Friday, November 22, 2013

Linked table is unavailable. Microsoft access cannot contact the server.

Linked table is unavailable. Microsoft access cannot contact the server.
We got this error message when we tried to export our big fat list to “open with access”
We recently found this issue coming up for one of our lists and we are still searching for the solution but when I tried googlng for solution. The only part I found was a hot fix. We have users complaining about this list not working since morning and the hotfix would not make any sense at this moment because it used to work and everyone swears no changes were made.  
What should be your check list for such type of issue? I have tried to list what I did, hope it helps you.
1.       What are the statists of the list.
·         Number of columns
·         Number of items
·         Number of lookup columns
This part in my case was way above the ordinary 163 columns and 12 thousand+ items
2.       Does it work with a different view and less columns
3.       Does it work with Access 2007 and Access 2010
4.       Does it work with a other lists in the same site or sub site (this worked for me)
5.       Does export to excel option works ( this one didn’t work for me, it just helped us to drill the problem down further to the list contents)
6.       I saved the list as a template without content and created list again and tried opening with access (this worked – not sure what that really mean)
7.       Can you apply the hotfix http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;2552989

Close assumptions:
According to the kb 270262
You cannot receive data from SharePoint lists in Microsoft Access if the following conditions are true:
  • When there is a problem with the health of the Microsoft SharePoint Server (for example, it runs slowly).
  • You have a low bandwidth connection.
  • You have a large or complex SharePoint list/document library.
  • There is a large distance between you and the server.
  • There are more than 255 columns in the SharePoint list/document library.

Out of this the large distance to server sounds funny.  The only point I could use to my defense was” You have a large or complex SharePoint list/document library.”
But MS did not specify what that meant so I checked on the threshold section of MSDN  at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262787.aspx
Which says :
SharePoint Server 2013 data is stored in SQL Server tables. To allow for the maximum number of possible columns in a SharePoint list, SharePoint Server 2013 will create several rows in the database when data will not fit on a single row. This is called row wrapping.
To prevent too much load, by default a maximum of six SQL Server rows are allowed Each time that a row is wrapped in SQL Server, an additional query load is put on the server when that item is queried because a SQL join must be included in the query. for a SharePoint item. This limit leads to a particular limitation on the number of columns of each type that can be included in a SharePoint list. The following table describes the limits for each column type.
The row wrapping parameter can be increased beyond six, but this may result in too much load on the server. Performance testing is recommended before exceeding this limit.
And you can find from the table how row wrapping is determined.
For Single line of text SQL Server row wrapping occurs after each 64 columns in a SharePoint list.
So on and so forth. Please check the technet link for more information.
This could be a reason of the error message popping up.
As mentioned I was still not able to determine the cause, will update this article when I can.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Sharepoint level I training.

I was asked to give a Level 1 training to few people and the first thing we need is the range of topics that would be needed and as sharepoint is pretty vast you can get lost easily to dive deep and confuse your audience
 thanks to Microsoft we have a well defined level 1 user training topics that you can stick to.

Lessons:


1. What’s New in SharePoint 2010

2. End User Adoption

3. What is SharePoint?

4. Why SharePoint?

5. New SharePoint Features

6. Site Structure

7. Basic SharePoint Features

8. Understand UI Improvements

9. Use the Create Page

10. Explore the Ribbon

11. Lists

12. List Views

13. SharePoint 2010 Features

Lab : Document Library

• Create a Document Library

• Create Documents and Folders

• Explore JavaScript Dropdowns

• Uploading Documents

• Explorer View/My Network Places

Lab : Forms Library

• Create a Form library

• Create an InfoPath Form

• Publish a Form

Lab : Wiki Pages

• Create Wiki Page Library

• Add Wiki Pages

• Editing Wiki Pages

• History

Lab : Picture Library

• Create a Picture Library

• Upload Pictures

• Picture Views (Thumbnail, Slideshow, Details)

• Referencing Pictures

Lab : Report Library

• Create A Report Library

• Create A Report

• Upload A Report

• Run A Report

• Report History

Lab : Data Connection Library

• Create A Data Connection Library

• Create/Upload an Office Data Connection (ODC)

• Create/Upload an Universal Data Connection (UDC)

Lab : Asset Library

• Create an Asset Library

Lab : Slide Library

• Create a Slide Library

• Uploading Slides

• Publish Slides

Lab : Surveys

• Create a Survey

• Create Questions

• Change question ordering

• Branching Logic

• Fill out the survey

• Anonymous Surveys?

Lab : Custom Lists

• Create A Custom List

• Add One Of Each Column Type

Lab : General Lists

• Create An Announcement List

• Create A Contact List

• Create A Discussion Board

• Create A Links List

• Create A Calendar

• Create A Project Tasks

• Create A KPI

• Create An Issue Tracking List

Lab : Views

• Creating Views (Standard, Datasheet, Access)

• Adding/Ordering Columns

• Sorting Data

• Filtering Data

• Grouping Data

• Totaling Data

• Setting Style

• Item Limits

• Mobile

• Enabling View

Lists:

• Create and use SharePoint Lists (Calendar, Tasks, Issues, etc)

• Create and use SharePoint Libraries (Document, Forms, Picture, etc)

• Add, update and delete list and library items

• Create Views and Survey's

• Describe and use the new Asset Library

• Understand when to use a List and when to use a Database

• How to use and create Document Sets

• Learn to create External Lists

• Advanced List Management

• Basic List Management

Lab : List Management

• RSS Feeds

• Check out/Check In

• Document/Item Properties

• Site Columns

• Content Types

• Document Information Panel

• Versioning/Version History

• Content Approval

Lab : New Features

• Multi-Document Actions

• Turn On Document Sets

• Column Level Validation

• List Level Validation

• Content Ratings

• Audience Targeting

• Metadata Navigation

• Manage Item Scheduling

• Document ID Service

• Generate file plan report

• Record declaration settings

Lab : Email Enabled Lists

• Email Enable A List

• Send an email to A List

Lab : Alerts

• Create a List Alert

• Create an Item Alert

• Use Alerts

• Manage Alerts

Lab : SharePoint Permissions

• Review Default Groups

• Add Users to a Site

• Requests for Access

• Understand Security Trimmed Interface

• Create New Groups

• Create Custom Permission Level

• Explore Site/List/Item Permission Inheritance

• Permission Checker

Lessons

• SharePoint Foundation Sites

• Creating Sites

• Growth Scenarios

Lab : SharePoint Foundation SitesCreating SitesGrowth Scenarios

• Create Sub Sites (Team Site)

• Create/Use a Blog Site

• Create/Use a Wiki Site

• Create A Document Workspace

• Create A Meeting Workspace

• Create A GroupBoard Workspace

• Create A Visio Process Repository

• Delete A Site

Lessons

• Office Integration

• SharePoint Workspace 2010

• Web Applications

Lab : Office Integration

• Offline Document Libraries

• Manipulating Calendars (two-way update, roll-up view)

• Manipulating Tasks

• Manipulating Contacts

• Excel Data Reporting

• Access Data Reporting

• One Note

• SharePoint Workspace

Lab : Office Web Applications

• Explore Office Web Applications

Lab : Access Services

• Explore Access Services

Lab : Visio Services

• Explore Visio Services

Lab : BCS

• Explore External Content Types

• Create a new External Content Type

• Create an External List.

Reference: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/course.aspx?id=50468b

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Downloadable resources about how to plan for SharePoint 2013

Architecture icon
Technical diagrams for SharePoint 2013

Checklist icon
Planning worksheets for SharePoint 2013 

What's new icon (stem)
SharePoint Server IT Pro Reviewer's Guide 

Video (play button) icon
Video demos and training for SharePoint 2013 

Boundaries, thresholds and supported limits in SharePoint 2013


In SharePoint Server 2013, there are certain limits that are by design and cannot be exceeded, and other limits that are set to default values that may be changed by the farm administrator. There are also certain limits that are not represented by a configurable value, such as the number of site collections per web application.

Plan browser support in SharePoint 2013

Supported Internet Explorer versions

The product group makes every effort to validate that SharePoint functionality works correctly with released versions of Internet Explorer. Customers who want a more deeply validated browser interaction experience should strongly consider Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer 10, Internet Explorer 9, Internet Explorer 8

Other supported browsers

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Browser support with SharePoint Foundation 2010

SharePoint Needs optimal browser for best performance and you would need to know the supported browsers before you plan to use it for your company, no points for guessing that Microsoft would support their own Browser much more than the other popular ones available in the market.

  • IE6 is not supported by Microsoft as it’s an outdated version
  • IE 7 to 11 are supported in both 32 and 64 bit flavors.


ActiveX controls


Some functionality in SharePoint Foundation 2010 requires the use of ActiveX controls. This produces limitations on browsers which do not support ActiveX. Currently only 32-bit versions of Internet Explorer support this functionality. All other browsers have the limitations.



Mobile browser support

  • Windows Phone 7.0 Internet Explorer
  • Apple iOS 4.0 Safari
  • Google Android 2.1 Android Browser
  • Research in Motion (RIM) Blackberry 4.0 Blackberry Browser
  • Nokia Symbian 3 Nokia Browser

Is SharePoint 2007 really outdated?

If you are one amongst the people who joined this amazing product in 2007 when it was in full boom and were comfy working with the Central Admin and the SSP and then when you rubbed your soul into it you got the new ribbons and stuff around ...I know how it feels.


MOSS is classy, its seems like your working on something.. a website ... the ribbons in 2010 just makes everything look like Office but yes we do need then so the end users can explore all the functionality of options available.

But we have to move on as everyone does .. Still there are organizations stuck with 2007 because the cost of upgrade is something they need to think upon. For the 2007 Share pointers I have something here.



Here is downloadable content for 2007 that you can read and use as per your needs.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262788(v=office.12).aspx