SharePoint 2007 “Save Site As Template” Hack

This is a little hack that I found quite useful.

In the event that the Save Site As Template option is missing for a sub site under Site Settings -> Look and Feel, then the easiest way to access this functionality is by appending “_layouts/savetmpl.aspx” in the URL for the site.

As an example, if I can access a sub site from the URL:
http://TopLevelCollection/SubSite

Then I can save the template for the sub site by using the URL:
http://TopLevelCollection/SubSite/_layouts/savetmpl.aspx

SharePoint 2007 Forms Based Authentication and Check-Out

If you ever have had a scenario where you had a SharePoint site working with the Windows Authentication provider and had to turn on Forms Based Authentication, then you may begin to experience issues with checking out documents via Office (Microsoft Word as an example).

It is not a widely documented configuration setting but enabling client side integration will fix the issue of checking out documents (see setting below). Credit for finding the setting goes to my mate, Simon Tyrrell

After configuring this setting, the larger authentication issue for MS Office still remains; after checking out the document, Office is not able to authenticate successfully unless persistent cookies are enabled. As you may know persistent cookies are enabled when a user clicks on the “Sign me in automatically” checkbox when they log in to SharePoint and these are stored on the users hard disk until they time out or the user erases them. If the user does not click the “Sign me in automatically” checkbox while logging in, session cookies are used and this essentially means that other than the client browser no other application can read the session cookie. The important takeaway here is that Office applications can only read persistent cookies.  

Though the default timeout for peristent cookies is 30 minutes, the web.config file can be configured to set this to a longer time period. The web.config setting below demonstrates a timeout of 120 minutes or 2 hours. Another important note is that the moment the cookie expires, client side integration stops working and the user is prompted to enter credentials again.

<forms loginUrl=“login.aspx“ name=“.ASPXFORMSAUTH“ timeout=“120“ />

 

 

To solve the issue, Microsoft have released an unwarranted custom httphandler that converts the Forms-based authentication (FBA) prompt originating from a client-side application (like MS Word; when client integration and FBA are enabled) and translates this to a Basic Authentication prompt. This allows the user to re-authenticate into SharePoint. Click here to download the httphandler. 

 

Client-side Integration Setting (click for larger picture)

SharePoint Development Utilities

Below is a list of development utilities that were discussed at the Sydney MOSS 2007 Solution Day at Microsoft:

1. WSS and MOSS Software Development Kit
2. Visual Studio Extensions for WSS
3. WSP Builder
4. STSDev
5. Caml Query Builder
6. Event Handler Explorer
7. SharePoint Manager 2007
8. Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar
9. FireFox Firebug
10. SharePoint Log Parser
11. SharePoint Designer
12. SharePoint Spy
13. SharePoint 2007 Features

Update: A colleague from work, Eilidh, recommends the following stsadm extensions http://stsadm.blogspot.com/2007/08/stsadm-commands_09.html

Iterating through SharePoint 2007 Site Collection entities

I found that a simple yet good introduction to the SharePoint 2007 SDK was by playing with the iterative code below that lists nested sites and nested lists within a site collection. A colleague of mine who has just started looking at the SharePoint 2007 object model found this a good quickstart because the code gave him an avenue to start stepping in to the various SharePoint SDK objects and looking at their members. I hope you could find some use for it too.

 

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Text;

using Microsoft.SharePoint;

 

namespace TestSP

{

    class Program

    {

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            using (SPSite siteCollection = new SPSite(“http://test:41606″))

            {

                foreach (SPWeb site in siteCollection.AllWebs)

                {

                    foreach (SPList currentList in site.Lists)

                    {

                        SPQuery query = new SPQuery();

                        SPListItemCollection items = currentList.GetItems(query);

 

                        foreach (SPListItem item in items)

                        {

                            Console.WriteLine(“Item from site ‘{0}’ and list ‘{1}’ is named ‘{2}’”, 
                                                                              site.Title,

                                                                              currentList.Title,

                                                                              item.Name);

                        }

                    }

                }

            }

 

            Console.ReadLine();

        }

    }

}

 

  
Output

SQL Server 2008 – Will new features be leveraged in TRIM Context and SharePoint?

With the upcoming release of SQL Server 2008 (aka; Katmai) during the 3rd quarter of 2008, Microsoft seem to be working hard on delivering some cool functionality with the new database management system.  With reference to some of the information management products that I work with; namely TRIM Context and SharePoint, I see vast potential for improvement in these products while leveraging new SQL Server 2008 features.

A couple of new features that really excite me with respect to TRIM and SharePoint are:

1. The addition of the FILESTREAM data type in Katmai that will contain both structured and semi-structured data. This means that structured meta-data about the file is stored in the database itself, while the semi-structured BLOB data  resides on the NTFS file system. With SharePoint 2007, I never really understood why Microsoft elected to place files in a relational database rather than on an NTFS volume (built in the very first place to optimise streaming). Anyway, the point is that when the database is backed up, referenced files on the NTFS volume are backed up as well. T-SQL and Win32 API’s can now be used to access files seamlessly. I would think that Microsoft would be keen to leverage this feature in SharePoint 2009.
2. TRIM Record Locations are a reference to a physical or abstract existence of a body of information. Therefore a record location in TRIM could point to a person who owns the body of information or a shelf location where the body of information resides (eg; a book in a library). With the introduction of new spatial data types GEOMETRY AND GEOGRAPHY in Katmai, planar (flat-earth) and ellipsoidal (round-earth) data can be represented in SQL Server 2008 seamlessly. It would be a pity not to see Tower Software and HP ignoring to extend the Record Location TRIM concept to use the new spatial data types as this would be extremely applicable to the records world and several key industry verticals including State and Federal Department, Asset Tracking and Asset Management and auto-allocation.
3. The Change Data Capture feature being introduced in Katmai could be leveraged extensively within both TRIM and SharePoint.The Change Data Capture feature provides the ability to capture what has changed in a database structure as a steady stream. While this push-model could not only provide OLTP -> OLAP integration for both products, current capabilities of the products with respect to retention and auditing could be vastly improved.

SharePoint List Template Id’s

When creating SharePoint 2007 receivers, the ListTemplateId attribute is associated with a “value” that is an optional unique identifier for the target template for which the receiver is being built. The value of templates are as shown below. 

Value	Description
1200	Administrator tasks list
104	Announcements list
303	Blog Categories list
302	Blog Comments list
301	Blog Posts list
105	Contacts list
120	Custom grid for a list
118	Custom Workflow Process
130	Data Connection library
110	Data sources
108	Discussion board
101	Document library
106	Events list
150	Gantt Tasks list
100	Generic list
1100	Issue tracking
103	Links list
114	List template gallery
116	Master pages gallery
201	Meeting Agenda list
202	Meeting Attendees list
204	Meeting Decisions list
207	Meeting Objectives list
200	Meeting Series list
210	Meeting text box
211	Meeting Things To Bring list
212	Meeting Workspace Pages list
117	No-Code Workflows
2002	Personal document library
109	Picture library
300	Portal Sites list
2003	Private document library
111	Site template gallery
102	Survey
107	Tasks list
112	User Information list
113	Web Part gallery
119	Wiki Page library
140	Workflow History
115	XML Form library

SharePoint Elements by Scope

This excerpt was taken straight from the MSDN but I’ve blogged this, just in case it gets archived. I believe it’s extremely useful when developing custom solutions for SharePoint. 

SharePoint Content Deployment Alternatives

While the out-of-the-box SharePoint content deployment features can be restrictive; allowing only one-way replication of content, Syntergy offer a solution with their Syntergy Replicator product. If you are ever faced with an international replication scenario, I would suggest that you consider this product; noting that workflow instances are not replicated (see next paragraph for more details). Syntergy’s products are not freeware and come at a price.  

While Syntergy Replicator allows for two-way replication of SharePoint content, I have faced a situation around the replication of workflow instances. Workflow instance entities can only be actioned on the server on which they have been instantiated. While the workflow instance entities (workflow tasks, for example) are replicated faithfully, the workflow instances that are related to these tasks are not replicated across. Unfortunately, work-arounds have to be built for this scenario as international users attempting to action a workflow task are presented with an error message in SharePoint.

Another product from Syntergy called Presentation Publisher that is still in Beta (as of this writing) has the ability to replicate web parts and layouts.

In my experience, Syntergy have good support personnel and quality assurance teams in the U.S. and Canada who are always ready to help.

 

SharePoint User Rights: Personal Permissions

 SharePoint defines 33 separate user rights divided into three categories: list permissions, site permissons and personal permissions.The below is a description of user rights categorised by personal permissions. 

Right	Description
Manage Personal Views	Create, change, and delete personal views of lists.
Add/Remove Private Web Parts	Add or remove private web parts on a web part page.
Update Personal Web Parts	Update web parts to display personalized information.

SharePoint User Rights: Site Permissions

 SharePoint defines 33 separate user rights divided into three categories: list permissions, site permissons and personal permissions.The below is a description of user rights categorised by site permissions. 

Right	Description
Manage Permissions	Create and change permission levels on the web site and assign permissions to users and groups.
View Usage Data	View reports on web site usage.
Create Subsites	Create subsites such as team sites, meeting workspace sites, and document workspace sites.
Manage Web Site	Grant the ability to perform all administration tasks for the web site as well as manage content and permissions.
Add and Customize Pages	Add, change, or delete HTML pages or web part pages, and edit the web site using a Windows SharePoint Services–compatible editor.
Apply Themes and Borders	Apply a theme or borders to the entire web site.
Apply Style Sheets	Apply a style sheet (CSS file) to the web site.
Create Groups	Create a group of users that can be used anywhere within the site collection.
Browse Directories	Enumerate files and folders in a web site using SharePoint Designer and WebDAV interfaces.
Use Self-Service Site Creation	Create a web site using self-service site creation.
View Pages	View pages in a web site.
Enumerate Permissions	Enumerate permissions on the web site, list, folder, document, or list item.
Browse User Information	View information about users of the web site.
Manage Alerts	Manage alerts for all users of the web site.
Use Remote Interfaces	Use SOAP, WebDAV, or SharePoint Designer interfaces to access the web site.
Use Client Integration Features	Use features that launch client applications. Without this permission, users will have to work on documents locally and upload their changes.
Open	Allow users to open a web site, list, or folder in order to access items inside that container.
Edit Personal User Information	Allow a user to change his or her own user information, such as adding a picture.