MOSS & AJAX (Framework 3.5)

Hi,

More and more sites are using AJAX and it is not only "nice to have" feature but a mandatory one.

We can also use AJAX in MOSS and there is a lot of example how to on the Internet, but before we start we have to add some elements in MOSS web.config.

A few posts ago Michael wrote on how to update web config, so i added the XML file in here so u can copy it to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\config and run the stsadm commend

Warnings:

1. Before u run it backup your web.config and your DB and do not delete the element by your self only with the remove file.
   
2. Don't copy the remove and the add together to the Config directory only the one you want to run.
3. Very important don't change the guid before you are doing remove!!! 

SPQuery syntax

SPQuery is the best way to write queries on MOSS.

MOSS is using CAML to get data in the best and quickest way from sites,lists and folder. using SPQuery is in most cases the "best practice" way to find information in MOSS and also used in Sharepoint web services.

We have gather a few impotent information about SPQuery syntax,

Properties:

• SPQuery.Query:
  

• SPQuery.RowLimit: An int that indicate the row limit.

• SPQuery.Folder: Get a SPFolder object.  
  This is the best way to get items that are in folder.

• SPQuery.ViewField: The same is a "SELECT" sentence.

Operators:

Eq = equal to

Neq = not equal to

BeginsWith = begins with

Contains = contains

Lt = less than

Leq = less than or equal to

Gt = greater than

Geq = greater than or equal to

IsNull = is null

IsNotNull = is not null

AND & OR CONDITIONS

Using and & or is very similar to using regular parentheses, between each to operation we need to add AND or OR for example:

• AND:

We are using AND between 2 operators and add another tab when we add a new operator.

• OR:

The same as AND.

• AND & OR:

With AND & OR we are creating brackets, we create each one of the conditions and wrap them with AND/OR.

How to write CAML queries ?

A very useful tool allow you to build yours CAML queries: U2U Caml Query Builder.

You can download it at : http://www.u2u.be/res/Tools/CamlQueryBuilder.aspx

Performance consideration:

If your farm is well indexed, retiewing datas using SPquey in the best method to improve performance. See also our post about working with large list in Sharepoint

Template List ID

Administrator tasks list : 1200
Announcements list : 104
Blog Categories list : 303
Blog Comments list : 302
Blog Posts list : 301
Contacts list : 105
Custom grid for a list : 120
Custom Workflow Process : 118
Data Connection library : 130
Data sources : 110
Discussion board : 108
Document library : 101
Events list : 106
Gantt Tasks list : 150
Generic list : 100
Issue tracking : 1100
Links list : 103
List template gallery : 114
Master pages gallery : 116
Meeting Agenda list : 201
Meeting Attendees list : 202
Meeting Decisions list : 204
Meeting Objectives list : 207
Meeting Series list : 200
Meeting text box : 210
Meeting Things To Bring list : 211
Meeting Workspace Pages list : 212
No-Code Workflows : 117
Personal document library : 2002
Picture library : 109
Portal Sites list : 300
Private document library : 2003
Site template gallery : 111
Survey : 102
Tasks list : 107
User Information list : 112
Web Part gallery : 113
Wiki Page library : 119
Workflow History : 140
XML Form library : 115

Reference : http://simeonlobo.wordpress.com/2008/02/27/sharepoint-list-template-ids/

Content Type ID

Content Types ID

Item
0×01
Create a new list item


Reusable HTML
0×01002CF74A4DAE39480396EEA7A4BA2BE5FB
Reusable HTML

Reusable Text
0×01004D5A79BAFA4A4576B79C56FF3D0D662D

Page Output Cache
0×010087D89D279834C94E98E5E1B4A913C67E
Page Output Cache is a system content type template created by the Publishing Resources feature to define cache profiles.

Document
0×0101
Create a new document.

System Page Layout
0×01010007FF3E057FA8AB4AA42FCB67B453FFC1
System Page Layout is a system content type template created by the Publishing Resources feature, and it cannot be modified. To add columns to page layouts in the page layouts gallery and master page gallery, update the Page Layout content type template.

Page Layout
0×01010007FF3E057FA8AB4AA42FCB67B453FFC100E214EEE741181F4E9F7ACC43278EE811
Page Layout is a system content type template created by the Publishing Resources feature. All page layouts will have the column templates from Page Layout added.

System Master Page
0×0101000F1C8B9E0EB4BE489F09807B2C53288F
System Master Page is a system content type template created by the Publishing Resources feature, and it cannot be modified. To add columns to master pages in the page layouts gallery and master page gallery, update the Master Page content type template.

Publishing Master Page
0×0101000F1C8B9E0EB4BE489F09807B2C53288F0054AD6EF48B9F7B45A142F8173F171BD1
Master Page is a system content type template created by the Publishing Resources feature. All master pages will have the column templates from Master Page added.

Office Data Connection File
0×010100629D00608F814DD6AC8A86903AEE72AA

Universal Data Connection File
0×010100B4CBD48E029A4AD8B62CB0E41868F2B0
Provide a standard place for applications, such as Microsoft Office InfoPath, to store data connection information.

System Page
0×010100C568DB52D9D0A14D9B2FDCC96666E9F2
System Page is a system content type template created by the Publishing Resources feature, and it cannot be modified. To add columns to the Pages library, update the Page content type template.

Page
0×010100C568DB52D9D0A14D9B2FDCC96666E9F2007948130EC3DB064584E219954237AF39
Page is a system content type template created by the Publishing Resources feature. The column templates from Page will be added to all Pages libraries created by the Publishing feature.

Article Page
0×010100C568DB52D9D0A14D9B2FDCC96666E9F2007948130EC3DB064584E219954237AF3900242457EFB8B24247815D688C526CD44DArticle Page is a system content type template created by the Publishing Resources feature. It is the associated content type template for the default page layouts used to create article pages in sites that have the Publishing feature enabled.

Welcome Page
0×010100C568DB52D9D0A14D9B2FDCC96666E9F2007948130EC3DB064584E219954237AF390064DEA0F50FC8C147B0B6EA0636C4A7D4
Welcome Page is a system content type template created by the Publishing Resources feature. It is the associated content type template for the default page layout used to create welcome pages in sites that have the Publishing feature enabled.

Redirect Page
0×010100C568DB52D9D0A14D9B2FDCC96666E9F2007948130EC3DB064584E219954237AF3900FD0E870BA06948879DBD5F9813CD8799Redirect Page is a system content type template created by the Publishing Resources feature. It is the associated content type template for the redirect page layout

Form
0×010101
Fill out this form.

Picture
0×010102
Upload an image or a photograph.
Unknown Document Type0×010104Allows users to upload documents of any content type to a library. Unknown documents will be treated as their original content type in client applications.

Master Page
0×010105
Create a new master page.

User Workflow Document
0×010107
Items for use in user defined workflows.

Wiki Page
0×010108
Create a new wiki page.

Basic Page
0×010109
Create a new basic page.

Web Part Page
0×01010901
Create a new Web Part page.

Link to a Document
0×01010A
Create a link to a document in a different location.

Dublin Core Columns
0×01010B
The Dublin Core metadata element set.

Event
0×0102
Create a new meeting, deadline or other event.

Issue
0×0103
Track an issue or problem.

Announcement
0×0104
Create a new news item, status or other short piece of information.

Link
0×0105
Create a new link to a Web page or other resource.

Contact
0×0106
Store information about a business or personal contact.

Message
0×0107
Create a new message.

Task
0×0108
Track a work item that you or your team needs to complete.

Workflow Task
0×010801
A work item created by a workflow that you or your team needs to complete.

Office SharePoint Server Workflow Task
0×01080100C9C9515DE4E24001905074F980F93160
A work item created by a workflow that you or your team needs to complete.

Administrative Task
0×010802
An administrative work item that an administrator needs to complete.

Workflow History
0×0109
The history of a workflow.

Person
0×010A

SharePointGroup
0×010B

DomainGroup
0×010C

Post
0×0110
Create a new blog post.

Comment
0×0111
Create a new blog comment.

Far East Contact
0×0116
Store information about a business or personal contact.

Folder
0×0120
Create a new folder.

RootOfList
0×012001

Discussion
0×012002
Create a new discussion topic.

Reference: http://claytonj.wordpress.com/category/office-12/moss-2007/

Server and Site Architecture: Object Model

An interesting article about Server and Site Architecture Object Model

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms473633.aspx

Update Moss Web.Config

1. Programatically using Sharepoint API

We can use SPWebConfigModification object like this:

This code update CustomErrors value

// Get an instance of my local web application
SPWebApplication webApp = new SPSite("http://localhost").WebApplication;
// Create my new modification to set the mode attibute to "Off".
// Example:
SPWebConfigModification modification = new SPWebConfigModification("mode", "system.web/customErrors");
modification.Owner = "SimpleSampleUniqueOwnerValue";
modification.Sequence = 0; modification.Type = SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureAttribute;
modification.Value = "Off";
// Add my new web.config modification.
webApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(modification);
// Save web.config changes.
webApp.Farm.Services.GetValue().ApplyWebConfigModifications();
// Serialize the web application state and propagate changes across the farm.
webApp.Update();


This code Add safe control entry to the web.config :

SPWebService myService = SPWebService.ContentService;
SPWebConfigModification myModification = new SPWebConfigModification();
myModification.Path = "configuration/SharePoint/SafeControls";
myModification.Name = "SafeControl[@Assembly='MyCustomAssembly'][@Namespace='MyCustomNamespace'][@TypeName='*'][@Safe='True']";
myModification.Sequence = 0;
myModification.Owner = WebConfigModificationFeatureReceiver.OwnerId;
myModification.Type = SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureChildNode;
myModification.Value = "";
myService.WebConfigModifications.Add(myModification);myService.Update(); myService.ApplyWebConfigModifications();

References :
http://www.crsw.com/mark/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=32
http://blogs.devhorizon.com/reza/?p=459
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.administration.spwebconfigmodification.aspx


2. Deploying custom XML File in the Sharepoint CONFIG folder ( C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\CONFIG

Steps to perform it:

1. Write an xml file called webconfig.[myname].xml

2. Add yours web.config sections into "actions" node:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″ ?>

<actions>

<add path=”configuration/appSettings”>

<add key=”MyFilePath” value=”C:\temp\path\” />

</add>

<add path=”configuration”>

<connectionStrings />

</add>

<add path=”configuration/connectionStrings”>

<remove name=”MySqlServerConnection” />

<add name=”MySqlServerConnection” connectionString=”server=[server];database=

db];Integrated Security=SSIP;” providerName=”System.Data.SqlClient” />

</add>

</actions>

3. Copy your xml file into C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\CONFIG folder

When you'll create a new web application or extend web application the web.config will be updated with yours sections by merging them into the web.config.

If you want to immediately apply the changes you have to run : stsadm –o copyappbincontent

Reference: http://claytonj.wordpress.com/2008/03/19/custom-webconfig-settings-in-sharepoint/


3. See also : http://blog.thekid.me.uk/archive/2007/03/24/web-config-modification-manager-for-sharepoint.aspx

Document library internal fields

Recently i was needed to use OpenXml in Moss (hopefully i will write on this soon), one of the issue i needed to handle was the fact that it will only work of office 2007 files and not on pdf/office 2003/txt files and more.

After  a short google seach i found all the relevant suffix (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338205.aspx , http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100069351033.aspx), so all i needed is the file suffix. However, i was very surprised to find out that non of the SPFile properties or the SPListItem properties contains the document suffix (the last one make sense).

Then i remembered that sharepoint document library (as so list) have hidden/frombase/readonly fields that contains all kind of parameters, like:

BaseName - Document prefix.

FileLeafRef - Prefix.Suffix.

EncodedAbsUrl - Full document url.

DocIcon - Document suffix.

Author - Created by.

Editor - Modified by.

FileDirRef - Directory id and directory name (seperated by  ;#).

ContentTypeId - Content type id.

FileSizeDisplay - File size.

GUID - File guid.

So i used the DocIcon field to get the suffix and to check if the document support OpenXml.

Not enough details in error message

We all have got the famous error message "An unexpected error has occurred", or a message that was to short like "The file is not exist".

In most cases it will be very helpful if we know more details, specially when getting "An unexpected error has occurred" then doesn't help us at all.

So to get more details open the web.config, find the root configuration\SharePoint\SafeMode and change the attribute CallStack from false to true. Then find configuration\system.web\customErrors and change the attribute mode from on to off.

Now you will get more details to pinpoint your exception.

See also: http://littletalk.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/more-details-about-an-unexpected-error-has-occurred-in-wss-v3/

Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object

It's one of the common errors that we get when we developp with sharepoint object model.

To resolve this error you can check :

1. Application Pool Identity

When you use sharepoint object model from WEB SERVICE , you have to check that the identity of it application pool has the required rights to call the MOSS methods. In particular, the right to open site(SPite site = new SPsite).

2. Disposing of yours Sharepoint Objects

Check that you have correctly disposed yours Sharepoint Objects.
(see Best Practices: Using Disposable Windows SharePoint Services Objects )

Specifically, if you writed code like this:
using (SPSite site = new SPSite(SPContext.Current.Site))
{
using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb(site.OpenWeb()))
{
string ItemID = web.Lists["myListName"].Items[0]["myItemID"].ToString();
}
}

It's preferable to modify this code by:
try
{
SPWeb webContext = null;
SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
{
using (SPSite site = new SPSite(webContext.Site.ID))
{
using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb(webContext.ID))
{
string ItemID = web.Lists["myListName"].Items[0]["myItemID"].ToString();
}
}
});
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
}
finally
{
if (webContext != null)
webContext.Dispose();
}

How to add an PDF icon to MOSS document libraries

To specify the .gif file that you want to use for the icon that represents PDF documents in yours Document librairies, follows theses steps:

1. Copy the .gif file that you want to use for the icon to the following folder on the server:
Drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\60\Template\Images

2. Edit the Docicon.xml file (located on \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\60\Template\Xml or \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\12\Template\Xml ) and add the following line in the < ByExtension > section

< key="pdf" value="MyPicture.gif">
*replace "MyPicture.gif" by the name of your picture

3. IISRESET

Reference : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/837849

Working with large lists in Office SharePoint Server 2007

Microsoft published a very interresting white paper about working with large lists in moss:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262813.aspx
This white paper compare performance of differents methods that are used when working with SPList:

• SPList with For/Each
• SPList with SPQuery
• SPList with DataTable
• SPListItems with DataTable
• Lists Web service

The results show that using SPQuery with indexed columns are recommended to improve performance of retriewing datas from large Sharepoint List.

Unauthorized (401.1) Exception when calling Sharepoint Web Services

We get this error when we work with moss farm deployment scenario that implements load balancing.
In fact, it's a security fix in adress resolution mechanism that prevent a machine to resolve the loopback address from accepting a connection unless that machine name matches the NETBIOS name

One solution is to use the server name instead of the load balanced IP.

Another solution is to modify configuration entries on all servers of our farm as described below:

• Add the DisableLoopbackCheck registry entry discussed in this Microsoft KB article.
  Note: you will need to reboot your server before the DisableLoopbackCheck takes effect.
  
• Be sure to add your load balanced host name for your web farm to the Hosts file on each front end web server. Use the loop-back IP address (127.0.0.1).
  This will ensure that each web server looks at itself to access the web services preventing any trips back out to the load-balancer - and possibly calling the web service another web server in the farm.

Mark Wagner posted on his blog an article that describes this issue : http://www.crsw.com/mark/default.aspx

See also Microsoft KB article :http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;896861

SharePoint Dispose Checker Tool (SPDisposeCheck)

SharePoint Dispose Checker Tool (SPDisposeCheck) is finally available!
You can download it from http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/SPDisposeCheck.

"SPDisposeCheck is a tool to help you to check your assemblies that use the SharePoint API so that you can build better code. It provides assistance in correctly disposing of certain SharePoint objects to help you follow published best practice. This tool may not show all memory leaks in your code. Further investigation is advised if you continue to experience issues." (Paul Andrew)

For resuming, this tool allows moss developpers to check that they correctly use the recommended best practices, in particular:

Best Practices: Using Disposable Windows SharePoint Services Objects
Best Practices: Common Coding Issues When Using the SharePoint Object Model