This feature enables the publishing resources on a site collection. The publishing resources are site columns and content types and site settings. The feature also contains three feature upgrades that are added to the feature when it gets activated.

The publishing resources contain the page layout columns and the publishing columns and a whole list of hidden site columns.

The hidden site columns added to your site by activating the Publishing Resources feature are:

Display Name	Static Name
Preview Image	PublishingPreviewImage
Hidden Page	PublishingHidden
Migrated GUID	PublishingMigratedGuid
Associated Content Type	PublishingAssociatedContentType
Variations	PublishingAssociatedVariations
Display Name	PublishingCacheDisplayName
Display name is used to populate the list of available cache profiles for site owners and page layout owners	PublishingCacheDisplayDescription
Perform ACL Check	PublishingCachePerformACLCheck
Enabled	PublishingCacheEnabled
Duration	PublishingCacheDuration
Check for Changes	PublishingCacheCheckForChanges
Vary by Custom Parameter	PublishingVaryByCustom
Vary by HTTP Header	PublishingVaryByHeader
Vary by Query String Parameters	PublishingVaryByParam
Vary by User Rights	PublishingVaryByRights
Safe for Authenticated Use	PublishingAuthenticatedUse
Allow writers to view cached content	PublishingCacheAllowWriters
Cacheability	PublishingCacheability
Content Category	ContentCategory
Automatic Update	AutomaticUpdate
Show in drop-down menu	ShowInRibbon
Reusable Text	ReusableText
Reusable HTML	ReusableHtml
Display Name	PublishedLinksDisplayName
Url	PublishedLinksURL
Description	PublishedLinksDescription

The content types added to your site by activating the Publishing Resources feature are:

Content Type Name	Group
System Page	Hidden
System Master Page	Hidden
System Page Layout	Hidden
Page Output Cache	Hidden
Reusable Text	Hidden
Reusable HTML	Hidden
Published Link	Hidden

Several files, of several different types are added to your site when you activate the Publishing Resources feature by activating the SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure.
There are a couple of master pages and page layouts:

PageLayoutTemplate.aspx
PublishingMasterTemplate.master
WelcomeLinks.aspx
VariationRootPageLayout.aspx

Some images:

WelcomeLinks.png
DefaultPageLayout.png
DefaultMasterPage.png
AudioPreview.png
VideoPreview.png
MediaWebPartPreview.png

Different types of style sheets:

ContentQueryMain.xsl
SummaryLinkMain.xsl
Header.xsl
ItemStyle.xsl
TableOfContentsMain.xsl
LevelStyle.xsl
Rss.xsl
rca.css
AlternateMediaPlayer.xaml

Also a couple of web parts are added to the page by activating this features:

Content Query Web Part
Summary Links Web Part
Table of Contents Web Part
Media Web Part

As a last step the Publishing Resources feature adds some additional links to the site settings page:

Name: Portal Navigation
Description: Enable portal navigation bars
Folder name: Navigation
Feature Id: 89E0306D-453B-4ec5-8D68-42067CDBF98E
Functionality:

This feature enable the portal navigation bars. This means it enables the enhanced navigation options on the site. On the site where the feature is activated the Top Navigation and Quicklaunch links on the site settings page are removed. The Site collection navigation link is added to the Site Collection Administration section on the site settings page and the Navigation link is added to the Look and Feel section of the site settings page.

The Site collection navigation link takes you to the following page:

The Navigation link allows you to adjust the top level and quicklaunch navigation:

Name: Page Layouts and Master Pages Pack
Description: Publishing Layouts
Folder name: PublishingLayouts
Feature Id: D3F51BE2-38A8-4e44-BA84-940D35BE1566
Functionality:

This feature supplies several page layouts and master pages and adds them into the master page gallery of the site on which the feature is activated.

File Name	Title
ArticleLeft.aspx	Image on left
ArticleLinks.aspx	Summary links
ArticleRight.aspx	Image on right
PageFromDocLayout.aspx	Body only
WelcomeSplash.aspx	Splash
WelcomeTOC.aspx	Table of contents
RedirectPageLayout.aspx	Redirect
BlankWebPartPage.aspx	Blank Web Part page
nightandday.master	Publishing Master Page

The feature also adds some images, mainly preview images that are used for the page layouts and ECM related images:

ArticleLinks.png
ArticleLeft.png
BlankWebPartPage.png
ArticleRight.png
ArticleBodyOnly.png
RedirectPage.png
WelcomeTOC.png
WelcomeSplash.png
Search_Arrow.jpg
Search_Arrow_RTL.jpg
nd_bullet.png
nd_calnumbttntoday.png
nd_calnumbttntodayover.png
nd_footerbg.png
nd_groupheaderbg.png
nd_headerbg.png
nd_levelbullet.png
nd_logo.png
nd_magglasssearch.png
nd_menubuttonhover.png
nd_menubuttonhover2.png
nd_pageinfobg.png
nd_vertnavright.png
nd_breadcrumbs.gif
nd_siteinfo.gif

And some style sheets are added:

page-layouts-21.css
edit-mode-21.css
htmleditorstyles.css
nightandday.css
controls.css

The Publishing Layouts feature also adds some ribbon commands:

Name: Asset Library
Description: Enable Asset Library Creation for site collection
Folder name: AssetLibrary
Feature Id: 4BCCCD62-DCAF-46dc-A7D4-E38277EF33F4
Functionality:

This feature enables the Asset Library creation for the site collection on which it is activated. It also adds the four digital asset content types and the four hidden digital asset site columns are created:

Length (seconds)
Frame Width
Frame Height

Name: Enhanced Theming
Folder name: EnhancedTheming
Feature Id: 068BC832-4951-11DC-8314-0800200C9A66
Functionality:

Enables enhanced theming on the site.

Name: Enterprise Wiki Layouts

Description: Create a large-scale wiki with categories and page layouts
Folder name: EnterpriseWikiLayouts
Feature Id: A942A218-FA43-4d11-9D85-C01E3E3A37CB
Functionality:

This feature adds all the functionality that is necessary to create an enterprise wiki to the site collection. It adds the last two content types in the Page Layout group, the Enterprise Wiki and Project Pages.

The feature also adds the enterprise wiki pages:

File Name	Title
EnterpriseWiki.aspx	Basic Page
ProjectPage.aspx	Basic Project Page

Name: Ratings
Description: Use this feature to enable users to rate content
Folder name: Ratings
Feature Id: 915c240e-a6cc-49b8-8b2c-0bff8b553ed3
Functionality:

Activating this feature will enable users to rate content in the site. The feature will add the rating site columns and the Rating Settings link on the lists and library settings page.

Rating (0-5) - Average value of all the ratings that have been submitted
Number of Ratings - Number of ratings submitted

Name: Document Routing Resources
Description: Provision resources required for routing documents in sites within this site collection
Folder name: DocumentRoutingResources
Feature Id: 0C8A9A47-22A9-4798-82F1-00E62A96006E
Functionality:

This feature adds the Rule content type and the Routing Rule fields to the site collection. The content type and fields are used by the content organizer to create the rules to route the content. The category the Routing Rule fields are shown under is the Document and Record Management Columns category. This is very confusing as you shouldn’t use these fields in content types you create yourself, they are created just for use in the content organizer rules. For more information on this check out my post on Document and Records Management site column behavior in SharePoint 2010.
Before you can use the content organizer you will also have to activate the site scoped feature Content Organizer.

Name: Record Resources
Description: Provision resources required for creating records or holds in sites within this site collection
Folder name: RecordResources
Feature Id: 5BCCB9A4-B903-4fd1-8620-B795FA33C9BA
Functionality:

When this feature gets activated information management policies become available for the use in the site collection. The Site collection policies link will show up on the site settings page and the Information management policy settings will show up in list and library settings.

SharePoint Server Publishing

If you are using a SharePoint Server 2010 environment with Standard CALs you can activate the SharePoint Server Publishing feature. This feature enables a couple of site scoped features that add publishing functionality to the site.
Folder: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\PublishingWeb
Feature Id: 94C94CA6-B32F-4da9-A9E3-1F3D343D7ECB

The first thing this feature will do when it gets activated is make sure that the SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure feature is activated at the site scope. If this is not the case the SharePoint Server Publishing feature will not be activated. You will have to go into Site Collection Features to manually activate the SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure feature.When the site collection scoped feature is activated the following feature will be activated as well.

Name: Publishing
Description: Enable Publishing in a web
Folder name: Publishing
Feature Id: 22A9EF51-737B-4ff2-9346-694633FE4416
Functionality:

When this feature gets activated it will add the “Manage item scheduling” link to the document library settings page. On the Manage items scheduling page a checkbox can be checked to enable the scheduling of items that have content types that include start and end dates.Activation of the publishing feature also adds the Pages library to the site. In the pages library publishing pages can be created, managed and stored. The feature also adds several controls to the site and it adds several links to the site settings page. Some other links, like “Save site as template” are removed from the site settings page. Save site as template should never be used when the publishing feature is activated, not even if you know the url to the page where you can save the site. Saving a site that has the publishing feature enabled as a template can cause sites based on the saved template to break, or to have problems in them that only show up after users have been using it for a while.

That’s it for this series in which I have listed all the features that are activated when you activate the standard, enterprise and publishing features at the site or site collection scope. I hope it proves to be useful to people, it was a lot more work than I expected it to be .

The AlternateCssUrl and saving a site as a template

2011-04-28T18:48:56Z

Two weeks ago on a customer project we ran into a weird problem. We created a site, modified it a little bit, saved it as a template and created a new site based on it.
Everything seemed to work fine, but in the newly created site the application pages in the _layouts directory weren’t displayed properly.

The error that we found in the ULS logs was:

System.Web.HttpException: No http handler was found for request type 'GET'
at System.Web.HttpApplication.MapIntegratedHttpHandler(HttpContext context, String requestType, VirtualPath path, String pathTranslated, Boolean useAppConfig, Boolean convertNativeStaticFileModule)
at System.Web.HttpServerUtility.Execute(String path, TextWriter writer, Boolean preserveForm)

The only customization on the site was a custom design (master page and stylesheet) so we figured that it had to have something to do with that design. We did some debugging (to be honest, my colleague Robbie Coenmans did the debugging) and found out that the problem had to do with the AlternateCssUrl property. In our solution the AlternateCssUrl was defined in the ONET.XML file of the site definition.
It turns out that during the provisioning of the site the stored procedure proc_UpdateTpWebMetaData gets fired four times. If the AlternateCSSUrl value is stored in the ONET.XML file, when the proc_UpdateTpWebMetaData stored procedure fires for the fourth time the AlternateCssUrl value gets copied to the AlternateHeaderUrl property as well. Because of this the header starts displaying the contents of the stylesheet.

The solution is simple: don’t store the AlternateCssUrl in the ONET.XML file. There are two straight forward alternatives:

Setting the AlternateCssUrl in for instance a feature receiver by assigning a value to the SPWeb.AlternateCssUrl property. If you choose this approach you will have to get the SPWeb.AlternateHeader to an empty string in the feature receiver.
Setting the value of your own stylesheet in the CssUrl property of the master page

What’s the best solution depends on your scenario. Using the SPWeb’s AlternateCssUrl property gives you more flexibility, while using the master page’s CssUrl property means that you only have to set it once and you don’t have to run any code to set it.

A new chapter in my career: Avanade

2011-04-09T21:03:08Z

After 7 inspiring years at Macaw I decided that it was time for something new. On April 1st I started my new job as a SharePoint Architect at Avanade in the Netherlands!

I have always been very happy at Macaw and I want to thank everyone there, and in particular the people at the Information Worker Solutions center for 7 great years. I also want to thank Macaw for the opportunities they offered me with regards to doing the MCM (both for SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010) and for the support I got for my work in the SharePoint community.

The main reason for changing jobs to start working for Avanade is that I wanted to do bigger and more challenging projects. I will still be doing all the community work I was doing before, so in that respect nothing will change. One of the reasons I chose Avanade is that they will give me the opportunity to keep doing my community work.
So far, after one week, I’m still very happy with my decision. I got a very warm welcome at Avanade, everyone is very nice and tries to help me to get up and running as fast and as smooth as possible and I already started on a very cool, big and challenging project at a customer.
I already know that my second week will be great as well, seeing as I’ll be in London next week for the SharePoint Best Practices Conference 2011.

I’m looking forward to working on a lot of cool projects for Avanade and to keep meeting all of you in the SharePoint community.