Saturday, March 29, 2014

Sharepoint 2013 features

Well SharePoint 2013 is too new for my organization so we haven’t had hands on but I have been following this product for a while and while I am not a big fan on the apps look given I must say the sharing feature is commendable.

You can share the entire site, or just a list as well as a document also the amazing sky drive connectivity is like a bonus.
If you want to know more about the
Capabilities and features in SharePoint 2013



Source : Technet

Thursday, March 27, 2014

InfoPath Error: The form cannot be submitted

Error:
The form cannot be submitted because it contains validation error. Errors are marked with either a red asterisk (required filed) or a red, dashed border (invalid values)



 Background:
  • This is the most common error I noticed after getting customize with InfoPath feature enabled in SharePoint list
  • User has customized SharePoint list more precisely newform.aspx using InfoPath
  • And then suddenly started getting above error



Troubleshooting:
  • Open the list in InfoPath via list tab > customize form
  • It will open up newform.aspx in InfoPath
  • Once it is open check mandatory fields available in that form.
  • Make sure all mandatory fields are available and deployed in newform.aspx
  • Or
  • If you don’t want them to be displayed in newform.aspx just remove mandatory option
  • Republish the form and check behavior.




Feel free to reach me in case of any issues on above steps, thanks

NO data displayed in column

This is the most recent issue I came to know from one of my colleague. After moving a single file from source to destination the list went crazy.

Issue:
Column shows no data

Description
There was a requirement to move some files / items from List A to List B. And we used the most recommended way by using content and structure.


Background:

  • Source list: List A
  • Destination list: List B
  • Structure of both the list are same with same column name
  • Moved a single item from List A to List B
  • From List B opened a moved item
  • It showed blank / no data for some of the columns
  • Checked old items and found the same thing

Findings:

  • Total 3 columns affected Name, Manager’s name and status
  • List A and List B both has these 2 columns
  • List A contains all of these with “Single line of text” category.
  • While List B contains person or group for name and manager’s name and choice category for stats column
  • Also in List B found duplication of these columns with different category
  • And here is the catch, columns having the same name but with different category showed blank / no data

Resolution:




  • To make sure that the affected column shows wrong category, renamed one of the duplicated column
  • Found the same column showed up in all three forms (newform, dispform and editform)
  • Renamed it back to original one
  • Removed them directly from list settings

Saturday, March 15, 2014

SharePoint utilities

I was going through tech net and found some really great stuff people share there, thought it would be great to share the same here.

·         PowerShell Script to download all SharePoint Conference 2014 Videos & Slides –
1.       Downloads all the SPC14 Sessions and Slides
2.       Groups them by folders
3.       Makes sure no errors come up due to Illegal File names.
4.       If you stop the script and restart in the middle, it will start where it left off and not from beginning.

·         The final guide to Alternate Access Mappings

After you have finished this guide, or only parts of it, you will hopefully grasp the functionality of Alternate Access Mappings and what it’s all about.


·         Copy all SharePoint Files and Folders Using PowerShell

This script uses PowerShell to copy all files and folders from one document library to another document library.  This script will allow you to copy an entire document library, along with user-defined metadata from one site collection to another.


·         SharePoint PowerShell script to clean up all recycle bins in a site collection

This PowerShell script will take a site collection URL as input and will then iterate through each sub web in the site collection, clearing it's recycle bin before finally clearing the site collection recycle bin at the end.


·         Bulk Import SharePoint Files

This script uses PowerShell to upload files from the file system to SharePoint, maintaining the folder structure originally in the file system.  A separate script has also been provided in a separate post to perform bulk exports from SharePoint to the file system.



Thursday, March 13, 2014

SharePoint 2013 Roles

There are 5 built-in roles in SharePoint 2013


  1. ·   Owner:  Owner has a complete control over site, list, library and other content placed on site.
  2. ·   Designer: Users having designer role limited to certain activities. User can view, add, update, delete and approve content. Users can even customize the things, they have access to.
  3. ·   Editor: Editor role users are not allowed to customize site design or content. Users can add, edit, update and delete content from the site.
  4. ·   Contributor: Very limited role. They can delete content items which they have created but not by other.
  5. ·   Reader: Users are only allowed to view the content of site. Users are assigned to Reader roles can download and edit the content but cannot save it back on SharePoint site.



Roles can be established at different level in SharePoint 2013. Role could be created from highest level that is Site Collection or at Individual site level or based on specific apps within site, library or list. Roles provide a way of managing permission at broadest level from site to site or within site and at apps level.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Power shell videos

if you need to learn Windows and SharePoint Power shell from scratch refer to these you tube videos, I admit I am a fan on how simple they make it seem.



Part 1 is Windows powershell at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo4-9VWG51I


part 2 applying these in Sharepoint at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN7NqeF6a7E

check it out we are sure you wont regret

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Take your babysteps towards Powershell.

PowerShell everyone is talking about it how do I start?

In our current organization we do not do much of PowerShell as its restricted to use, but we cannot deny the effect this magnetic tool has on us, we all as SharePoint admins would love to have our hands on the PowerShell and how do we begin.

let’s start with the windows PowerShell commands to an idea of the syntax,

You can refer to http://www.microsoft.com/powershell  for hell lot of information like webcasts/ wiki / downloads.

You need minimum pre-requisite for installation .net framework 2.0
Some interesting stuff
·         you can execute DOS commands like dir, cls in PowerShell it works  just like it should in regular DOS
·         you can get mathematical calculations from PowerShell like type 2+2 and enter or 2*5/2*4
·         The real powershell commands begin with a verb and second part is a noun, example: Get-Help; Get-Command
·         Get- Command will list all the commands in powershell, also note commands in powershell are listed as Comma lets.
·         Suppose you need to execute a command and you’re not sure how the syntax will be you can use get help
So use Get-Help Get-Commands ( assuming get-commands is the option you need help with)
That will list the syntax expected.
Also try Get-Help Get-Commands examples – this will list down the examples as well so you can compare and type.
Also try Get-Help Get-Commands detailed – this will give details and examples both.
·         To copy a command in powershell select the command and right click, to paste copied command in powershell just right click.
·         All operators by default do case insensitive comparison. If you specifically case sensitive comparisons add “c” to the operator example –ceq – case sensitive equality.

Working with windows PowerShell scripts
The commands are similar to Unix but one thing you need to know is that the output is treated as objects.
·         In PowerShell setlocation- c:\scripts ( changes the location )
·         You can save files as extension  .ps or ps1 also commands can be saved in a .bat file and executed from windows explorer.
·         The variables are created beginning with $
Example.
$colorarray = “Red” , “Green”, “Blue”, “Orange”
For each  ($col in $colorarray )
{
Write-host $col
}






Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Things to be considered while applying Branding to SharePoint 2010 sites

  • Targeted audience
  • Is this an intranet, extranet, or the Internet?
  • Targeted browsers
  • Remember that IE6 is not supported out of the box.
  • Only 32-bit IE7 and IE8 on Windows are fully supported without limitations.
  • Other browsers are supported with some limitations.
  • Version of SharePoint
  • SharePoint Foundation
  • SharePoint Server
  • Screen resolution
  • The most common resolution now is 1024×768.
  • Will your users require something different?
  • Questions to ask
  • What is the time frame to create the brand?
  • Is this a new design or one based on an existing design?
  • Does this require any custom web parts or third-party web parts?
  • What navigation is required?
  • Horizontal
  • Vertical
  • Breadcrumb
  • They define the skeleton of a site.
  • They define the layout and flow of a web site.
  • They promote ideas without distracting with colors.

New Web Controls in SharePoint Designer 2010

To enable some of the new features in SharePoint 2010, new controls were created that you can use in your master pages. Below are few of the new controls and their purposes as they relate to customizing a master page. A complete list can be found at


Control
Description
CssRegistration
Tells SharePoint to insert a CSS link
SPRibbon
Adds the Ribbon to the page
Popout Menu
Adds the breadcrumb menu that shows the current location
PageStateActionButton
Adds the Edit/Save button to a page
AspMenu
Represents the ASP menu control
WarnOnUnsupportedBrowsers
Displays a warning to users who are using an
unsupported browser, such as Internet Explorer 6




New Web Controls in SharePoint Designer 2010

To enable some of the new features in SharePoint 2010, new controls were created that you can use in your master pages. Below are few of the new controls and their purposes as they relate to customizing a master page. A complete list can be found at


Control
Description
CssRegistration
Tells SharePoint to insert a CSS link
SPRibbon
Adds the Ribbon to the page
Popout Menu
Adds the breadcrumb menu that shows the current location
PageStateActionButton
Adds the Edit/Save button to a page
AspMenu
Represents the ASP menu control
WarnOnUnsupportedBrowsers
Displays a warning to users who are using an
unsupported browser, such as Internet Explorer 6