PowerPivot Known Issues – SharePoint 2010

Below are some known Issues while working with PowerPivot and here is master key for below two solution :)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee210616.aspx 1) This workbook cannot be opened because it is not stored in an Excel Services Application trusted location. To create an Excel Services Application trusted location, contact your system administrator.

Resolution: we need to add ‘SharePoint’ into excel services trusted file location.

2) Getting ‘An unexpected error has occurred.” Error while clicking ‘Manage Data Refresh’ icon into any of the stored workbook into PowerPivot gallery.

Resolution: we need to configure the unattended PowerPivot data refresh account for above to work properly.

I will also try to update this article if I find any more known issues with PowerPivot.

Good Luck.

How to find out which site template is being used in SharePoint site

Sometime when we open any SharePoint sites we are curious to know and see which site template is being used to create SharePoint sites. without writing any custom code we can quickly see the site template name by appending /_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?Cmd=GetProjSchema at the end of SharePoint site URL.

e.g. http://sharepointsiteurl.com/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?Cmd=GetProjSchema

It will return XML file which we can download and check the site template name from schema file.

some more owssvr tricks : http://sharepointglobe.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/owssvr-dll-tricks/  :)

How to lock down SharePoint Designer 2010

As we all know – SharePoint Designer is free tool from Microsoft, so any users in the organization can download designer and start using tool to make the changes directly to any SharePoint sites if they have designer access, Challenges comes in governance part of the SharePoint Designer usage. In SharePoint 2010 – admin have more control over what are the SharePoint Designer functionalities lock down and on which level of the site (web application, site collection level)

Here are some good reference links which talks about how to lock down designer access from SharePoint 2010.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mcsnoiwb/archive/2010/07/01/locking-down-sharepoint-designer-2010.aspx

http://www.thesanitypoint.com/archive/2011/09/22/governing-sharepoint-designer.aspx  

Different new features into SharePoint Designer 2010: http://www.endusersharepoint.com/EUSP2010/2010/03/19/introduction-to-sharepoint-designer-2010/

Differences between Excel 2010 features in Excel and in the browser

SharePoint 2010 has feature called “Office web app”, I have already explained about office web app in this post: http://sanketinfo.blogspot.com/2011/07/how-to-install-office-web-app-for.html

With Office web app, we can open Microsoft application in browser; still there are some features which are not available in browser view. Here is link which talks about differences for Excel 2010 in excel client and in the browser: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/differences-between-using-a-workbook-in-the-browser-and-in-excel-HA010369179.aspx

PowerPivot for Microsoft Excel 2010

Download link for PowerPivot for Microsoft Excel 2010: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=7609

Alternate solutions for automatic workflow history clean up – MOSS 2007

By default in MOSS 2007, workflow task history list values are being cleanup/deleted every 60 days, so we can’t audit data based on workflow history list, this is very known concern for SharePoint.

Here are some links which talks about different workaround for automatic workflow history cleanup: 

http://blogs.technet.com/b/officeasia/archive/2010/11/28/workaround-for-the-situation-that-sharepoint-auto-cleanup-job-deleted-workflow-history.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc424956(office.12).aspx

http://vspug.com/drewdevo/2008/08/27/workaround-for-missing-workflow-history/

We can also go with custom solution in which we can design database structure for storing workflow history data. Then from database we can populate and retrieve data to display into OOB workflow history page.

How to deploy custom master page using solution package in SharePoint 2010

Microsoft provided many great features and functionality into Visual Studio 2010 for developing any solutions for SharePoint 2010, with Visual Studio 2010 we can create and mapped 14 HIVE folders very easily.

Microsoft provided very detailed and step by step guide for how to create and deploy any branding solutions using Visual Studio 2010 for SharePoint 2010.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg447066.aspx

One more good reference link: http://sharepointchick.com/archive/2010/03/26/deploying-a-custom-master-page-in-sharepoint-2010.aspx

SharePoint 2010 Branding – Master Page

As we all know that MOSS 2007 master page is not going to work properly with SharePoint 2010, in other way it is always good to create new master page for SharePoint 2010, there are some changes in placeholder name for 2010 master page and some new placeholder introduced in 2010 master page like ribbon tag, etc..

V4.Master is default master page for 2010; codeplex also has provided starter master pages for 2010 which will be very useful.

Here are some very good links to follow for starting creating master page for SharePoint 2010, links has detailed information regarding from where to start and how.

http://www.sharepointedutech.com/2011/01/24/sharepoint-2010-branding-series-part-two/ 

http://startermasterpages.codeplex.com/ (codeplex master pages)

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/Blogs/GetThePoint/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=386

Here is link for SharePoint 2010 CSS reference names: http://sharepointexperience.com/csschart/csschart.html

Good Luck with master page designing :)

ERROR: The form cannot be rendered. This may be due to a misconfiguration of the Microsoft SharePoint Server State Service. For more information, contact your server administrator

You need to make sure that the state service is started and associated with your web application that will be used to publish your workflow into it. Check the configuration through Central administration--> service application association.

Solution: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sharepointworkflow/thread/521db715-0d76-49ce-be36-7c37cfb8026f

Fast Search troubleshooting links

Below links are talking about what are the different errors we can get while configuring fast search server into SharePoint 2010.

http://www.sharepointedutech.com/2011/01/05/troubleshooting-fast-search-server-2010-for-sharepoint-installation/

http://www.sharepoint911.com/blogs/john/archive/2011/03/17/fast-search-for-sharepoint-error-unable-to-resolve-contentdistributor.aspx

How to install Fast Search for SharePoint 2010 server

I have found out very good and detailed Microsoft deployment guide for installing and configuring Fast Search into SharePoint 2010 environment. Believe me it is very useful link.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/A/8/6A83D203-0369-4B6D-B1F2-21D93996B4D6/SP14EntSearchIT_FSDplyScalability_1.doc

http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/F/E/1FE7DDA3-FAF6-47B6-B2FA-727548E3234D/FASTDeployment.pdf

With VPN access - not able to open any SharePoint 2007 documents

Here are some lists of troubleshoot questions which we can ask to users who are not able to open SharePoint 2007 documents from VPN access:

1)       Which office version users are using.

2)       Is it problem with word document or any office documents from SharePoint 2007?

3)       We can create new document in library and see if it’s in edit mode or not.

4)       We can browse/open any other SharePoint sites and see whether user is able to edit word documents or not in their sites?

5)       Try with “Open with explorer” option to see about the documents status.

6)       Check with Check-in and Check-out option

7)       Try with different browser (instead of IE – install different browser and can try the same functionality)

8)       We can compare IE add-ins (to check enable – disable option)

9)       Check this path : C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OWSSUPP.DLL

Reference link:

http://www.microsoftoffice2010forums.com/general-microsoft-office-2010-discussion/can039t-o

http://www.jjclements.co.uk/index.php/2010/03/24/sharepoint-2007-documents-not-opening-in-office-2007

In my case I have suggested VPN user to install office 2007 instead of office 2003 into system and problem resolved :)

Errors while opening Office 2010 files from SharePoint 2010 document library

I got below errors while opening any office 2010 files within SharePoint 2010 site.

Word Error: word experienced an error trying to open the file.

Excel Error: The file is corrupt and cannot be opened.

PowerPoint Error: PowerPoint found a problem with content in presentation. PowerPoint can attempt to repair the presentation.

I have followed http://howtosharepoint.blogspot.com/2010/04/word-experienced-error-trying-to-open.html link for resolving errors for all Microsoft products file. Basically we need to change security settings into “Trust Center” options menu for all office applications.

Enjoy :)

Visio 2010 Premium Edition - SharePoint 2010

SharePoint 2010 workflow templates are available only in new version of Visio 2010 Premium Edition, not in other edition of Visio 2010. With workflow templates user can create Visio diagram/workflow which can be exported to SharePoint designer 2010 for further implementation. This new feature is good for end business users who are creating business process diagram in Visio. Hopefully it is saving some of the developer time/effort (atleast developer can take Visio 2010 workflow to start with their development activities)

Here is good link which talks about comparison between all editions of Visio 2010: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/visio/visio-edition-comparison-FX101838162.aspx

Upgradation/migration steps for SharePoint 2010

Here in this article, I am going to explain steps for migrating contents from MOSS 2007 to SharePoint 2010 with "Database attach" method. You can find more detail information from below reference links.

1. Select any MOSS 2007 site for migration

2. Go to SQL Server Management studio and take backup of MOSS 2007 site database.

3. Move database backup file to SharePoint 2010 server manually.

4. Create blank Database from SQL Server Management studio into SharePoint 2010 server.

5. Restore MOSS 2007 backup file (step # 3) to newly created database into SharePoint 2010 server (make sure to select 'overwrite the existing database' option)

Some time if we are getting below error in SQL Server while restoring database then we need to try to perform same steps again and again for some more time. {Detach database, attach database, restore database}

ERROR:

Restore failed for Server “database server name”.  (Microsoft.SqlServer.SmoExtended)

The backup set holds a backup of a database other than the existing 'database” database.

RESTORE DATABASE is terminating abnormally. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 3154)

6. Create new web application and site collection into SharePoint 2010 server.

7. Delete content database of newly created web application from going to SQL Server Management studio.

8. Add/Attach step # 5 database to new web application by below command

stsadm -o addcontentdb -url yourWebApplicationUrl -databasename yourDatabasename -databaseserver yourdatabaseServerName

9. After successful upgrade, it will generate upgrade log file which contains missing features, web parts names and other information which failed during upgrade.

10. Check migrated SharePoint 2010 site about data and pages.

11. Open web application settings from central admin to change site collection admin name (if source and destination web application have different user names)

12. If we want to see SharePoint 2010 look and feel in migrated site then we need to change visual upgrade from site settings (update all sites which make interface same like SharePoint 2010) – actually when we migrated site from MOSS 2007 to SharePoint 2010, at that time we have different master page in MOSS. In SharePoint 2010 system is using v4.master page.

Some points about how to verify migrated SharePoint 2010 site

1. Navigation links are coming correctly or not

2. Custom Image are not coming properly or not

3. Documents are migrated with its Meta data or not like uploaded and modified date/time stamp

4. Sub-site data are migrated with as it is navigation option or not (suppose if we have tree structure enable in source MOSS 2007 site then after migration it suppose to come with tree structure navigation only)

Perform pre-upgrade steps for SharePoint 2010: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303417.aspx

Different Upgrade Methods in SharePoint 2010:

http://sharepoint2010blog.blogspot.com/2010/01/upgrade-methods-in-sharepoint-2010.html

http://sharepoint2010blog.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-to-upgrade-to-sharepoint-2010-using_21.html

MSDN SharePoint 2010 upgrade reference Links: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263447.aspx

Very good link which describes about migrating to SharePoint 2010: http://mosshowto.blogspot.com/2010/06/migrating-to-sharepoint-2010.html

Other reference links:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-IE/sharepoint2010setup/thread/8a993fcf-b663-4b67-9ed4-928d26333f37

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1609356/how-to-restore-a-sharepoint-2007-backup-on-a-sharepoint-2010-server

Microsoft Visio 2010 – SharePoint 2010

Here I have tried to give some basic explanation about Visio 2010 and how it’s being use in new SharePoint 2010 world.

• Visio 2010 has its own template called “Microsoft Sharepoint Workflow”
• Visio 2010 has its own SharePoint workflow activities i.e. Actions, conditions, terminators
• We can check Visio diagram for validation errors.
• After completing Visio workflow, we can export workflow to “Visio workflow interchange” format to import the same workflow into Sharepoint Designer 2010.
• We can import Visio workflow to designer, than we need to assign/attach workflow to any of the content types in site like document, item.
• For workflow activities, we need to change/modify from designer like collect data activity.
• We can publish workflow to globally or list level.
• From workflow settings page, we can have option to see workflow visualization on status page, this is new feature added in SharePoint 2010 from which we can actually see and visual workflow current stage.
• After publishing workflow, system will generate association, initialization and data collection InfoPath forms which used by workflow
• From SharePoint site, we can go into any list and select content type to attach workflow to list level. (we can have workflow at content type level too)
• We can see workflow status in workflow visualization section and also able to open same Visio diagram and changed into it.
• We can save workflow as "template" and use same template into visual studio projects.
• In Visio we can only make the actual design of the workflow, not the configuration which is done in SharePoint Designer 2010

Reference Link:

Part 1:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visio/archive/2009/11/23/sharepoint-workflow-authoring-in-visio-premium-2010-part-1.aspx

Part 2:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visio/archive/2010/01/19/sharepoint-workflow-authoring-in-visio-premium-2010-part-2.aspx  

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visio/archive/2009/09/08/diagram-validation-in-visio-2010.aspx

PowerPoint Broadcast site – SharePoint 2010

Some basic concept related to new feature - PowerPoint broadcast site

• Its new service in SharePoint 2010 which will allow user to broadcast presentation online (it is same like if we are giving webex/NetMeeting session) in which we have presenter and attends for each online meeting.
• We can see “broadcast this PowerPoint” as one of the option in PowerPoint 2010.
• For broadcasting any PowerPoint we need to have PowerPoint broadcast service enabled into any site.
• We can create PowerPoint broadcast site from central admin site collection and that site URL we can use in PowerPoint 2010 for broadcasting any PowerPoint file.
• We need to add presenter and attends users into sharepoint group for them to see broadcast.

Reference Link: http://www.sharepointedutech.com/2011/01/31/sharepoint-2010-and-powerpoint-2010-broadcast/

How to install Office web app for SharePoint 2010

• Office Web Apps is an online version of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote application, which allowing users to access these all Microsoft applications and their respective documents from any Internet connection and any web browsers.
• It is same like Google documents; in which we don’t require to have Microsoft application installed on our local desktop to browse/access any Google documents from internet.
• Once we successfully deploy Office Web Apps on SharePoint farm, it will add the following service applications into farm.

• Word Viewing Service Application
• Excel Calculation Service
• PowerPoint Service Application

Reference Link: http://sharepointgeorge.com/2010/installing-office-web-apps-for-sharepoint-2010/

How to configure PDF search in SharePoint 2010

By default SharePoint won’t search PDF contents in any SharePoint site (same like MOSS 2007)

So we need to install Adobe iFilter on server and follow configuration steps as per below link to able to successfully crawl and search PDF documents and contents.

Link: http://www.sharepointsharon.com/2010/03/sharepoint-2010-and-adobe-pdf/

Installation of SharePoint 2010 on stand alone machine

Reference Link: http://sharepoint2010blog.blogspot.com/search/label/SharePoint%202010%20Installation

Overall steps:

1) Run SharePoint.exe for SharePoint 2010

2) Install pre-requisite from menu option

3) Restart the computer

4) Enter the product key for SharePoint 2010

5) Select standalone or server farm for installation and follow the Microsoft pattern installation wizard.

6) After successful installation, system will ask to create default web site at port 80 (central admin site is created automatically based on the setting we choose during installation)

How to Install PowerPivot for SharePoint on an Existing SharePoint Server

I have followed this Microsoft MSDN Link http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee210616.aspx for PowerPivot installation. Believe me its very good link, it has good amount of information, I have followed same steps and able to successfully installed PowerPivot on server.

Here are brief points which needed for PowerPivot installation.

Prerequisites: we need to have server farm installation on SharePoint 2010 server to install Powerpivot.

Overall Steps:

1) Run SQL Server 2008 R2 setup to add “PowerPivot for SharePoint” to Sharepoint farm.

• During installation, select “new installation/add features” option.
• Select “SQL Server Powerpivot for SharePoint” option.
• As per the requirement, select “Add Powerpivot for SharePoint - existing farm”.
• Complete the Powerpivot installation from SQL Server install file by following installation wizard.

2) Deploy the PowerPivot Solution Package from central admin to respective web application

• There are two separate solution packages: powerpivotfarm.wsp and powerpivotwebapp.wsp. The first solution (powerpivotfarm.wsp) is deployed when we install the first PowerPivot for SharePoint instance and never needs to be deployed again. The second solution (powerpivotwebapp.wsp) is deployed for Central Administration, but we must need to deploy this solution manually for each SharePoint web application that will support PowerPivot data access

3) Start Services on the Server:

• Start the Claims to Windows Token Service.
• Start Excel Calculation Services.
• Start Secure Store Service.

4) Verify that both SQL Server Analysis Services and SQL Server PowerPivot System Service are started.

5) Create a PowerPivot Service Application (SQL Server PowerPivot Service Application) from Manage service applications option.

6) Enable Excel Services

7) Enable Secure Store Service and Configure Data Refresh

8) Configure the Unattended PowerPivot Data Refresh Account

9) Configure Usage Data Collection

10) Activate PowerPivot Feature Integration for Site Collections

How to verify Installation:

1) In Libraries, we can see new options called “Data Feed Library” and “PowerPivot Gallery”. These library templates are provided by the PowerPivot feature and will be visible in the Libraries list if the feature is integrated correctly.

2) We can create sample excel book which has PowerPivot data and upload same excel into "PowerPivot gallery" library to check about PowerPivot features working fine or not.

NOTE: Once we create/upload any PowerPivot excel book into "PowerPivot gallery" library, behind the scene system is creating separate database for uploaded excel book (we can check this thing by going to SQL Server Management studio and select Analysis Services and in Server Name, need to enter <server-name>\powerpivot to see created database)

We can create PowerPivot data from Excel 2010, if we are not able to see "PowerPivot" as one of the option in excel 2010 ribbon, and then we need to install Add-ins PowerPivot for Excel 

Enjoy in installation!