?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