SharePoint Blogs

Have a look at this wonderful screencast by Michael Gannotti about Popfly and SharePoint Integration
Thank you Serge for the link.

I’m using vmware to create virtual servers for this exercise. This is a great way to learn hands on. The vmware server is a free download, you can get it here. It will run on windows XP. You can also download Microsoft’s virtual server it’s a free download, you can get it here, but I believe you need to install the product on a server. I created a new VM. I installed Windows Server 2003. And finally, I ran sysprep on the server. Whenever I need to create a new server, all I do is copy the sysprep VM to a new folder. Launch vmware server and open the folder to which I’ve copied the VM. At that point it’s just a matter of renaming the image in the vmware server console.

I’ve applied all the Microsoft hotfixes, and have installed SP2 on all of the servers.

In this scenario, I’m going to create a small server farm. I’ll have three servers (two of which will be a part of the SharePoint 2007 implementation). The server names and their roles are.

SPSDC01 – Domain controller for the domain contoso.com

SPS2007 – The SharePoint Portal Server

SPSSQL2005 – SQL 2005 Server

This article assumes you have a domain controller all set up and ready to go with DNS configured, installed IIS on all of the servers, applied all of the hot fixes and you’ve already joined both your SQL and SharePoint servers to the domain. With that said, we will concentrate on setting up and configuring SQL 2005 and SharePoint 2007.

We need to create the accounts we’ll be using for the installations on the domain controller. This is a list of service accounts I’ve created on the Domain Controller, their purpose and which group they should belong to.

SPSetup: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Setup User Account
This account must be an administrator on all servers in the farm.

SPSQLService: This is the security context used By Central Administration for creating databases and other SQL configurations.

SPFarm: Server Farm Account
The farm account is used by the Central Administration Web application and SPTimer service. (SPTimer is responsible for sending notifications and scheduling tasks.) This account must be an administrator on all servers in the farm and have Database Creator and Security Admin rights on the SQL Server.

SPAdmin: SharePoint Admin Account
The admin account is defined as localsystem on all servers and is used to propagate changes and administrative tasks across servers in a farm.

SPSSPService: Shared Services Provider Process Account
The Shared Services Provider (SSP) process account is used by the SSP Web administration application. It has full access to the SSP configuration database and must be secured. It cannot be Network Service (default) in a farm configuration.

SPSSPWebContent: Shared Services Provider Web Content Account
The SSP Web content account provides the access to consumers of Shared Services. It requires the Network Service logon type.

SPWebApp: Web Application Process Account (Sites)

The Web application process account provides for isolated IIS application pools and content database access. A best practice is to have a Web application process account for each Web application created, providing application isolation.

SPSearch: Search Content Access Accounts

You must define a default content access account when enabling an indexing service. This should be an account with broad access and the password should not expire. You may also need to define content access accounts when crawling any data the default content access account cannot successfully authenticate and is authorized to view. You may define as many additional search content access accounts as required, but only one may be defined per crawl rule.

SPWSSSearch: Windows SharePoint Services Search

SPUserProfProp: User Profile and Properties Access Account

If you need to import users from a 3rd party LDAP or another Active Directory Domain, you will need to specify the import connection account in SSP Administration when creating the data connection.

SPExcelUnattend: Excel Calculation Services Unattended Process Account
If you need to connect to external data sources with Excel Calculation services, you will need to define an additional account in SSP Administration. By default, the above defined SSP Process account will be used.

SPOfficeWeb: Office Web Server Process Account
This account runs under the Network Service user context and does not have to be changed.

I’ve created a security group called SPAdmins and placed it into the built-in Administrators group on the Domain Controller. It’s a best practice not to add individual domain names when applying security to objects, instead use a group, and add users to the group. I’ve added SPSetup, SPAdmin and SPSQLService

You’ll have to initially log in as Administrator to add the SPServiceAdmins group to the local Administrators group on your servers. Once that is done, we’ll be logging into the servers using the SPSetup account to install the software.

If you’re using vmware server, you can create a snapshot of your servers after the updates and hotfixes are applied. This way, after you complete the installation of SQL and SharePoint, you can revert back to the state your servers were in before you installed SQL and SharePoint. This is great as you can practice installing the products many times until you’ve mastered it, and if you just want to use these machine for different things like maybe installing Exchange, then you’ll have a fresh server to use. It takes awhile to copy the image to a new folder; this saves some time as you’ve already copied the image with Windows 2003 Server installed.

Installing SQL Server 2005

Go to your SQL server, place the SQL 2005 CD into the CD tray, you should be presented with the following screen.

We want to select Install Server components, tools, Books Online and samples

Accept the licensing agreement and hit Next

Hit Install, SQL will begin the installation process.

Click Next

 I got an error message because my VM doesn’t have two CPU’s this is a minimum requirement. But for what we’re doing no big deal. Click next  

SQL will run a series of checks for disk space etc. Then you’ll be presented with the screen to enter your Product ID. Enter the numbers and click next.

Select everything and click next.

Select Default instance, click next.

Use the SPAdmin domain account; make sure SQL Server, Analysis Services and Reporting Services are checked to start at end of setup. Hit next.

Select Windows Authentication Mode, hit next.

Leave this default, hit next.

Install the default configuration, hit next.

The Error and Usage Report Settings will send error reports and usage data to Microsoft. This is up to you, click next.

Hit Install

At this point, I’d go make a sandwich. This is going to take a little while.

Ok the installation is complete, click next then Finish.

Install SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2

Next we’re going to install SQL 2005 SP2. Just for the heck of it, I’m going to restart my SQL server before I install SP2. Place the CD in the CD tray and let’s get started.

Basically I clicked on an EXE file on the CD and the process began extracting files. Next you’ll be presented with this screen.

Click Next.

Accept the agreement and click next.

Everything’s selected, click next.

Click Test, if everything’s ok click next.

Same as before, totally up to you. Click next.

Checking for Locked files

I have to stop all of these processes before I can continue. They are all services, so I’m going to go to Administrative Tools / Services and stop all of the SQL services that are started. After you stop the services hit refresh and if everything is stopped click next, then click Install.

This is going to take awhile. At first it appears that you must click the boxes to the left to select them, but you don’t have to. The installer will click them as each one is installed.

After the install is complete, click next. You’ll be presented with a summary, click next.

Finally you’ll come to a dialog box that has Launch the User Provisioning Tool for Windows Vista after SP2 installation completes. I Un-Checked this. Click finish.

Now we’re going to run the Surface Area Configuration. You need to do this to use SharePoint.

Click on Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections

Select Database Engine, Remote Connections and tick the Using both TCP/IP and named pipes. Hit Apply, That’s it. At this point I am going to reboot the SQL server.

Installing SharePoint 2007 Server

 

Before we can install SharePoint, we need to install .net 3.0. This will include the Windows Workflow Foundation. You can get .net 3.0 here. I’ve updated all of my servers to SP2 and have installed all of the updates and hot fixes from Microsoft. When I went to install .net 3.0 I got a message saying it was already installed.

Now we need to make sure asp.net 2.0 is enabled in IIS then we can move on to installing SharePoint 2007.

 

 

Launch IIS manager from the Administrative tools and click on the Web Service Extensions folder on the left. Make sure ASP.net 2.0 is allowed. Now we can install SharePoint 2007. Place the CD in the CD tray.

 

 

Enter your product key

 

 

Accept the agreement

 

 

Select Advanced, this will allow us to specify the SQL server as the database server.

 

 

When you install SharePoint on a server, it’s best to do a complete install. SharePoint 2007 by design is very modular and flexible, in such that you will be able to assign servers roles in the SharePoint farm by stopping and starting the appropriate services on the servers. (We’ll see that a little later). For example, if you select Web Front End as the installation, you’ll need to re-install SharePoint if you need the server to support any other services. So it’s better to do a complete install. You should have a complete install on one server before installing an additional web front end server. You can also choose where you want to install the files by selecting the Files tab and specifying a location. I’m using the default settings. Hit the Install Now button.

 

 

SharePoint begins the installation process.

 

 

At this point SharePoint 2007 is installed but not configured. This is convenient as you can break up the installation and configuration tasks between team members if necessary.

 

 

Next we are presented with the SharePoint Configuration Wizard. Click Next to continue.

 

 

You will see a dialog box informing you that IIS, SharePoint Administrative services and SharePoint Team Service will need to be stopped. If there are other sites on this server using IIS, you should do this during a scheduled maintenance for this server. We however may continue. Hit Yes to go to the next screen.

 

 

We are going to create a new server farm, so select No, I want to create a new server farm and hit next.

 

 

Here we define our SQL server and the service account we are going to use to connect to the configuration database. I"m using the SPSQLService account I created. Hit Next.

 

 

If you want to specify a port number for the Central Administration Web Application, this is where you can do it. I’m going to leave the default. You can choose NTLM or Kerberos as the authentication method. I’m going to choose NTLM. Hit Next.

(Kerberos is a more secure authentication method, but it requires support through your entire environment. You must also configure an SPN (Service Principal Name) for your Application Pool Process Identity. For information about setting up Kerberos authentication please see “How to configure a Windows SharePoint Services virtual server to use Kerberos authentication and how to switch from Kerberos authentication back to NTLM authentication”

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/832769

 

 

Review your selections, if everything looks good hit Next.

 

 

SharePoint will begin the configuration process.

 

 

When the Configuration wizard is finished, you’ll be presented with a Configuration Successful dialog box. Hit Finish to launch the SharePoint Central Administration Homepage.

 

 

You’ll need to login to the Administration page. Since we’re still setting everything up, I’m going to continue to use the SPSetup account to login.

 

 

Upon your first login, you’ll need to add the Administration site to your trusted sites.

 

 

We are now in the SharePoint 2007 Central Administration Webpage. Notice the Administrator Tasks at the top of the page. We need to do a couple of things before the portal is ready. Let’s go down the list of tasks.

 

 

The READ FIRST Task is basically telling us to complete the additional tasks. You can delete this task if you want to.

 

 

The next task Add servers to the farm is telling us to set up all servers to be used in this server farm prior to configuring services on any server. So basically if we have a farm configuration planned out, and we’re going to use more than one web front end server for example, then we should install SharePoint on all of the servers and have them ready to go. Let’s move on to the next task. You can delete this task if you want to.

 

 

The Assign services to servers task. This is where we will define what each server is responsible for. You can click the Action link to take you to the services setup page.

 

 

Since this is the first server in the far Web Server for a medium server farm should be selected. Notice in the services list, there are three services that say required on Farm, not running. We’ll start these services. First we’ll start the Excel Calculation Service. Just hit Start on the right. The Excel service will start pretty quickly and will briefly go to a page saying Operation in progress (to quick to take a screenshot) no additional information is needed for to start the service.

 

Next we’ll start the Office SharePoint Server Search, to start each of these services just hit start on the right side of the page next to the service you want to start.

 

 

After you hit start you will be redirected to the Office SharePoint Server Search Service Settings page. Check the Use this server for indexing content and Use this server for serving search queries check boxes. Specify an e-mail address that external site administrators can contact if problems arise when their site is being crawled. In the Farm Search Service Account I’m going to use the SPSearch account I created. I’m going to leave everything else on the page at the default settings. At the bottom of that page there is a start button. Click it when you are finished to start the service.

 

Finally let’s start the Windows SharePoint Services Search Service. After you click start you will be redirected the the Windows SharePoint Services Search Service Settings page.

 

 

I’m going to use the SPWSSService Account I created for both the Service Account and the Content Access Account. I am going to leave everything else at the default settings. At the bottom of the page is a start button. Click it when you are finished to start the Service.

 

  

Under Office SharePoint Server Shared Services select Create or configure the farm’s shared services.

 

 

You’ll be taken to the Manage this Farm"s Shared Services page. Select New SSP. You’ll need to select Create a new Web Application so we can create the Portal.

 

 

The name of the IIS website is Portal, the port is 80, the host header is 80, I changed the name in the path from Portal80 to just Portal

 

 

I changed the Application Pool Name to PortalAppPool and used the SPPortalAppPool account I created. I changed the Database name to WSS_Portal. Everything else I left Default. Hit OK at the bottom of the page.

 

 

After the web site is created you’ll be redirected back to the SSP creation page. At this point I’m going to select create a new web application for MySites. You can see the option to do this about half way down the page.

 

 

I’ve changed some things here. The site is called MySite I left the port at the default (not 80) and the host header is MySite. I changed the end of the path to MySite.

 

 

The Application Pool name is MySiteAppPool and the username is the SPMySiteAppPool account I created. Finally I renamed the Database to WSS_MySite. Hit OK when you are done.

 

 

Well be redirected to the SSP setup page once again. Now we can finish.

 

 

I’m using the SPSSPService account I created for the username. I changed the name of the SSP Database and the Search Database. Everything else is default. Hit OK when you are done.

 

 

We’ve created our Shared Service Provider. Hit OK

 

 

Finally let’s create the Portal. Select Create Site Collection from the SharePoint Site Management section

 

 

Make sure the Portal Web Application is selected. Give the portal a title and select Collaboration Portal from the Publishing tab of the Templates. For the Site Collections Administrator name I’m just going to use SPAdmin. Everything else is default. Hit OK when you are done.

 

 

Our top level portal site has been created.

 

 

When you first login to the portal you’ll need to supply a username (I used SPAdmin) and you’ll need to add the portal to your trusted sites. One last note, you’ll have to set up CNAME alias’s in DNS to allow the host headers to point to the SharePoint Server. That’s about it. We have a portal up and ready to go.

 

This was occurring on a SharePoint 2003 upgrade portal. The only thing we needed to fix was shutting down the SharePoint Portal Administration service. The errors stopped.

• http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa981241.aspx
  BE SURE TO LOOK AT THE REVISIONS AT THE BOTTOM
• http://www.microsoft.com/belux/msdn/nl/community/columns/stevenvandecraen/contentquerywebpart.mspx
• http://www.heathersolomon.com/blog/articles/customitemstyle.aspx

They mention going to /Style Libary/XSL Style Sheets/ItemStyle.xsl and modifying. As Heather mentions, this unghosts the page. Not the most desirable behavior. Plus, any user that does this will now see that as an option in the Presentation node of the Content Query Web Part Toolpane.

So in the .webpart file that is exported, find the ItemXslLink property and change it to something like:
<property name="ItemXslLink" type="string">/Style Library/XSL Style Sheets/CustomItemStyle.xsl</property>

So here is what what my CustomItemStyle.xsl looks like:
<xsl:stylesheet
  version="1.0"
  exclude-result-prefixes="x d xsl msxsl cmswrt"
  xmlns:x="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
  xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/dsp"
  xmlns:cmswrt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebParts/v3/Publishing/runtime"
  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt">
 <xsl:template name="MyTemplate" match="*" mode="itemstyle">
  <div style="background: red"><xsl:value-of select="@MyField" disable-output-escaping="yes"/></div>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Hi all,

I"ve moved my blog from http://therealwilliampowell.spaces.msn.com to here. :)

I"m quite excited about the whole thing. I"ll be moving over posts that seem worthy.

Thanks!

Well, I really don’t wanna do the regular "first blog post" so I"ll pass the pleasure…

I am Yossi Zaaroor and I"m from Israel.
I do SharePoint for 2 years…

That"s all for the 1st blog post…
I assume that the next posts will be more interesting and technical.

Have fun!
Yossi.

Well, as I am preparing for my next MOSS 2007 exam (TS 70-630), I officially use the Instructor-led Course 5061 + Collection 5404: Implementing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. But actually when I read both courses I found them similar to each other, maybe few points on 5061 not mentioned collection 5404, or mentioned in much details and vice versa.

In the middle of my studies, and after few searchs online, I found practice test exam for 70-630 as well as 70-542. Because I"m focusing on the first one, I took a virtual test and I passed it with 72%. In the 2nd time it was over 80%. But There were 2 or 3 questions on the practice exam I don"t think they answer it correct. I think I"ll blog about them later. Now I want to share what I"ve got so anyone interested can visit my shared SharePoint Exam Directory and download the available exams.

Hope they would be useful.

UPDATE:
I mentioned above that I there are 2-3 questions which I think they answered incorrectly on the practice exam 70-630. I had a dicussion with one of my friends about them and here are our resutls:
Question No 31:
You need to create a new Announcements list item when new documents are added to the Communications document library. What should you do?

• A. Create a new lookup column from the Communications document library in the Announcements List.
• B. Create a new workflow by using Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2007. Associate the workflow with Communications document library.
• C. Associate the disposition approval workflow with the Communications document library.
• D. Associate the approval worklfow with the Communications document library.

The answer mentioned by the practice exam was B & C, but the real correct answer would be ONLY B

Question No 32:
You need to prevent users from printing Confidential documents that are stored in the document library. Which two actions should you perform? (Each correct answer presents part of the solution. Choose two)

• A. Install the Internet Printing component on IIS.
• B. Enable the Information Rights Management on the document library.
• C. Configure the server farm to use Information Rights Management.
• D. Create new Web application policy to deny write access to the Authenticated Users group
• E. Add a permissions policy to deny use Remote Interfaces.

Again an incorrect answer is presented mentioning D as the answer while B & C should be the correct one.

Question No 35:
You have configured the serial approval workflow on the Reports document library. A manager has final approval on the workflow, but the manager is not available. You need to find out which documents are waiting the managers approval. What should you do?

• A. Manage the checked-out files for the Reports document library.
• B. Remove the workflow from the Reports document library.
• C. Create a new approval workflow and assign yourself as and approver.
• D. View the workflows task list.

Once more, it is saying the B is the correct answer, well this is wrong and D should be the one.

It is a good practice to regularly track the amount of storage space that the site collections consume and the pattern of usage. This assists in capacity planning and at appropriate intervals, helps you allocate or reclaim storage space.

The  provides information such as the amount of disk space that all the document libraries, individual documents, or lists in a site collection consume. The Storage Space Allocation report is available at the top-level Site Administration page under the Site Collection Administration section.

You must define storage quota for the site collection in order to be able to view Storage Space Allocation. If you didn"t define a storage quota, whenever you tried to view Storage Space Allocation report you"ll get this error:
"The storage space allocation page cannot be used for sites that do not have a storage quota defined".

When using the RSS viewer webpart the other day i noticed a formatting error in the title of some of the news articles. The code for a quotation mark “&#8216;” was being rendered as text and displayed as part of the title.

After closer inspection i noticed that these character codes were being displayed correctly in the article description so i loaded the XSL editor.

The default xsl for rendering the article title hyperlink is as follows

In the template named RSSMainTemplate.body

    <xsl:value-of select="title"/>
 

I replaced the code to match the way the description was being rendered.

    <xsl:variable name="SafeHtml">
        <xsl:call-template name="GetSafeHtml">
            <xsl:with-param name="Html" select="title"/>
        </xsl:call-template>
    </xsl:variable>

    <xsl:value-of select="$SafeHtml" disable-output-escaping="yes"/>

This worked, the news titles rendered correctly.

I have attached the full code here simply paste the contents into the xsl editor in the RSS viewer webpart properties.