Google Maps and SharePoint

Exformatics Activity Management facilities geocoded data such as Google Maps. Various type of cases, e.g. equipment issues a Telecom operator, projects at a large building constructor and can all be associated with their longitude and latitude. Thereby you can seach for activities nearly of various types and get them displayed in a Google Map, as outlined below:



This blog describe how to inline a simple Google Map in SharePoint. Check out this link for documentation.

If you wish to learn more don't hesitate to contact me.

Content By Type Web Part

Ton Stegeman has done it again - a great new web part. Check out this blog for more information.

Large content databases - added indexes for performance improvements

Everyone that has inspected SharePoint's content database will notice that all lists and documents are stored in two tables only, AllUserData and AllDocs.

As only a few properties are contained in indexes searches will most likely lead to table-scans. Having a few 1.000 documents in SharePoint might not lead to slow performance but if you're looking at 100.000+ documents the situation is obviously different as outlined in this excellent article.

Potentially excessive number of SPRequest objects currently unreleased on thread

Hopefully you'll never come across the error "Potentially excessive number of SPRequest objects (35) currently unreleased on thread 5". It seems it can occur in several situations due to issues in your code as well as due to issues within Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

In order to avoid the problem in your code ensure to properly dispose the SPWeb object as outlined in this Microsoft article as well as in this blog. One important thing missing is the SPWeb.Webs() object - if using this object you also need to dispose all webs within the collection.

Potential reasons include:

• Invalid XSL stylesheet
• Drop down lists - simple C# example
• Orphans

SharePoint Content Database

In case you wish to modify the SharePoint Content Database through SQL rather than using Microsoft SharePoint API you might wish to start reading this blog.

Where is my content type used

If you have worked extensively with MOSS content types you have been in situations where you couldn't locate where the content type was used. Thanks for this blog you can now use the SQL below to retrieve that information.

DECLARE @ContentTypeName nvarchar(128)
SET @ContentTypeName='Document'
SELECT w.Title AS [Web Site], w.FullUrl AS [Web Url], al.tp_Title AS [List Title], ct2.* FROM ContentTypes ct1 JOIN ContentTypes ct2 ON LEFT(ct2.ContentTypeId, Len(ct1.ContentTypeId))=ct1.ContentTypeId LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.ContentTypeUsage ctu ON LEFT(ctu.ContentTypeId, Len(ct2.ContentTypeId)) = ct2.ContentTypeId LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.AllLists al ON ctu.ListId = al.tp_Id AND ctu.WebId=al.tp_WebId LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.Webs w ON al.tp_WebId = w.Id WHERE ct1.ResourceDir=@ContentTypeName

SharePoint AJAX Toolkit

If you haven't yet noticed it you need to check out SharePoint AJAX Toolkit. Or even better - start looking for jQuery support for SharePoint. I wonder if Microsoft will support jQuery in a future version of SharePoint. Woud be great.

AJAX on SharePoint - how to get started

This blog described how to get started with AJAX on SharePoint

Web Content Management Content Type IDs

Check out this blog for a great overview of SharePoint content types.

ASP.NET or SharePoint --> and SharePoint

Check out this article describing the relationship between ASP.net and SharePoint.

SPFileCollection.Add ignores title property on upload

Using SPFileCollection.Add (String, Byte[], Hashtable) as described on MSDN I found that it's simply isn't working properly :-(

Adding system properties doesn't work:

dim oHash as new hashtable
oHash.add("DocumentType","Contract")
oHash.add("Title","Leasing agreement with Smart Leasing Inc.")
oFile = oFolder.Files.Add(,,oHash)

oFile.Item("Title") is not equal to "Leasing agreement...".

The only way is to modify it manually after having added the file, e.g.
dim li as SPListItem
li = oFile.Item
li("Title")="Leasing agreement..."
li.UpdateOverwriteVersion(); ' In order to avoid creating a new version

Any explanations why "Title" property cannot be set in oHash would be appreciated.

Other problems with Add has been reported various places. This blog is worth reading.

SharePoint explorer view - cut-paste issues

Using SharePoint "explorer view" provides end-users with the old Windows Explorer view to files which is great.

However, in a few situations the "explorer view" behaves quite strange.

If you try using Cut-Paste the file is moved from one place to another - including all the history, old versions etc. This is great. However - the Cut-Paste does not respect event handlers that are operational.

I have an ItemDeleting events that blocks deleting documents from certain document libraries. It works fine from all interfaces (Word, SharePoint, Web Dav) - except from cut-paste. Obviously Microsoft had to implement custom code to handle the clipboard in this situation - and it seems that they forgot to respect the event handlers. Just too bad.

Any experience with similar issues much appreciated - as well as workarounds.

MOSS 2007 ActiveX contols

Check out this blog for details.

Great workflow tutorial - expense reporting

Creating a custom SharePoint workflow isn't as easy as you might expect. However, a great tutorial can be found here.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: Software Development Kit (SDK)

Finally released - check it out

Mail – effektiv kommunikationskanal eller tidsrøver?

Read here.

Managing Active Directory - SharePoint

Managing Active Directory is a challenge especially as only a few applications can act as a true LDAP client.

Extending Active Directory with custom schemas is an excellent model for applications that can act as an LDAP client (e.q. Exformatics ESDH). This allows custom application attributes to be stored in Active Directory, thus maintaining one single point of administration for Users and Computers in organisations.

One of the challenges is that the standard Windows Users, Groups and Computers view doesn't allow for management of custom attributes. ADSI Edit is the answer. Read more here.

Exception (0x81071003): Unable to update the information in the Microsoft Office document

When adding a document (Excel) to SharePoint I get the exception: "(0x81071003): Unable to update the information in the Microsoft Office document".

The exception occur in a ItemAdded event handler where I add a global unique human-readable document id to the document.

This most likely due to an error in the property promotion/demotion part of SharePoint.

If I try to open up the Excel sheet myself I get an error as inline VBA code cannot be executed. So if SharePoint tries the same no wonder it doesn't work. But how can you block promotion/demotion in such situations.

Ideas very much appreciated.

Search Query Web Service Test Tool for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007

If you need to work with MOSS search engine this is a must have tool.

Office property promotion/demotion in SharePoint

I came across this posting today about Office property promotion/demotion. Figuring out why and when properties are synchronized from SharePoint into Office and vice versa is quite a challenge. I'm still figuring out the details. Documentation and details needed.

SharePoint fine grained permission control

Just located this blog - an excellent description of how to extend SharePoint permissions to avoid approvers having delete rights.

Approve a SPFolder programmatically

If you are creating folders programmatically in SharePoint you'll notice that they turn of with "Approval Status" Pending.

Conclusion: And it's just sooo simple --> check out this.

Luckily it seems that you can programmatically change the _ModerationStatus of a folder item using the ProcessBatchData operation of the SPWeb object as outlined in this blog.

Unfortunately for me I can't get it working - yet. My code for ProcessBatchData looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><ows:Batch OnError="Continue" >
<SetList Scope="Request">{5234ebfe-58c5-4af3-8879-cde8ade42315}</SetList>
<SetVar Name="DatesInGregorian">TRUE</SetVar>
<Method ID="1,Update">
<SetVar Name="Cmd">Save</SetVar>
<SetVar Name="ID">14</SetVar>
<SetVar Name="owshiddenversion">1</SetVar>
<SetVar Name="owsfileref">http://intranet/Projects/Labbooks/ABC</SetVar>
<SetVar Name="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#_ModerationStatus">0</SetVar>
<SetVar Name="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#_ModerationComments">Exformatics Approved Folder</SetVar>
</Method>
</ows:Batch>

I get a proper reply back - but the folder is not yet approved. Maybe it only works in SharePoint 2003 and not in MOSS 2007. However, according to Joris Poelmans ProcessBatchData also works for MOSS 2007 - at least for creating new pages.

A good description with similar syntax can be found here - but not working either :-(

Strange workflow error - visual studio - Error 319 (0x13F)

Using Visual Studio.NET 2005 we're trying to create a new workflow. However, we get a strange error in VS.Net 2005 as outlined below:

Error 4 Property 'WorkflowProperties' has invalid value. Field type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowActivationProperties' does not match with the expected type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowActivationProperties'.

Any hints, ideas etc?

Workflow error codes can be found on MSDN, but little information about how to fix them.

I also get the error as outlined below:

Could not bind property 'WorkflowProperties'
Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.SharePoint.Library, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

I'm also trying to update VS.Net 2005 with "Windows Workflow Foundation Extensions for Visual Studio 2005" as outlined in various guidelines. However, it seems that Microsoft has renamed the tool - at least I cannot find the latest released on MSDN. I often wonder why it has to be soooooooo difficult.

Reorder properties in Document Libraries

I have tried to modify the sequence of properties in a document library and luckily I found the following excellent blog describing how to accomplish the result using the ProcessBatchData.

Controlling MOSS Document templates

It's a pleasure to leverage others work - rather than having to re-invent the wheel myself all the time.

Ton Stegeman has written an excellent blot about how to control MOSS document templates programmatically. Thanks you.

SPFieldUser with default value

Ton Stegeman provides a lot of valuable information on his blog. Refer to this note on how to create a custom SPFieldUser that defaults to the current active user.

SPItemEventReceiver - ItemAdded and ItemUpdated runs simultaneous

I have created a lot of event handlers over the last months, but sometimes I cannot get them working properly. From time to time it seems that item-events are running in sequence, i.e. ItemAdded then ItemUpdated. However, in other situations ItemAdded starts - but before ItemAdded finish ItemUpdated starts. I would like to ensure that one event is completed before the next is kicked off. Any hints.

It appears that is it critical to use SystemUpdate(...) rather than Update() as outlined here. But a note claims this was only an issue for beta versions?

I have tried using SystemUpdate rather than Update as sketched below, read this blog.
this.DisableEventFiring();
anItem.SystemUpdate(false);
this.EnableEventFiring();

The sequence of events is also quite strange as outlined in many blogs, try reading this.

Solution: It seems that if you ensure using SystemUpdate and Disable/Enable EventFiring as sketched above consistently in your eventhandler you don't have any issues. But I'm not yet convinced.

InfoPath password field

InfoPath doesn't support a password field otu of the box. An explanation of this can be found at Microsoft, but I don't really buy this explanation as InfoPath can be used for many purposes, i.e. like editing SharePoint tasks which is an online thing tightly integrated with SharePoint.

A workaround, using a custom task pane is outlined here. Unfortuntale that will not work with MOSS workflows :-(

A custom ActiveX component might be the only solution - quite difficult to manage and setup. But it is possible to create the control is Visual Basic 6.0 as outlined here.

Other ideas very much appreciated.

It seems that I could use Visual Studio Tools for Applications (VSTA). Will elaborate more shortly...

Custom columns not visible

Sometimes custom columns are not visible in Site Columns. The reason is the readonly flag as described here.

SPWebEventReceiver - SiteDeleting

I have been searching for examples of SPWeb event handlers that can block the ability to delete a site/web from SharePoint as outlined here. The SPWebEventReceiver class is outlined at msdn - unfortunately without an example.

So far I have not been able to get it working - but hopefully shortly.

Ideas and input very much appreciated.

I found a good example here.

A duplicate name "_dlc_Exempt" was found.

Any ideas what this error means?

Happens when I try to execute:

Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.InformationPolicy.Policy.CreatePolicy(SPContentType ct, Policy globalPolicy)

Conclusion: Believe it or not - simply ignore this error!!! The policy is created despite the exception - so catch the exception - and then continue. Excellent API.

Computed columns cannot be added to Document library

Using a feature I have added three site columns, one of which is computed. The two not-computed columns can be found under "Site Columns" in the Site Administrator window:

But what about the computed site column? The computed column is available under the site

oWeb.AvailableFields()

but doesn't show up above - neither it shows up under the Edit View (All Documents):

So - how do I add a computed field - preferably with a picture - in a view?

Further - very often Site Columns are not updated and displayed - despite an IISRESET - so they are simply not present :-(

Custom Link field in a SharePoint Document Library

I have a document library with various content types. Depending on the content type I wish to display different graphics, i.e. not just displaying the name of the content type but a graphics file instead., i.e. similar to the "URL (URL with edit menu)" field outlined below:


Depending on the version of the file I also wish to display different fields. I would like the published version of the file to be accessed from the same link always - and if a minor version exists this version should be accessed from another link in the list.

I have tried to create a feature with a custom field that contains exactly this stuff - no luck. The new custom field simply doesn't show up in my view.

I came across this blog but I couldn't get it working :-( Couldn't add an IF statement in a computed field. I got the error "The formula contains a syntax error or is not supported. " when I tried to add the IF statement. As a next step I studied the difference between Computed and Calculated fields as outlined in this blog. When I add the field as a Calculated field the above blog works - voila. However, changing fldtypes.xml is not recommended - would like to get it working using standard features. The other issue is that I would need to add this calculated field to all my document types in order to enable field selection on a view.

The issue currently is the fact that computed fields cannot easily be added to list or views - at least they don't show up if added as features. Calculated fields does.

Remember the difference between the two field types: Computed fields are not stored in the database but calculated fields are.

Further - you need to note the difference between columns, fields and properties - as described in this blog.

Still not fully understanding what is going on it seems that calculated fields are not really columns - so they cannot be viewed in the Site Columns collection (despite the fact they are added with other fields as part of the same feature). Neither - unfortunately - they cannot be added to a view.

If I look into the SPWeb object
.AvailableSiteColumns('')
my column is returned. But how can I add it to the view?

Apparently other people have had this issue too - here and here.
In SharePoint 2003 I simply modified onet.xml to accomodate this new field, as outlined here.

Modify SharePoint Content type order programmatically

In a recent blog Ton Stegeman has described how to modify the default contenttype order sequence using the UniqueContentTypeOrder property of the SPFolder object.

While the code fixes the layout for the New button it unfortunately doesn't solves the issue for Upload, as Upload uses the default content type for the document library - not for the folder :-(

Any ideas much appreciated

InformationPolicy - content types - challenges

The excellent information policy example described by Ton Stegeman here is an excellent starting point for learning more about SharePoint 2007 Information Policies. The example given works like a dream.

However - there is a challenge that I have not yet managed to overcome. When associating the informatonpolicy with a content type within a document library it works just fine.

But when I create a site content type and then create a new document library and add the site content type (with the information policy associated) to the document library nothing works :-(

When inspecting the details it turns out that no event receivers are associated with the content type found on the document library.

I was assuming that once an information policy is associated it would be enforced in all locations. This assumption is not correct.

LO digitaliserer sagsbehandlingen

LO siger farvel til papiret

LO digitaliserer sagsbehandlingen

Delete a contenttype from a document library

You can find a lot of information about how to add a contenttype (SPContentType) to a list or document library (SPDocumentLibrary). But how do you delete a contenttype from a document library?

From the administration UI you can remove a contenttype by selecting "Delete this content type" as outlined here:

But how do you do it programmatically?`

If you take a look at SPDocumentLibrary it has a reference to ContentTypes. The collection has a delete operation which takes a GUID of the content type as parameter, as outlined by Microsoft here.

dim oDocLib as SPDocumentLibrary
dim oCT as SPContentType
oCT = oDocLib.ContentTypes("Documents")
oDocLib.ContentTypes.Delete(oCT.Id)

Trying out this code raises an exception:

System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Specified argument was out of the range of valid values.
Parameter name: id
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPContentTypeCollection.Delete(SPContentTypeId id)

Inputs very much appreciated.

I got the idea to try using the Lists.asmx web service as described here by Microsoft. No luck so far.

You can get around the issue as described here. Set the content type programmatically before you add the items - but that is not really the answer long term :-(

Conclusion: Now it works!!!
I tried to delete the Documents content type found in the web collection AvailableContentType i.e. executing the code:

dim oWeb as SPWeb
dim oDocLib as SPDocumentLibrary
dim oCT as SPContentType
oCT = oWeb.AvailableContentTypes("Documents")
oDocLib.ContentTypes.Delete(oCT.Id)

this fails as described above.

The above code works.

Changing default content type in a Document Library

When adding several content types to a document library (SPDocumentLibrary) I would like to decide which content type is the default type, and also in which sequence they occur, i.e. in the New Document interface.

I have searched but couldn't find any information about how to modify the default content type and the sequence of content types in a document library. I found this blog saying it cannot be done.

Conclusion: It is possible - just read this blog.

SPItemEventReceiver - Mapping end-user events to SharePoint events

How do you map the end-user events with the various SharePoint events you can capture and modify?

• ItemAdding - i.e. adding a new item - ok
• ItemAdded - the new item has been added - ok
• ItemUpdating - updating an existing item
• ItemUpdated - an existing item has been updated
• ItemCheckingIn - about to checkin an item
• ItemCheckedIn - item checked in
• ItemCheckingOut - about to checkout an item
• ItemCheckedOut - item checked out
• ItemDeleting - about to delete an existing item
• ItemDeleted - an existing item is deleted
• ItemUncheckingOut -what does this really mean?
• ItemUncheckedOut - well

If you look at the SharePoint menu for an approved item it'll show the following menu items:

What puzzles me is the "Unpublish this version" menu item? Which event is linked with this operation?

When you check-in an item you can also choose to check-in and overwrite the existing version - thereby damaging the version control.

Conclusion: The ItemUpdating event is the answer! If you inspect the ModerationInformation field of the listitem you can find out the state - and block the Unpublish This Version event.

List SPEventReceiver Before- and AfterProperties

Inspecting properties in SPEventReceivers, i.e. the Before Properties and AfterProperties, enables you to modify the standard functionality of SharePoint. But how do you access all the propeties.

I found this great posting which explains how.

Custom field type definition in SharePoint

During implementation of a FDA CFR 21 Part 11 extension to SharePoint 2007 I came across the need to extend SharePoint types with some custom types.

Rather than reinventing the wheel I found this excellent post about the subject.

Replace MOSS 2007 built-in Approval Workflow

Using the SharePoint ECM SDK I have managed to setup the Custom Approval Workflow sample - it works as expected.

However, co-existing with SharePoint default content approval seems to be quite confusing - especially to end-users. Both approval workflows appears in the end-user interface as outlined below:



In the example above I have approved the content using the Sample Appoval Workflow from ECM. Notice that the status is Approved for Sample Approval Workflow - whereas it is still pending for the built-in approval workflow.

If approving using the built-in approval buttons the system will notify me during the approval with the following message:






resulting in the following screen:



Now my content has been approved by the built-in approval workflow - whereas it is cancelled in my custom workflow.

Ideas very much appreciated.

Filtering a view based on workflow status

I have tried to create a view to display items that are pending various workflow status. So far without any luck - but luckily I found this article. It's even better explained (graphical) here. So simply use the integer number rather than the text value.

Replace MOSS 2007 built-in Approval Workflow

SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) comes with a built-in workflow for content approval.

In some situations you might wish to replace this approval with you own custom workflow.

The tricky thing is how to accomplish this. While you can easily add new workflows to a list or a content type, I cannot figure out how the existing built-in workflow is replaced automatically.

The DefaultContentApprovalWorkflowId property seems to be solution - the only issue is that it doesn't work as the built-in workflow is not replaced.

Any ideas?

Linking SPContentType with an Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.InformationPolicy

Based on the article by Ton Stegeman and the DocIntegrityPolicyFeature example found in the ECM toolkit I have managed to build my own policy feature for regulatory document management. It works perfect - when deployed from the end-user interface, i.e. similar to .

But how do you associate a content class with an Information Policy in code?

The Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.InformationPolicy object contains the Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.InformationPolicy.PolicyCatalog.FeatureList which is a PolicyFeatureCollection of all available PolicyFeatures installed.

It contains the following features:

• Barcode
• Label
• Expiration
• Audit

as well as my custom feature, RegulatoryDocumentManagement.

Linking a contenttype with an information policy is done through the CreatePolicy interface described at MSDN.

MOSS ItemAdded event - problem

Conclusion: The reason for this behavior is due to the fact that within my custom event handler I invoke a web service - bad idea. This unexpectedly changes the user profile of Internet Information Server - resulting in the error described. For now - don't invoke web services from within event handlers :-(

I'm testing the DocIntegrityPolicy example found in ECM toolkit. It provides an example of implementing a custom information management policy. When new items are added to a document library, the ItemAdded event set the value of a certain property to a MH5 hash value of the file in order to ensure integrity of the file. So far so good.

Unfortunately, this behavior introduces a problem in SharePoint. Modifying the content during the upload process results in an error: "The file has been modified by on ". This message is somehow understandable - as the item truely has been modified. But it raises the issue how to add fields such as barcodes and labels to a document in a library.

Please also refer to this blog for a similar example.

The sequence of events is outlined below:

1. Pick the document for upload

2. Enter document properties

3. Error reported

The good news is the the document is uploaded just fine - with all properties (including the ones added in ItemAdded) set as expected. But why the error?

To make things even more compliacated it turns out that the modification of the list itself during event registration (i.e. adding the new field to the list) raises another issue with the error: "The object has been updated by another user since it was last fetched".

Modifying barcodes in Word - uniqueness

SharePoint 2007 features supporting records management are very promising. Reading various MSFT whitepapers have convinced us that SharePoint can certainly be the core platform for Regulatory Document Management.

My experience with SharePoint has proved this as we have had a solution for regulatory document management based on SharePoint since 2001.

However, in SharePoint 2007 things are not as easy as we expected. As an example SharePoint build in barcodes - which I have assumed to be unique - can easily be modified by the end-user as sketched below.

First - take a look at the SharePoint document library:


Then we open the file in Word, and access the properties. Note that the barcode value has been synchronized with a Word property - which can be edited manually as sketched below:


When I finish editing my Word document and return to SharePoint document library the barcode has been modified:



The result is fairly disappointing as uniqueness of barcodes cannot be guaranteed by SharePoint.

MOSS calculated field cannot point to a hidden field

I've tried to create a standard site set of columns, but of of the columns give me a very hard time.

I define a calculated field that points to a hidden field that I have also defined. When I try to add the new field to a site I get the error: "One or more column references are not allowed, because the columns are defined as a data type that is not supported in formulas".

If I remove the
Hidden="TRUE"
from the Field definition in the feature it works just fine.

Any ideas? If I add the field initially with HIDDEN="FALSE" everything works just fine. Afterwards I can change HIDDEN=TRUE without any issues - except from the fact that I cannot use the end-user interface to add a content type with that field in to a document library. But doing it programmatically works just fine - if I remember to toggle hidden in the operation. Strange.

Refer to this news-posting for similar experience.

ItemAuditing - fine grained custom auditing for SharePoint 2007

SharePoint Portal Server 2007 (MOSS) ships with an information policy that enables audit trails of various events within SharePoint.

If you wish to develop your own auditing, you can use Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the ItemAuditing example. First read the whitepaper and setup instructions - then download the code and try it out. This example is also part of SharePoint Enterprise Content Management (ECM) SDK.

Failed on Start - MOSS workflow

If the error "Failed on Start" occur while trying to start the workflow look into the LOGS files found at %Program Files%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\LOGS. The information provided is excellent - you'll get a detailled explanation of the issue.

MOSS Barcodes not unique

To our disappointment it turns out that SharePoint 2007, MOSS, barcodes are not unique.

SharePoint does not guarantee uniqueness.

Did I miss something?




Check out this blog for information.