SharePoint 2010 brings many new features!

First session at TechEd is completed! It was a really interesting session about SharePoint 2010 which seems to be a huge improvement over previous versions of SharePoint and WSS. Everything is made easier and more user friendly but there also seems to improvements on patching SharePoint 2010.

Some of the improvements and changes:

•  Better browser support (Firefox & IE of course)
•  Ribbon interface (AJAX) with live formatting of text etc.
•  Groove is renamed to SharePoint workspace
•  WSS 4.0 is renamed to SharePoint Foundation 2010
• Editing of Office documents within the SharePoint interface.
•  Many many more improvements :)

Create your own federated search providers in Windows 7

In Windows 7 you can create and add your own federated search providers for use in Windows Explorer. A while ago I published a step-by-step guide on how you can build federated search for a SharePoint site or for your favorite web site. The article is available in its full (in Swedish) at tipsomvista.se.

Gain access to Operations and Application Management in SharePoint in SBS2008

Some time ago I migrated a client’s Small Business Server 2003 to a Small Business Server 2008. When migrating their WSS 2.0 SharePoint from the old server to the new one I ran into some problems. I just could not get access to the Operations or Application management in SharePoint Central Administration, with the  below event logged.

Log Name:      Application
Source:        ASP.NET 2.0.50727.0
Date:          2009-02-26 13:23:42
Event ID:      1314
Task Category: Web Event
Level:         Information
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      CONTOSOSRV02.Contoso.local
Description:

Event code: 4007
Event message: URL authorization failed for the request.
Event time: 2009-02-26 16:21:50
Event time (UTC): 2009-02-26 15:21:50
Event ID: 0087e3fc2a3440178e6a801602c514f7
Event sequence: 113
Event occurrence: 6
Event detail code: 0
 
Application information:
    Application domain: /LM/W3SVC/1899589246/ROOT-1-128801351457937683
    Trust level: WSS_Minimal
    Application Virtual Path: /
    Application Path: C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\4721\
    Machine name: CONTOSOSRV02
 
Process information:
    Process ID: 7888
    Process name: w3wp.exe
    Account name: CONTOSO\Administrator
 
Request information:
    Request URL: http://contososrv02:4721/_admin/operations.aspx
    Request path: /_admin/operations.aspx
    User host address: ::1
    User: CONTOSO\tempadmin
    Is authenticated: True
    Authentication Type: Negotiate
    Thread account name: CONTOSO\tempadmin

After doing som troubleshooting I got everything working by editing the web.config file of the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\ADMIN directory. I simply added the line below to the file, saved it and then I could access the Operations and Application Management of SharePoint Central Administration.

<allow roles="CONTOSO\WSS_ADMIN_WPG" />

Case closed!

Fix for automatic workflows in SharePoint WSS 3.0

So finally Microsoft have released the infrastructure update which once and for all fixes the problem with automatic workflows not working in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

More information: Description of the Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: July 15, 2008
More information: Issues that are fixed in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 by the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Infrastructure Update
More information: A declarative workflow that is configured to start automatically when e-mail enabled items are created does not start automatically after you install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack 1 

Source: SharePoint blog

Hotfix for annoying SharePoint issue on the way!

Many users that are using automatic workflows in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS) have experienced problems with the workflows not running automatically after applying Service Pack 1 for WSS. According to Microsoft this is a feature because of changes to security. Anyway, Microsoft have had a KB article out (see KB947284) for a possible workaround on this since February but many people including myself has found this KB article to be useless as the problem remain after performing the steps mentioned in the article.

Anyway, after working with Microsoft Product Support Services on this issue for some weeks it seems that Microsoft soon will be done with a hotfix that once and for all will resolve the automatic workflow bug. I’m holding my thumbs!