Working with beforeproperties and afterproperties

Great overview found in this blog.

Updating document field value in SPItemEventReceiver.ItemCheckingIn() event handler

I need to update a property on ItemCheckingIn and came across this blog. Lucky me.

I have tried method 6
     properties.AfterProperties.ChangedProperties["Field Internal Name"] = "New Value";

but I couldn't get it working.

"Field Internal Name" should be "vti_Field Internal Name". Microsoft purchased SharePoint from a company called something with VTI. Unfortunately this didn't work either.

This blog is also worth reading as it explains the sequence of events.

Exformatics og Post Danmark Datascanning er partnere

Læs mere her.

Writing to SharePoint Unified Log

Writing to Windows EventLog sometimes causes issues in SharePoint, especially if using NTLM security. In this situation you might have to allow anonymous write access to the Event log by adding information to a specific registry key (Google if you wish more info on the matter).

As an alternative you can write to SharePoint own log, Unified Log, as described here on msdn.

Btw - I wonder why people in other blogs copy the content from MSDN and place it on their own blogs. What's the idea? It doesn't add any value - it only created confusion as I tend to ask myself. What is the difference?

ItemCheckingIn and version number - MOSS SP2 behavior

Came across this blog when studying version numbering in MOSS. It's great not to be alone out here.

And in the blog it gets even better.

Creating a site-collection programmatically

How do you create a new root site programmatically in C# or VB.Net. Check out this blog for more information.

Office - There has been a network or file permission error

Some of our clients are occationally experiencing the following error in Office "There has been a network or file permission error".



It's hard to find an explanation for the issue but I found this blog quite interesting. Indexing services on Windows Vista could cause the problem.

Another great blog describes ways to solve it for Windows XP SP2 and Office 2007.

More on SharePoint 2010

Came across this blog on SharePoint 2010.

ItemAdded - setting values - Microsoft recommendation

If you wish to set property values in an ItemAdded event in SharePoint - you need to create a separate thread that sleeps 10 seconds and then set the value. SharePoint is obviously not a transactional system. Read more in this blog.

Disable property promotion/demotion

I've been looking for ways to enable/disable property promotion/demotion without luck. Finally I found someone who had worked with this - it works.

Creating a web service in F#

Check out this blog on how to create a web service leveraging Microsoft's functional programming language F#.

More on SharePoint 2010

Doing research on Microsoft SharePoint 2010 I came across various articles and I found this from Lars Fastrup quite useful. Brief and to the point.

SharePoint 2010

The MOSS acronym is going away as Office will be referred to as the client product only. Not certain I buy the reason for this. In fact I view Office as the whole lot - editing as well as storing and managing. But obviously Microsoft don't have the same view - or their customers don't.

Read the blog http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/04/14/microsoft-sharepoint-14-is-now-microsoft-sharepoint-2010.aspx here.

MOSS Performance considerations

I just read this blog about performance considerations in MOSS 2007. Especially the section about SPList object is worth reading in detail.

Using the List.Items.Count should be avoided at any costs. It basically send a very complex and expensive SQL query, especially on large lists. If you need statistics use the List.ItemCount instead which uses the statistics information from SQL Server about the list to provide data. No absolutely correct though.

SharePoint Dispose Checker Tool

This tool is awesome - check it out.

Very large document libraries - very strange SQL

If you ever come across the following SQL statement you need to take a critical look at various web parts other SharePoint related code recently deployed at your site.

SELECT TOP 2147483648 t2.[tp_Created] AS c3c8,t1.[Type] AS c0,t3.[tp_ID] AS c10c5,UserData.[nvarchar10],t1.[Id] AS c15,t4.[tp_Created] AS c17c8,UserData.[tp_ItemOrder],UserData.[tp_ModerationStatus],UserData.[nvarchar1],UserData.[nvarchar6],UserData.[bit2],UserData.[tp_Created],t1.[CheckinComment] AS c23,UserData.[tp_WorkflowInstanceID],t2.[nvarchar4] AS c3c6,t3.[tp_Created] AS c10c8,UserData.[ntext1],t4.[nvarchar4] AS c17c6,t1.[DirName] AS c18,UserData.[tp_ID],t1.[ProgId] AS c13,UserData.[nvarchar5],UserData.[bit1],t1.[Size] AS c21,UserData.[tp_GUID],t1.[TimeCreated] AS c1,UserData.[tp_Editor],UserData.[tp_Author],t2.[nvarchar1] AS c3c4,t3.[nvarchar4] AS c10c6,UserData.[nvarchar2],UserData.[nvarchar7],UserData.[nvarchar13],UserData.[tp_ContentType],t1.[LTCheckoutUserId] AS c20,t1.[TimeLastModified] AS c9,CASE WHEN DATALENGTH(t1.DirName) = 0 THEN t1.LeafName WHEN DATALENGTH(t1.LeafName) = 0 THEN t1.DirName ELSE t1.DirName + N'/' + t1.LeafName END AS c11,t1.[ScopeId] AS c16,UserData.[tp_ContentTypeId],UserData.[sql_variant1],t4.[nvarchar1] AS c17c4,UserData.[tp_WorkflowVersion],t1.[ParentVersionString] AS c24,UserData.[nvarchar4],UserData.[tp_CheckoutUserId],UserData.[tp_Version],UserData.[nvarchar9],t5.[nvarchar1] AS c4,UserData.[tp_IsCurrentVersion],t2.[nvarchar5] AS c3c7,t3.[nvarchar1] AS c10c4,UserData.[tp_HasCopyDestinations],UserData.[tp_Level],UserData.[nvarchar12],t1.[MetaInfo] AS c14,t4.[nvarchar5] AS c17c7,t1.[Size] AS c19,t1.[LeafName] AS c2,UserData.[tp_Modified],UserData.[nvarchar3],UserData.[nvarchar8],UserData.[tp_UIVersion],t2.[tp_ID] AS c3c5,t3.[nvarchar5] AS c10c7,UserData.[tp_CopySource],UserData.[nvarchar11],UserData.[tp_InstanceID],t1.[IsCheckoutToLocal] AS c12,t4.[tp_ID] AS c17c5,UserData.[tp_UIVersionString],t1.[ParentLeafName] AS c25 FROM UserData INNER MERGE JOIN Docs AS t1 WITH(NOLOCK) ON ( 1 = 1 AND UserData.[tp_RowOrdinal] = 0 AND t1.SiteId = UserData.tp_SiteId AND t1.SiteId = @L2 AND t1.DirName = UserData.tp_DirName AND t1.LeafName = UserData.tp_LeafName AND t1.Level = UserData.tp_Level AND (UserData.tp_Level = 255 AND t1.LTCheckoutUserId =@IU OR (UserData.tp_Level = 1 AND (UserData.tp_DraftOwnerId IS NULL OR (UserData.tp_DraftOwnerId <>@IU AND 1=0 )) OR UserData.tp_Level = 2 AND (UserData.tp_DraftOwnerId = @IU OR 1=1 )) AND (t1.LTCheckoutUserId IS NULL OR t1.LTCheckoutUserId <> @IU )) AND (1 = 1)) LEFT OUTER JOIN AllUserData AS t2 WITH(NOLOCK, INDEX=AllUserData_PK) ON (UserData.[tp_Editor]=t2.[tp_ID] AND UserData.[tp_RowOrdinal] = 0 AND t2.[tp_RowOrdinal] = 0 AND ( (t2.tp_IsCurrent = 1) ) AND t2.[tp_CalculatedVersion] = 0 AND t2.[tp_DeleteTransactionId] = 0x AND t2.tp_ListId = @L3 AND UserData.tp_ListId = @L4) LEFT OUTER JOIN AllUserData AS t3 WITH(NOLOCK, INDEX=AllUserData_PK) ON (UserData.[tp_CheckoutUserId]=t3.[tp_ID] AND UserData.[tp_RowOrdinal] = 0 AND t3.[tp_RowOrdinal] = 0 AND ( (t3.tp_IsCurrent = 1) ) AND t3.[tp_CalculatedVersion] = 0 AND t3.[tp_DeleteTransactionId] = 0x AND t3.tp_ListId = @L3 AND UserData.tp_ListId = @L4) LEFT OUTER JOIN AllUserData AS t4 WITH(NOLOCK, INDEX=AllUserData_PK) ON (UserData.[tp_Author]=t4.[tp_ID] AND UserData.[tp_RowOrdinal] = 0 AND t4.[tp_RowOrdinal] = 0 AND ( (t4.tp_IsCurrent = 1) ) AND t4.[tp_CalculatedVersion] = 0 AND t4.[tp_DeleteTransactionId] = 0x AND t4.tp_ListId = @L3 AND UserData.tp_ListId = @L4) LEFT OUTER JOIN AllUserData AS t5 WITH(NOLOCK, INDEX=AllUserData_PK) ON (t1.[LTCheckoutUserId]=t5.[tp_ID] AND t5.[tp_RowOrdinal] = 0 AND ( (t5.tp_IsCurrent = 1) ) AND t5.[tp_CalculatedVersion] = 0 AND t5.[tp_DeleteTransactionId] = 0x AND t5.tp_ListId = @L3) WHERE (UserData.tp_Level= 255 AND UserData.tp_CheckoutUserId = @IU OR ( UserData.tp_Level = 2 AND UserData.tp_DraftOwnerId IS NOT NULL OR UserData.tp_Level = 1 AND UserData.tp_DraftOwnerId IS NULL ) AND ( UserData.tp_CheckoutUserId IS NULL OR UserData.tp_CheckoutUserId <> @IU)) AND UserData.tp_SiteId=@L2 AND (UserData.tp_DirName=@DN OR UserData.tp_DirName LIKE @DNEL+N'/%') AND UserData.tp_RowOrdinal=0 AND (t1.SiteId=@L2 AND (t1.DirName=@DN OR t1.DirName LIKE @DNEL+N'/%') AND t1.Type=0) ORDER BY t1.[Type] Desc,UserData.[tp_ID] Asc OPTION (FORCE ORDER)

This blog describes a similar issue, as well as this blog. Using
targetList.Items[...]
can cause this issue. Use
targetList.GetItemByUniqueId(...) or
targetList.GetItemById(...)
instead.

Also - might be related to this issue reported by Microsoft. A hotfix exists!

RunWithElevatedPrivileges

We have developed a series of business web services leveraging SharePoint. However, some of our users sometimes ran into security issues when their security level was Contributor.

Luckily I read this article from MSDN which describe that the
new SPSite()
requires privileges above Contributor to work. Running the code in the context of RunWithElevatedPrivileges sovles the problem. Fantastic.

Content Type is still in use

Despite the fact that no files has the a specified content type I still get the error content type is still in use when I try to delete the content type.

I came across this blog that stated that you also needed to look into previous versions of the files as well as files hidden.

Despite the fact that I have done this I cannot delete the ContentType.

I therefore looked into the SQL database in the AllUserData table in the Content database with the following SQL
SELECT *
FROM AllUserData
WHERE (tp_DirName LIKE '%')
AND ((tp_ContentType = ''))
ORDER BY tp_DirName

Then I got a list of files using the content type.

The main issue now is that I cannot figure out how to get rid of the content type from these files. Ideas very much appreciated.

I have

1. Checked in documents
2. Published them all - i.e. major version
3. Previous versions has been deleted
4. Emptied recycle bin
5. Ensured the content type I wish to delete is not default content type (apart from the fact that SharePoint suggest it to be the new default when uploading documents - which is strange. Maybe this is the reason?)

So what do I do?

Even if I DELETE the files and REMOVE them from recycle bin they still appear in the SQL search. No wonder I cannot get rid of the content type!

Even if I go through all files in the Document Library and explicitly set

oFile.Item("ContentType") = <...>

I cannot DELETE the content type afterwards. Very strange.

Server Error - SPRequest.AddOrUpdateItem

When trying to upload a specific Excel document to SharePoint I get the following error:


Other documents works just fine but a few documents fails. Ideas very much appreciated. Googling find various ideas:

• Open document in Excel, Press Save As, and re-upload - don't help
• MS XML 6.0 de-installed on SharePoint Server - MSXML 6.0 SP2 installed
• Filesize - no relevant - file size is 54Kb
• Save as Excel 2007, then Excel 2003 Fixes the problem - unbelievable

Server Error in '/' Application.
Oplysningerne i Microsoft Office-dokumentet 06Emails/06-1912/Attachment/ABC.xls kunne ikke opdateres. Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code. Exception Details: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException: Oplysningerne i Microsoft Office-dokumentet 06Emails/06-1912/Attachment/ABC.xls kunne ikke opdateres.Source Error:
An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below. Stack Trace:
[COMException (0x81071003): Oplysningerne i Microsoft Office-dokumentet 06Emails/06-1912/Attachment/ABC.xls kunne ikke opdateres.]
Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequestInternalClass.AddOrUpdateItem(String bstrUrl, String bstrListName, Boolean bAdd, Boolean bSystemUpdate, Boolean bPreserveItemVersion, Boolean bUpdateNoVersion, Int32& plID, String& pbstrGuid, Guid pbstrNewDocId, Boolean bHasNewDocId, String bstrVersion, Object& pvarAttachmentNames, Object& pvarAttachmentContents, Object& pvarProperties, Boolean bCheckOut, Boolean bCheckin, Boolean bMigration, Boolean bPublish) +0
Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.AddOrUpdateItem(String bstrUrl, String bstrListName, Boolean bAdd, Boolean bSystemUpdate, Boolean bPreserveItemVersion, Boolean bUpdateNoVersion, Int32& plID, String& pbstrGuid, Guid pbstrNewDocId, Boolean bHasNewDocId, String bstrVersion, Object& pvarAttachmentNames, Object& pvarAttachmentContents, Object& pvarProperties, Boolean bCheckOut, Boolean bCheckin, Boolean bMigration, Boolean bPublish) +199
[SPException: Oplysningerne i Microsoft Office-dokumentet 06Emails/06-1912/Attachment/ABC.xls kunne ikke opdateres.]
Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.AddOrUpdateItem(String bstrUrl, String bstrListName, Boolean bAdd, Boolean bSystemUpdate, Boolean bPreserveItemVersion, Boolean bUpdateNoVersion, Int32& plID, String& pbstrGuid, Guid pbstrNewDocId, Boolean bHasNewDocId, String bstrVersion, Object& pvarAttachmentNames, Object& pvarAttachmentContents, Object& pvarProperties, Boolean bCheckOut, Boolean bCheckin, Boolean bMigration, Boolean bPublish) +240
Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListItem.AddOrUpdateItem(Boolean bAdd, Boolean bSystem, Boolean bPreserveItemVersion, Boolean bNoVersion, Boolean bMigration, Boolean bPublish, Boolean bCheckOut, Boolean bCheckin, Guid newGuidOnAdd, Int32& ulID, Object& objAttachmentNames, Object& objAttachmentContents, Boolean suppressAfterEvents) +934
Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListItem.UpdateInternal(Boolean bSystem, Boolean bPreserveItemVersion, Guid newGuidOnAdd, Boolean bMigration, Boolean bPublish, Boolean bNoVersion, Boolean bCheckOut, Boolean bCheckin, Boolean suppressAfterEvents) +182
Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListItem.Update() +88
Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.SaveButton.SaveItem(SPContext itemContext, Boolean uploadMode, String checkInComment) +725
Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.SaveButton.SaveItem() +58
Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.SaveButton.OnBubbleEvent(Object source, EventArgs e) +249
System.Web.UI.Control.RaiseBubbleEvent(Object source, EventArgs args) +35
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.OnCommand(CommandEventArgs e) +115
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) +163
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.System.Web.UI.IPostBackEventHandler.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) +7
System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(IPostBackEventHandler sourceControl, String eventArgument) +11
System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(NameValueCollection postData) +177
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +1746
Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.1433; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.1433

SPListItem - SystemUpdate, UpdateOverwriteVersion, Update

If you have ever tried to figure out the various SPListItem Update methods the table below, stolen from this blog, gives you an excellent overview:

Method	bSystem	bPreserveItemVersion	bNoVersion
SystemUpdate()	true	false	false
SystemUpdate(false)	true	true	false
UpdateOverwriteVersion()	false	false	true
Update()	false	false	false

SPRequest object was not disposed before the end of this thread

Analysing SharePoint logfiles you might find a lot of Potentially excessive number of SPRequest objects warnings in the logfile.

In order to figure out the reason behind this warning you can add a registry key thereby getting a full stack trace as outlined in this blog.

Delete a file from SharePoint

Deleting a file from SharePoint should be fairly easy, i.e. invoking the
SPFile.Delete()
method.

But when invoking this code from a custom web service I get "access denied" error.

Rather than creating my own web service I investigated using standard SharePoint web services. Files can be deleted using web services - as described in the blog where files are deleted from InfoPath.

This MSDN article also describes how to delete files.

Web services are just so much easier to use :-)

Working with SharePoint web services - GetList and GetListAndView

Working with SharePoint web services is a challenge. Especially as it is not as well documented as you could have expected. So I often end up spending lots of time with small details which is mainly due to bad design. Let me give an example. Consider the GetList web service outlined below:

The web service contain one parameter:
listName
Whenever I use this web-service I always forget the it doesn't mean the name of the list, but the title of the list. Such a minor detail leads to waste of time - lot of time. And I'm probably not alone out here.

If you use the listName rather than listTitle you get the brilliant error message:
Guid should contain 32 digits with 4 dashes (xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx).

Does anyone know how to retrieve information about a list from it's listName rather than listTitle? As end users can rename lists easily the URL for the list is probably better to use than the name.

The security validation for this page is invalid

Wonder how to avoid the "The security validation for this page is invalid" error when using the SharePoint API. At least I do.

Fortunately I came across this blog yesterday. Not sure it solves all my problems - but I tried it out and some of the exceptions disappeared. I'll make more research.

Copying documents between doclibs - including metadata and versions

Moving or copying documents from one area in SharePoint to another is, unfortunately, not as easy as copying documents between folders in Windows Explorer.

Basically - you'll need to write a program to do so.

Luckily this blog descibres how.

The document could not be created.

The document could not be craeted. The required application may not be installed properly, or the template for this document library cannot be opened.

The error happens when I try to use a PowerPoint template file from SharePoint, POT.

Ideas very much appreciated.

Office doesn't behave properly with SharePoint - components missing

Sometimes SharePoint is frustrating as different PC's behave differently, especially when dealing with Office documents. This is due to the fact that Office needs some specific ActiveX components that should normally be installed - but for some strange reason sometimes seems to be missing.

This blog refers to a possible solution.

Check out Microsoft KB 938888.

Office 2007 document upload - files corrupt

Adding a file to SharePoint can be implemented through a web service as described in the note from Microsoft. It works fine - for all types of documents except for Office 2007 documents!

Upload goes fine - but when you try to open the file using Office you get the following errors:

The Office Open XML file cannot be opened because there are problems with the content.

• Microsoft KB 928282 - Excel and Word related - not relevant
• Depressing news ...

Solution

SharePoint seems to have an error when adding documents to the filecollecting using the

SPFolder.Files.Add

function. If you add from a byte-array it simply fails with Office 2007 documents. But if you convert the byte-array into a stream, e.g. by saving the byte-array into a file and loading it into a stream, then it works. It's unclear to me why this error occurs - but Microsoft probably drops a single byte in the byte-scenario - which is critical for Office 2007 documents, but other documents seems to survive.

Input and comments very much appreciated.

Some files can harm your computer. If the file information looks suspicious or you do not fully trust the source, do not open the file.

Creating new document based on SharePoint templates you often get the error:

Some files can harm your computer. If the file information looks suspicious or you do not fully trust the source, do not open the file.


SharePoint uses the ActiveXObject from the browser, SharePoint.OpenDocuments, and invokes the function CreateNewDocument (or CreateNewDocument2 in MOSS 2007) with the location of the template (http://...) and the default save location (set to the current folder).

This blog describes how to fix the issue.

However, this didn't change anything for me. Instead I checked out the htmltransinfo.xml file found in "c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\XML". Notice HandlerUrl - and also notice that when opening Word documents directly from SharePoint these errors doesn't occur. Didn't change anything either.

Some claims running Office Diagnostics solves the issue - haven't got time to try out this model - yet!

Tried it - no luck :-(

Application Event Log: Unable to connect publishing custom string handler for output caching.

We often get the following error in the eventlog on the SharePoint IIS Server:
Unable to connect publishing custom string handler for output caching.
It would be excellent to learn how to avoid this issue.

Googling the issue many refers to modifying web.config and either add or remove entries to the httpModule section.

• remove name="PublishingHttpModul"
• add name="OutputCache" type="System.Web.Caching.OutputCacheModule"

But what works? You tell me.

This blog most likely gives a great explanation of the issue. In SharePoint 2003 you had the concept of managed paths - so if you had other web applications on the server you needed to specify these explicit. In MOSS 2007 this feature is removed from the administration tool - and the above blog indicates that it should be added directly in web.config.

Create a DOCX programmatically

This blog provides a simple example on how to create an Office 2007 docx document.

Web part import - zoneIndex doesn't work

If you have ever tried to import web parts using SPLimitedWebPartManager AddWebPart you'll notice the zoneIndex parameter.

Unfortunately it turns out that zoneIndex only works if web parts are imported in sequence - so you'll need to make certain import is done in the proper sequence order.

After import zoneIndex cannot be modified programmatically - at least I've not found a way to do this.

Adding a contenttype to a list using Office

Today I learned that it's possible to add a content type to a list using Word. Facinating feature! It's even possible for users not allowed to administer the list to add a content type.

How is this done.

• Open a Word dokument from another list with the content type you wish to use


• Save the Word dokument to the new list

Voila - missing accomplished.

The way Office and SharePoint support this feature is through the ContentTypeId property found in Word as outlined below.

The contenttypeid is a guid: 0x01010E00B369AA1A2937544FB28BC321A473DF5A00BCFEABD7F057124C9046012A9BA89F62.

As SharePoint runs promote/demote document properties the content type id is added to the list. I wonder what happens when documents are sent between organisations - will probably be quite messy!

?contents=1 - broken web part

Web Parts are smart - but sometimes SharePoint makes it a little too difficult. You cannot edit the page as it's broken. Simply add ?contents=1 to the URL of the page will help you out. Check out this blog. I'm graceful.

Word did not save the document

Suddenly we consistently got the error "Word did not save the document" trying to create or update document in SharePoint.



We tried to research the problem using Google but didn't really find an answer - something we found quite strange. Then we checked the SharePoint log-files found in
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\12\Logs
and voila, we could locate the issue in the log-file, outlined below:
07/25/2008 11:20:13.31 w3wp.exe (0x1054) 0x1364 Windows SharePoint Services General 72ng Medium RPC method = put document 07/25/2008 11:20:13.31 w3wp.exe (0x1054) 0x1364 Windows SharePoint Services General 72n3 Medium put file doc URL = 07Docs/07-1521/New document.docx 07/25/2008 11:20:13.40 w3wp.exe (0x1054) 0x1364 Windows SharePoint Services Database 6f8g Unexpected Unexpected query execution failure, error code 9002. Additional error information from SQL Server is included below. "The transaction log for database 'INTRANET_Content' is full. To find out why space in the log cannot be reused, see the log_reuse_wait_desc column in sys.databases" Query text (if available): "DECLARE @@S uniqueidentifier; DECLARE @@DocId uniqueidentifier; DECLARE @@Level tinyint; DECLARE @@DocUIVersion int; DECLARE @@DoclibRowId int; DECLARE @@iRet int;DECLARE @DN nvarchar(256); DECLARE @LN nvarchar(128); DECLARE @FU nvarchar(260); SET @@Level=255 SET @@DocUIVersion =1 SET @@DocId='331203E1-CF23-4BE5-A306-B53A7F289DDF' SET @@S='9E4A9A77-CF3E-4881-9E6A-AADF9B17AB86'; EXEC @@DoclibRowId = proc_GenerateNextId 'D44ED427-5B4E-4AE0-AC38-BDDB2E54142E','2E51B790-B64E-43... 07/25/2008 11:20:13.40* w3wp.exe (0x1054) 0x1364 Windows SharePoint Services Database 6f8g Unexpected ...5F-A1F2-253C7ADCD4C4'; SET @DN=N'Sager/07Docs/07-1521'; SET @LN=N'New document.docx';BEGIN TRAN; EXEC @@iRet = proc_AddDocument '9E4A9A77-CF3E-4881-9E6A-AADF9B17AB86','D44ED427-5B4E-4AE0-AC38-BDDB2E54142E',1,NULL,@DN, @LN OUTPUT, @@Level, @@DocUIVersion, @@DocId,'2E51B790-B64E-435F-A1F2-253C7ADCD4C4',@@DoclibRowId,?,?,54317,1274,1,0,332,NULL,NULL,0,2097153,0,0,0,-2,NULL,0,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,? OUTPUT,0,?,? OUTPUT; SET @FU = dbo.fn_GetFullUrl(@DN, @LN); IF @@iRet <> 0 GOTO done; EXEC proc_DirtyDependents @@S,1,@FU;IF @DN IS NULL SET @DN=N'Sager/07Docs/07-1521'; IF @LN IS NULL SET @LN=N'New document.docx'; EXEC @@iRet =proc_AddListItem @WebId='D44ED427-5B4E-4AE0-AC38-BDDB2E54142E',@SiteId='9E4A9A77-CF3E-4881-9E6A-AADF9B17AB86',@ListID='2E51B790-B64E-435F-A1F2-253C7ADCD4C4',@ItemId=@@Do... 07/25/2008 11:20:13.40* w3wp.exe (0x1054) 0x1364 Windows SharePoint Services Database 6f8g Unexpected ...clibRowId,@UIVersion=@@DocUIVersion,@RowOrdinal=0,@DocIdAdded='331203E1-CF23-4BE5-A306-B53A7F289DDF',@Size=0,@ItemName=N'New document.docx',@ItemDirName=@DN OUTPUT,@ItemLeafName=@LN OUTPUT,@ItemDocType=0,@UserId=1,@Level=@@Level, @TimeNow='20080725 09:20:12', @tp_ContentTypeId = ?,@nvarchar1=?,@nvarchar2=?,@nvarchar3=?,@nvarchar7=?,@nvarchar14=?,@nvarchar15=?,@sql_variant1 = 0, @error_sql_variant1 = 3,@tp_ContentType=?,@tp_ModerationStatus=?,@acl=NULL; IF @@iRet<> 0 GOTO done; SELECT @@iRet, @@DoclibRowId; done: IF @@iRet=0 BEGIN COMMIT; EXEC proc_GetLinkInfoSingleDoc @@S,@DN,@LN,@@Level; END ELSE ROLLBACK; SET ?=@@iRet;"

Quite simple really - the log file was full and no disk space available.

Add a Web Part to SharePoint Page Programmatically

Adding web parts to a page programmatically can be done through the SPLimitedWebPartManager object.

However, if you plan to store you web part's in galleries you need to retrieve them. Web Part Galleries are just traditional SharePoint lists, so you'll need to search through the list, and retrieve the content of the item in order to retrieve the web part xml. SharePoint doesn't offer any special Web Part lists.

The blog describes the model fairly detailled.

Document parsers in SharePoint - Office 2003 and 2007 promote-demote differently

Understanding document property promote-demote logic is quite a challenge - at least to me. I still haven't found the great description of how to do it. Input appreciated.

However, this blog describe the concept of setting up property promote-demote. The DocParse.xml file is quite interesting - as Office 2003 and Office 2007 doesn't behave equally for property promotion-demotion. The reason could be this file - as the "doc" extension is not included, and SharePoint maybe for that reason uses another algoritm, thus leading to another result!

From this blog:

WSS includes built-in document parsers for the following file types:

• OLE: includes DOC, XLS, PPT, MSG, and PUB file formats
• Office 2007 XML formats: includes DOCX, DOCM, PPTX, PPTM, XLSX an XLSM file formats
• XML
• HTM: includes HTM, HTML, MHT, MHTM, and ASPX file formats

You cannot create a custom document parser for these file types. With the XML parser, you can use content types to specify which document properties you want to map to which content type columns, and where the document properties reside in your XML documents.

Connect to Outlook - scripting

Connecting a SharePoint folder can easily be scripted as described in this blog. SharePoint uses its own javascript function, ExportHailStorm, to accomplish this.

The stssync protocol, outlined at msdn, is used to enable the synchronization to happen.

If you click Connect to Outlook as outlined below

Outlook will then display the following menu

Clicking advanced will bring up this menu


Various tools exists to enabel two-way synchronization between SharePoint and your desktop, of which Microsoft provide Groove as a part of Office while Colligo Contributor seems a far better solution as outlined in this blog. Also refer to this blog for relevant information about how to access information in SharePoint from OWA.

function ExportHailStorm(type,weburl,guid,webname,listname,viewurl,passport,listrooturl,folderurl,folderid)

Google Maps in SQL Server - 2005 and 2008

SQL Server 2008 provides support for storing geographical information in the database with the new database geography. For SQL Server 2005 you can read this blog for more information.

Leveraging Google Maps enable you to build a simple web part which can map the address of a contact to a map in Google. Awesome. AJAX today - maybe jQuery in the near future.

ItemAdded - listItem is null

I have reported this issue before but haven't found a solution - yet. However, today I came across this blog describing the same problem in the ItemAdding event - which is expected behavior. Apparently others have had this issue too.

Change approval status without changing ModifiedBy property on a document

We have created a copy-paste utility for SharePoint 2007 which enables documents to be moved from one place within SharePoint to another.

When we move or copy the file we include properties as well as versions with Createdy, ModifiedBy, TimeCreated and TimeLastModified. Everything works fine except for one issue.

When we publish a document using SPFile.Publish() the ModifiedBy and TimeLastModified are changed - therefore we lose the version history.

Instead we try to fix the issue using the comment field - somehow it solves part of the issue but we would appreciate a better solution.

We have tried changing

oFile.Publish([comment])

to

oFile.Item.ModerationInformation.Status = SPModerationInformation.Approved

oFile.Item.ModerationInformation.Comment = [comment]

oFile.Item.SystemUpdate(false)

but unfortunately ModerationInformation is not available on the SPFile object.

This blog mention the same issue - without a solution. Ideas appreciated.

As our last resort we're currently investigating creating a stored procedure which modified the SharePoint SQL database behind the scene. We would prefer not using this solution (albeit it works).

One of more field types are not installed properly

If you have ever come across the error One of more field types are not installed properly then you know it isn't easy to fix. If it happens in a query download the U2U CAML Builder as described in the blog.

Unfortunately I get the error when I try to delete the field from SharePoint using oDocLib.Fields.Delete(). Any ideas why this happens would be appreciated.

Fortunately this blog gave me some hints.

Programmatically adding web parts to pages - audience targeting

For easy deployment of web part pages we have build a tool to add web parts to pages, using the SPLimitedWebPartManager feature.

For some web parts we wish to control audience, and to my luck I came across this page describing how to do this. However, understanding the AuthorizationFilter is a challenge.

Reverse engineering is probably the answer ... will update once I have figured this out.

Avoid checkin when uploading files

When uploading files to SharePoint they sometimes are left in checked out status. If the users don't checkin files after upload, other users cannot see the files.

This can happen even for Document Libraries without versioning - and changing it to avoid checkin is not simple.


You need to ensure at least that:

• Require documents to be checked out before they can be edited = false
• No versioning af Document library - probably not required
• Ensure no mandatory columns exists - or ensure they have default values

Check out this blog for information.

Copy files between document libraries

If you wish to copy files between SharePoint sites or document libraries you cannot use the built-in function, CopyTo, found in the SPFile object, as this only works within the same document library :-(

Instead, you need to traverse all versions of a document, which raises a critical issue. How to ensure the created, createdby, modified and modifiedby properties to be the same in the new document as in the old.

SPFileCollection contains an Add method to add new files. Unfortunately it doesn't exists with all the parameters needed, i.e. properties as well as created, createdby, modified and modifiedby. This method is missing:
SPFileCollection.Add (String, Byte[], Hashtable, Boolean, SPUser, SPUser, DateTime, DateTime)

As this method doesn't exists you have two options.

1. Copy document with properties - and fix dates and users manually afterwards
2. Copy document with dates and users - and fix properties manually afterwards

Both methods raises some issues - as you need to manipulate the SPFile and SPListItem object directly.

Manually manipulating createdby can be done as sketched below:

listitem["Created"] = new DateTime(2006, 11,1);
listitem["Modified"] = new DateTime(2006, 12,1);
listitem.UpdateOverwriteVersion();

as outlined on MSDN. Unfortunately this code doesn't work :-(

Other ideas very much appreciated.

Check out other blogs, such as this. Unfortunately it doesn't addess all the issues.

Hint to a solution?

Various investigations led me to analyzing the properties of the listitem after having added the item. It turns out that:

listitem[SPBuiltInFieldId.Created]

listitem[SPBuiltInFieldId.Created_x0020_Date]

are not equal! Created_x0020_Date contains the value of li["Created"] whereas SPBuiltInField.Created was the time the document was added to SharePoint.

This is even the case in situations where you use the

SPFileCollection.Add (String, Byte[], SPUser, SPUser, DateTime, DateTime)

which was a surpise to me !

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.

Unique Document ID in MOSS 2007

I came across this blog describing how to implement unique documents ids in SharePoint 2007. Interesting stuff...

SharePoint 2007 compliance

Microsoft announces that they expect to support more formal compliance requirements such as DoD 5015.2 in May 2007. Hopefully support fo FDA CFR 21 Part 11 will follow shortly.