Problem description: during restore of a subsite following error occurs: parent web does not exist

I had exported a subsite having over 50 subsites beneath it using the stsadm -o export command. Upon importing the hence created backup file using the stsadm -o import command on another server, a fatal error occurs. The error logged is: FatalError: The file cannot be imported because its parent web <URL name of the exported subsite> does not exist.

Solution: do the import as site collection administrator

My first thought was that I needed to create a blank site with the same URL name before importing my subsite. So I gave it a try: my import started better, but it failed again, on the first of the more than 50 subsites beneath my "parent" subsite. So I created again a blank site for this sub-subsite. My import went already some further, but then it failed -off course- on the second of the more of 50 sub-subsites. I couldn't believe I would need to create my complete site hierarchy before being able to import my backup of a subsite. Then I tried to do the import with another user account, and hey, the import ran smoothly without any errors. So what was the difference: my second account was a member of the site collection administrators group.
Conclusion: running an import of a backup of a subsite should be done with a user account being member of the site collection administrators group, else you get some cryptic error messages and a failure of your restore operation.

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The CKS:Internet/Extranet Edition has released a pre-beta release of a Forms Based Authentication Solution.

This set of great features adds some missing out-of-the box functionality in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. The solution can be downloaded at Codeplex.
The functionality I like the most is:

• Ability for external users who authenticate themselves through forms based authentication to change their password through a web part. The web part is highly customizable in terms of error messages and labels.


• Ability for the SharePoint administrator to add external users who will authenticate through forms based authentication within the site settings of your site collection. There is no need to set up an extra website for user management, nor to do the administration of users directly in a database.

After installing the set of features, I had some problems though.

• In the user management pages, I could not get an overview of already created users. The UsersDisp.aspx threw an Unknown error.


• Some of the other user management pages had the same problems.

The solution is already available, but unfortunately is not yet included in the downloadable pre-beta version of the Forms Based Authentication Solutions. I found the working .aspx pages in a blogpost on the Van Laan on Sharepoint and all things Microsoft blog. From there the working .aspx pages can be downloaded. Just copy-paste the downloaded pages over the installed .aspx pages in the 12 hive under TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\FBA\MANAGEMENT.

In the same blogpost, I found a great tip to change the default view of those user management pages, which display only 5 users at a time: it is very easy to change this to more users on one page.

As my external users were now able to change their password, I wanted to enforce a certain minimal password policy. To achieve this, I changed the web.config file of my web application set up with forms based authentication.
Look for the providers tag in the web.config: you'll find the add name tag, which specifies your provider for forms based authentication. In it, you'll find some properties which you can change to set up a password policy such as:

• minRequiredPasswordLength: the number specified is the minimal length for a valid password


• minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters: the number specified is the minimul non-alphanumeric characters which the password must contain.

To activate this new policy, you should remove your previous definition of your provider. This can be achieved by adding a remove name tag, as shown in the screenshot below.

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Business requirement: show more than 50 subsites in the Quick Launch

You can check the box Show subsites in the Subsites and Pages section of the Site Navigation Settings for a site. By doing so, each added subsite beneath that site will be added automatically to the Quick Launch navigation element. However, this is limited to 50 subsites. Once you are adding the 51th subsite, it will not be added anymore automatically to the Quick Launch. This can be pretty confusing for your end-users. Especially if you are having fly-out menus in the Global Navigation element on top op the page (there the 51th or above subsite won't appear either).

Solution: add additional subsites manually to the Quick Launch navigation element

The problem is not that Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is not able to handle more than 50 Quick Launch links. It just stops adding automatically subsites once the limit of 50 subsites is reached. Hence you should add the 51th and above subsite manually to the Quick Launch links.

1. On the home page for the site, click the Site Actions menu.


2. Choose Site Settings.


3. Choose Navigation.


4. In the Navigation Editing and Sorting section, choose Add link...


5. Fill out the appearing form to add a Quick Launch link to your 51th or above subsite.

Your additional subsites will appear in the Quick Launch navigation element and if activated, in your fly-out menu in the Global Navigation aswell.

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I ran into an interesting set of online resources about the 40 application templates: moreover, they are nicely grouped. A must read for everybody looking for information about the application templates or is looking for some tips & tricks, tools or add-ons on the application templates.

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