SharePoint - Design and Customization

• Daylight Savings, TimeZones and XML: update of my JavaScript code (used to extend the Rooms and Equipment Reservation application template) so it takes into account the time zone.

SharePoint – Search

• Some interesting facts about SharePoint 2007 Search

SharePoint - Setup, Upgrade, Administration and Operation

• Unwanted Authentication Prompts: Post outlining the causes of authentication prompts when using SharePoint.
• Alert: Stopping Windows SharePoint Services Web Application discards customizations of SharePoint Web Applications!: This post describes what happens if you stop the Windows SharePoint Services Web Application in SharePoint Central Administration and makes clear why this should be considered very well before doing so, as you’ll loose probably some customizations.
• CKS Forms Based Authentication Solution: SharePoint solution to manage forms based authenticated users (a newer, more complete version of the tool described in my post Installing the IEE Forms Based Authentication Solution).

Solution: Create SharePoint alerts while logged in on the correct Web Application

The cause of this problem was because I created SharePoint alerts for some users entering the Forms Based authentication Web Application. I created these SharePoint alerts as farm administrator while being logged in to the first Web Application configured with Windows authentication (http://intranet).

Apparently, the url of the Web Application is stored based on the url of the moment of creation of the SharePoint alert. It ignores the fact which authentication provider will be used by the SharePoint user for whom the alert is created.

Creating the SharePoint alerts for other users while being logged in to the second Web Application fixed my problem.

Problem description: No active bill of materials version exists

Upon opening the BOM Designer (Inventory Management>Item Details>select an item of Item type BOM>BOM>Designer), no graphic display of the BOM tree structure is shown. Instead an error is shown: No active bill of materials version exists.

However, if we take a loot at the BOM version for the item (Inventory Management>Item Details>BOM>Lines), it is Active and Approved.

Solution: Set the default order settings for the BOM item

This problem occurs if no Default order settings are defined for the BOM item. To fix the error, specify the Default order settings (Inventory Management>Item Details>Setup>Default order settings). Specify the default Purchase, Inventory and Sales site.

Re-open the BOM Designer for your BOM item: the graphic display of the BOM tree structure is shown now. The previous mentioned error is just a bit confusing, because it mentions you don’t have an active BOM version, while you have one. In fact, the error shown has nothing to do an active BOM version, which may mislead you and lead to a lot of searching to fix this error…

SharePoint – General

• Preview, share and edit Office documents while offline: This post shows how to preview, share and work on Office documents anytime and anywhere by using Outlook.
• SharePoint – Query Based Lookup Field Control: a custom field control for WSS 3.0/MOSS 2007 to get filtered data from other list based on complex queries that is otherwise not possible through out-of-the-box lookup field.
• Shared Service Providers (SSPs) What Are They… How to’s On Delegation

SharePoint - Design and Customization

• JQuery for Everyone: Series of articles about what can be done with JQuery in SharePoint.
• Adding JavaScript Tabs to SharePoint: Using the content editor web part to add JavaScript Tabs to SharePoint.
• CSS Style Bar Graphs using Data Views: Quick how-to on creating a simple bar graph of your data by using CSS and the Data View features of SharePoint Designer 2007.
• A progress bar for your tasks list: showing the progress of tasks in SharePoint in a graphical way.
• Event Handlers – Part 1: Everything you need to know about Microsoft Office HarePoint Server (MOSS) Event Handlers: discussion about the benefits of using Event Handlers in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
• Event Handlers – Part 2: Building and deploying Event Handlers: how to develop and deploy Event Handler solutions for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
• Event Handlers – Part 3: Register Event Handlers: various mechanisms to register your Event Handler assembly to a site, list or content type.
• Handling SharePoint Events
• Rename Uploaded File Using SharePoit Object Model Via an Event Receiver
• Getting started with custom SharePoint Event Receivers: description how to create a custom SharePoint Event Receiver using the Visual Studio Extensions for SharePoint Services

SharePoint – Development and Programming

• Ramp up: Ramp Up is a free, online, community-based learning program that will help you build professional development skills. There are two tracks available related to SharePoint: SharePoint for Developers Part 1 and Part 2.

SharePoint - Setup, Upgrade, Administration and Operation

• Custom Site Administration Applications: Solution to manage custom Event Handlers in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

SharePoint – Business Data Catalog

• Developing a SharePoint custom field type for displaying CRM 4.0 data: walkthrough how to create a SharePoint custom field type that allows users to select an existing account from a CRM database.
• LobSystemInstance: The main purpose of the LobSystemInstance object is to provide authentication and connection string information to the Infrastructure component of Business Data Catalog. The Infrastructure component provides run-time connection management for Business Data Catalog clients.

Dynamics AX

• Hide an element from the combo box: Hide an enum value.

Blogging – Blogging Tips

• Highlight.hs: Highlight.js highlights syntax in code examples on blogs. The program knows (among others) following languages: Javascript, X++, HTML, …

Step 1: Change some form properties

1. Select the Administration Field Group on the TabGeneral TabPage and set the AutoDataGroup Property to No.
2. Select the Administration_OneTimeCustomer CheckBox field in the Field Group Administration and set the AutoDeclaration property to Yes.

Step 2: Create a form method to enable/disable the form element

Create a new form method setAccessOneTimeCustomer:

void setAccesssOneTimeCustomer()     
{ 

    if (CustTable.MandatoryCreditLimit)     
    { 

        Administration_OneTimeCustomer.enabled(false);     
    } 

    else     
    { 

        Administration_OneTimeCustomer.enabled(true);     
    } 

    custTable_DS.refresh();    
}

Step 3: call the form method in the active and the modified

Call the newly created form method in the active method on the Data Source of the Form. As such, the second field will be enabled or disabled appropriately upon scrolling through the form.

public int active() 

{   
    int ret; 
    element.setAccesssOneTimeCustomer(); 
    ret = super(); 
    return ret; 

}

Call the newly created form method in the modified method on the field which should trigger the enabling or disabling. In our example, it is the field MandatoryCreditLimit. As such the second field, in our case OneTimeCustomer wil be enabled or disabled each time the value of MandatoryCreditLimit is changed.

public void modified()   
{ 

    element.setAccesssOneTimeCustomer();     
    super(); 

}

Step 4: Test your modifications

Open the CustTable form: check the field Mandatory credit limit: the field One-time customer will be disabled immediately.

Solution: set Authenticated access to Basic authentication

As not all of my users had experienced this problem (some were still able to enter their credentials and enter the SharePoint environment), my first thought was that it had something to do with their settings of Internet Explorer (like the site not being in their trusted sites etcetera).

So I did some tests and came to these findings:

• Everyone was able to enter the SharePoint environment if they used as browser Mozilla Firefox. Once users were browsing with Internet Explorer, some were not able anymore to enter the SharePoint environment (although they could reach it for sure, as they were asked for their credentials).
• Users surfing with Internet Explorer 6 on a non-Vista PC experienced no problems.
• Users surfing with Internet Explorer 7 on a Vista PC didn’t get past the credential prompt.

So obviously it had something to do with the credentials (username and password) not getting passed through to Active Directory or back.

I started looking in the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager and found an interesting setting to change.

I unchecked the Integrated Windows authentication box (which was checked) and checked the Basic authentication box (which was unchecked): after a iisreset, every single user on whatever operating system with whatever browser was now again able to get past the credentials prompt and enter the SharePoint environment.

These settings can be found in your IIS Manager by right-clicking on your SharePoint web application in IIS, then choose Properties, next go to the Directory Security tab and choose Edit in the Authentication and access control section.

Step 1: Install the Roxority User Profiles List Web Part for SharePoint

• Download the Roxority User Profiles List Web Part for SharePoint. This free Web Part lists SharePoint user profiles in any way you wish.
• Replace localhost in the setup.bat file with the url of your SharePoint Web Application.
• Run the setup.bat file which adds and deploys the Solution.
• Create the directory C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\IMAGES\peoplecache on your SharePoint server.
• Create a file peoplecache.xml in the previously created directory with following content:
  

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  <root>
  </root>

Step 2:Map User Profile Properties on your Shared Service Provider

• Go to your SharePoint Central Administration site.
• Go to your Shared Service Provider.
• Choose User profiles and properties in the User Profiles and My Sites section.
• Map the properties you want to visualize in your Who is Who application in the User Profile Properties.

  
  

• Go back to the User Profile and Properties page and choose Start full import to import the Active Directory accounts in your SharePoint environment: you can schedule this so it runs automatically at regular times.

Step 3: Grant Manage User Profiles permission to the end-users

Step 4: Add the Web Part to a SharePoint Web Part Page

• Create a Blank Web Part Page.
• Add the Roxority User List Web Part to the Web Part Page:

  
  

• Click Modify Shared Web Part and uncheck the caching options.

  
  

• Remove the Date-based filtering. If you enter data for the Hire Date property in Active Directory, you can use this property to filter which users are going to be displayed. You can use other date fields too for filtering purposes.

  
  

• Choose which Profile properties you want to display on the Web Part Page. 

  
  

• Click OK and Publish the Web Part Page.

Result: Who is Who within SharePoint

As result you get all users with the chosen properties on one page. You can tweak the CSS to have it in your own preferred layout (for example .solarlux-userprofile-picture to enlarge the pictures shown).