Konged Again

Friday, 1 November 2013

Information Management Policy Bug before SP3

The information management policy on SharePoint 2007 libraries is a very useful feature.

However, there is a strange bug that has been confirmed by MS Engineers. If you have more than 1 library yes ONE library in a site collection that has an expiry policy that has a different time span and needs to invoke a SharePoint Designer Workflow when the expiration is due. It does not work for the second library.

Great what a surprise. If we need it to work for more than one library, we have to develop a custom .Net component that re-iterate through the library, scan a document's last modified date to see if it is greater than say 6 months. Then if it is older than 6 months with code fire a workflow that is on the list done in SharePoint Designer.

However, this is confirm fixed if you have SP3.

Why can't things be easier. ;-)

Recursive Trans-actional Issue with Workflows that Start on Create and On Modify

In SharePoint Designer if you have a multi-step workflow that fires on creation and on modified on a library. When user initially uploads, they sometimes get an error message. You will find the workflow has fired expectedly behind the scene. It happens occasionally but when it happens it persists, user can return to site and continue and the workflow has fired.

User sees an error message is "The file XXX has been modified by XXX".

Research into this with MS Engineer and the cause was identified as a “Recursive” workflow. It appears that “Item Created/Added” and “Item Modified” events are triggered when the document is uploaded and properties are set. Therefore, the workflow will be invoked twice causing SharePoint some trouble in handling them. Umm.

The solution was to modify the workflow in SharePoint designer and have a Pause for Duration action at the start of the workflow. It can alleviate the likelihood of the workflow crashing because they are trying to run at the same time after the user uploads - triggering the Add event and when user enters and saves some additional properties for the document in the form and hit OK.

Error Output embedded into file when downloading from SharePoint

Now in SharePoint 2007 there is a strange error. If user does not have read permission on the main site but only on the library, when they download a .csv file, an error output stream is appended to the download file. When user opens it in Notepad or Excel it shows the error stream's XML it after the data.

Shown like below is the error that gets shown. MS Engineers confirms this feature. Seems to have been fixed for Sharepoint 2010.

<html>
<head>
<title>Runtime Error</title>
<style>
body {font-family:"Verdana";font-weight:normal;font-size: .7em;color:black;}
p {font-family:"Verdana";font-weight:normal;color:black;margin-top: -5px}
b {font-family:"Verdana";font-weight:bold;color:black;margin-top: -5px}
H1 { font-family:"Verdana";font-weight:normal;font-size:18pt;color:red }
H2 { font-family:"Verdana";font-weight:normal;font-size:14pt;color:maroon }
pre {font-family:"Lucida Console";font-size: .9em}
.marker {font-weight: bold; color: black;text-decoration: none;}
.version {color: gray;}
.error {margin-bottom: 10px;}
.expandable { text-decoration:underline; font-weight:bold; color:navy; cursor:hand; }
</style>
</head>

<body bgcolor="white">

<span><H1>Server Error in '/' Application.<hr width=100% size=1 color=silver></H1>

<h2> <i>Runtime Error</i> </h2></span>

<font face="Arial Helvetica Geneva SunSans-Regular sans-serif ">

<b> Description: </b>An application error occurred on the server. The current custom error settings for this application prevent the details of the application error from being viewed remotely (for security reasons). It could however be viewed by browsers running on the local server machine.
<br><br>

<b>Details:</b> To enable the details of this specific error message to be viewable on remote machines please create a <customErrors> tag within a "web.config" configuration file located in the root directory of the current web application. This <customErrors> tag should then have its "mode" attribute set to "Off".<br><br>

<table width=100% bgcolor="#ffffcc">
<tr>
<td>
<code><pre>



<configuration>
<system.web>
<customErrors mode="Off"/>
</system.web>
</configuration></pre></code>

</td>
</tr>
</table>

<br>

<b>Notes:</b> The current error page you are seeing can be replaced by a custom error page by modifying the "defaultRedirect" attribute of the application's <customErrors> configuration tag to point to a custom error page URL.<br><br>

<table width=100% bgcolor="#ffffcc">
<tr>
<td>
<code><pre>



<configuration>
<system.web>
<customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="mycustompage.htm"/>
</system.web>
</configuration></pre></code>

</td>
</tr>
</table>

<br>

</body>
</html>

Index Dat file 16 meg Gotcha

We had a batch program that copied files using webDav to SharePoint locations. Sometimes it would completely die and hay we get to hear all the noise.

It turns out its a feature of the webDav process running with the WebClient Services. It builds a file called Index.dat in the
C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 directory

It grows everytime more files are written to location and guess what there is an upper limit of 16 meg for the file. Therefore, if its over that, the mechanisms crashes and you have to reset the file to get going again.

The following actions need to be performed by a Server Admin.

1. Login to the server where the batch program runs from. Login with the account that the job runs under. It caches something with the account logged in used to re-start it that suppresses any challenge and response prompt after reactivation.

2. Open a Cmd Prompt window then run

3. Run the following command.

net stop webclient

net stop mrxdav

4. Then backup the Index.dat file located in C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5

5. Then delete the Index.dat file located in C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5

6. Run the following command.
net start mrxdav

net start webclient

7. Then quick test, On Run command box navigate to the webDav location eg \\xxx.com\test\Shared

Voila Voila, the noise starts dying.

Updated, seems like Win Server 2008 with IE10 and beyond may not suffer this issue anymore. The file names have changed too and the index.dat file is called WebcacheV01.dat.

C:\user\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WebCache\WebcacheV01.dat

There does not seem to be a file size limit to this either. http://www.sevenforums.com/browsers-mail/311407-ie10-uses-webcachev01-dat-vs-index-dat-files-how-clear-delete.html

Workflow to copy attachments from one list to another fails

SharePoint Designer 2007 Workflow hangs when attachment field is attempted to copy over from source to a destination list.

Tried it in a SharePoint Designer 2007 workflow.

Been told and confirm it is a feature of SharePoint 2007 by MS Engineer who can replicate and see the system message that attachments cannot be individually copied with SharePoint Designer Workflow.

NB.. So it won't let you just copy the attachments of the list item to another. Umm and I have told the feature is still the same in SharePoint 2010.

The only way is for a custom .NET programmed solution to achieve the fype of functionality.

Thursday, 31 October 2013

Change Count text in SharePoint List with Code

Some very useful code that can change more than 1 Count property's text in a SharePoint list webpart.

For example I want Count = 10 to be changed to Total = 10

Code below can change 2 webpart's count that are on the same page.

NB.. Some of GUID IDs for Table needs to be substituted.

<script type="text/javascript">
//
// Some code to change the label for each of the list view tables with the Count = xx to Total = xx

var aggrHTMLInProgress = $('TABLE[id*={1973257D-0EF7-4C2A-AB5C-8E92348673F3}-{79952389-ED0A-44B2-B8D7-805CE39F0F38}] > TBODY[id*=aggr] > tr > td > table > tbody > tr > td > nobr > b');
var aggrTextInProgress = aggrHTMLInProgress.text();
var newTextForInProgress = "Total" + aggrTextInProgress.substring(5);
aggrHTMLInProgress.html(newTextForInProgress);

var aggrHTMLCompleted = $('TABLE[id*={1973257D-0EF7-4C2A-AB5C-8E92348673F3}-{038EBE13-6C6B-47E2-A695-CFBAC095F365}] > TBODY[id*=aggr] > tr > td > table > tbody > tr > td > nobr > b');
var aggrTextCompleted = aggrHTMLCompleted.text();
var newTextForCompleted = "Total" + aggrTextCompleted.substring(5);
aggrHTMLCompleted.html(newTextForCompleted);

//-->
</script>

The id*={1973257D-0EF7-4C2A-AB5C-8E92348673F3}-{79952389-ED0A-44B2-B8D7-805CE39F0F38} and TBODY[id*=aggr] can change on different list and views. These are variables and must be looked up in the view source to match your list and view that you are using. They change on every list and every view.

If there were only one webaprt that is grouped. The text can also be changed with this technique in principle.

Consider below.

Where you have to change the Count to show Total

The following script will change it.

<script type="text/javascript">
//
// Some code to change the label for each of the list view tables with the Count = xx to Total = xx

var aggrHTMLInProgress = $('TABLE[id*={1973257D-0EF7-4C2A-AB5C-8E92348673F3}-{6DAB6104-AF6B-43E6-AF81-9B6F1FC4AC94}] > TBODY[id*=aggr3-1__] > tr > td > table > tbody > tr > td > nobr > b');
var aggrTextInProgress = aggrHTMLInProgress.text();
var newTextForInProgress = "Total" + aggrTextInProgress.substring(5);
aggrHTMLInProgress.html(newTextForInProgress);

var aggrHTMLCompleted = $('TABLE[id*={1973257D-0EF7-4C2A-AB5C-8E92348673F3}-{6DAB6104-AF6B-43E6-AF81-9B6F1FC4AC94}] > TBODY[id*=aggr3-2__] > tr > td > table > tbody > tr > td > nobr > b');
var aggrTextCompleted = aggrHTMLCompleted.text();
var newTextForCompleted = "Total" + aggrTextCompleted.substring(5);
aggrHTMLCompleted.html(newTextForCompleted);

var aggrHTMLTotal = $('TABLE[id*={1973257D-0EF7-4C2A-AB5C-8E92348673F3}-{6DAB6104-AF6B-43E6-AF81-9B6F1FC4AC94}] > TBODY[id=aggr] > tr > td > table > tbody > tr > td > nobr > b');
var aggrTextTotal = aggrHTMLTotal.text();
var newTextForTotal = "Total" + aggrTextTotal.substring(5);
aggrHTMLTotal.html(newTextForTotal);

//-->
</script>

The result is this shown below. Notice the Table id is now the same. But the TBODY is different for each. Both highlighted in the code above.

Simple Slide Show for CEWP

I was asked to create a simple slide show embedded into a SharePoint page. I could not just plonk in a SharePoint Slide show link like this

http://xxx.com/officeAdmin/Photo%20Library/Forms/slidshow.aspx?ViewStyle=slideshow&RootFolder=%2018%20Oct%202013

as a pop up as it was required that it sat inside a page.

Came across a simple slide show that can be embedded into a CEWP for a SharePoint page. Must be credited to dynamicdrive.com for use.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.2/jquery.min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex14/fadeslideshow.js">

</script>

<script type="text/javascript">

var mygallery2=new fadeSlideShow({
wrapperid: "fadeshow2", //ID of blank DIV on page to house Slideshow
dimensions: [905, 679], //width/height of gallery in pixels. Should reflect dimensions of largest image
imagearray: [
["http://xxx.com/Resources/EducationalCorner1.png", "", "", ""],
["http://xxx.com/Resources/EducationalCorner2.png", "", "", ""],
["http://xxx.com/Resources/EducationalCorner3.png"],
["http://xxx.com/Resources/EducationalCorner4.png", "", "", ""],
["http://xxx.com/Resources/EducationalCorner5.png"],
["http://xxx.com/Resources/EducationalCorner6.png"],
["http://xxx.com/Resources/EducationalCorner7.png"],
["http://xxx.com/Resources/EducationalCorner8.png"],
["http://xxx.com/Resources/EducationalCorner9.png"],
["http://xxx.com/Resources/EducationalCorner10.png"],
["http://xxx.com/Resources/EducationalCorner11.png"]//<--no trailing comma after very last image element!
],
displaymode: {type:'manual', pause:2500, cycles:0, wraparound:false},
persist: false, //remember last viewed slide and recall within same session?
fadeduration: 500, //transition duration (milliseconds)
descreveal: "ondemand",
togglerid: "fadeshow2toggler"
})

</script>
<table align=center cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>
<tr>
<td>
<div id="fadeshow2" style="background-color:transparent"></div>

<div id="fadeshow2toggler" style="width:900px; text-align:center; margin-top:10px">
<a href="#" class="prev"><img src="http://xxx.com/Resources/LeftOff.png" style="border-width:0" /></a> <span class="status" style="margin:0 50px; font-weight:bold"></span> <a href="#" class="next"><img src="http://xxx.com/Resources/RightOn.png" style="border-width:0" /></a>
</div></td></tr>
</table>