There is no file with URL 'IWConvertedForms .cvt' in this Web.System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException: There is no file with URL 'IWConvertedForms/

A very annoying error for sure. Easily resolved by deactivating and reactivating the feature "IPFSWebFeatures" found %Program Files%/%Common Files%/microsoft shared/web server extensions/12/Template/Features

Use the following commands:

stsadm -o deactivatefeature -filename IPFSWebFeatures\feature.xml -force -url

stsadm -o activatefeature -filename IPFSWebFeatures\feature.xml -force -url

When creating a new site from a custom STP site template file, you get the "File Not Found" error after site is created

The problem could be that the master page did not map properly. To check and correct the problem, you have to "cheat" by directing your browser to the new site's master page settings page. That is done by replacing "default.aspx" in the current URL with "_Layouts/ChangeSiteMasterPage.aspx" e.g. http://site/web/default.aspx becomes http://site/web/_Layouts/ChangeSiteMasterPage.aspx.

After the page loads, you should see two error messages noting problems with both the site and system master pages.

In the Site Master Page section, ensure that the "Specify as master page to be used by this site and all sites that inherit from it" radio button option is selected. In the drop down below it, ensure that the "default.master" is selected. Scroll down to the System Master Page section. Ensure that the "Select a system master page for this site and it's subsites to inherit" option is selected and once again set the dropdown below to "default.master". Scroll down to locate the "OK" button and click it to reset the site master pages and fix the site.

Tips and Tricks to get CKS Forms Based Authentication Solution working properly

Codeplex FBA (http://cks.codeplex.com/releases/view/17901) is a great tool and its configuration is defined in great detail on this article (http://devcow.com/blogs/jdattis/archive/2007/02/23/Office_SharePoint_Server_2007_Forms_Based_Authentication_FBA_Walkthrough_Part_1.aspx). However there are a few gotchas to take care of when configuring MOSS on Windows Server 2008 box:

1) After you update the hosts file with the names such as:
127.0.0.1 projectextranet.test.com
127.0.0.1 projectextranet
After you create the SharePoint Application and Site collection successfully and try to access the site, you would notice that when you try to access either of the above sites through IE, it will prompt you for a username and password and the logon prompt keeps appearing that will eventually timeout. The quick fix for this is explained here - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861/en-us (apply the Microsoft Fix tool)

2)Once you have configured your FBA and you try to add the spadmin user created in the steps as described in article above through Central Administratio for the extranet site, it will not resolve the name. This error happens if your Central Administration Application Pool account does not have access to the FBA database created earlier. So make sure you give at least db_owner access to the Central Admin App Pool account and then perform iisreset. EUREKA! Now it will find your users in FBA DB

3)You get an error "Dependency feature with id 01aa8d8b-000a-4c35-8f4f-5d1280377650 for feature 'FBAManagementSelf' (id: 23c44729-fb03-4882-a0bf-c6fb3ddd81fd) is not installed." - Fix this by downloading the latest copy of FBA here (http://cks.codeplex.com/Project/Download/FileDownload.aspx?DownloadId=97072). Compile and build the deploy folder using WSPBuilder and then use the new CKS.FBA.wsp file to deploy to your farm

how to activate SharePoint Tool Basket Language files when using sptoolbasket from Codeplex

Simple yet tricky this little annoying thing when deploying the SPTOOLBASKET from Codeplex (http://sptoolbasket.codeplex.com/releases/view/21960). In order to activate the Document Ratings Feature, you need to activate prior the feature named "SharePoint Tool Basket Language files". But wait a minute this cannot be activated from Site Settings > Site Collection Features. You would need to do this for the Web Application via Central Administration > Manage Web Application Features (and select your web app). Simple as that but can be annoying to figure out especially if you are working on a project burning the midnight oil!

How to create a Windows Shell Right Click command to easily add your WSP to the Solution Store

How to create a Windows Shell Right Click command to easily add your WSP to the Solution Store.
Open regedit.exe and then make following changes in registry

Right Click on "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT" and create a New Key called ".wsp" and set the value to "wspfile"

Right Click on HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\wspfile and create a New Key called "shell"

Right Click on HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\wspfile\shell and create a New Key called "Add Solution"

Right Click on HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\wspfile\shell\Add Solution and create a New Key called "command" and set the value to "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN\stsadm.exe" -o addsolution -filename "%1"

Note in all the above values, make sure you remove the first and last inverted commas on values

Now go back and open Windows Explorer and locate your WSP file on your file system. Right Click on that file with your mouse and EUREKA you will find "Add Solution" as a new Windows Shell command. Select this option to add the WSP to the MOSS Solution Store

Site collection could not be restored. If this problem persists, please make sure the content databases are available and have sufficient free space

This has to be one of the most difficult issues I had to solve with restoring a previously created SharePoint backup. Here are the different steps (based on your own scenario) I took to solve the above problem and restore my site collection:

Scenario 1)
This issue occurs if the computer that is running Windows SharePoint Services has insufficient free disk space that is available to host the restored Windows SharePoint Services Web site. This issue may also occur if the Windows SharePoint Services database has reached its maximum allowed size.

Scenario 1 Solution) To resolve this issue, make sure that the computer that hosts the Windows SharePoint Services Web site has sufficient free disk space that is available before you restore the Windows SharePoint Services Web site. When backing up or restoring large site collections make sure that the site collection is set to "no access" if it exists already. Whether the site collection exists or not the -overwrite parameter can be used to bypass conflicts. stsadm -o restore -url -filename -overwrite



Scenario 2) The site collections listing page will give a clue.The site you were trying to restore was already listed there but when you tried to load it the site didn't work.

Scenario 2 Solution) •Detach and Reattach each of the content db's , this removed the site collection listing from CA but the error still occurred
•Run stsadm -o databaserepair against the database's and it removed a bunch of orphaned records.



Scenario 3) There is tonnes of disk space (20 GB free for the restore of a 3 GB site collection) and tried again. It died with the same error. You run the following query in the SQL Server Management Studio:

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('productversion'), SERVERPROPERTY ('productlevel'), SERVERPROPERTY ('edition')

As it turns out, the database server was trying to restore the site collection into was running SQL Server Express Edition had a file size cap of 4 GB. When this "farm" was set up, it was done so with a Basic install which by defaul installs SQL Express and inherits it's limitations. The site collection that was used was trying to restore broke the 4 GB limit and as a result the stsadm tool thought there wasn't any disk space available, when really there was a bunch to be had.

Scenario 3 Solution) Upgrading SQL Server Express to Developer/Standard/Workstation/Enterprise -
As a result upgrade the OFFICESERVERS instance of SQL Server running on that machine from Express to Developer (you can upgrade it to Developer/Standard/Workstation/Enterprise, whatever you have in terms of media/licensing). This ends up being pretty easy, you simply find the media/installer and run the setup.exe that you normally would but with an added argument of SKUUPGRADE=1.

setup.exe SKUUPGRADE=1

When the install wizard gives you get a chance, select the OfficeServers instance and upgrade the database engine. If you want a more detailed walkthrough, one is available here. When you're done, run the same SQL query above and the product edition should no longer be Express. After that small adventure, the restore will work like a charm.



Scenario 4) A lot of transactions in the ULS Logs and SQL Server Logs are growing out of control during the restore process that appear to interrupt the restore, especially if its a very large one.

Scenario 4 Solution) Try the following:
1. Stop IIS
2. Perform the Restore
3. Restart IIS
Basically you are preventing any SharePoint transaction from taking place while you perform the restore.


Scenario 5) Restore runs super slow (for example 6 hrs for a restore of 7 GB backup file) and right at the end throws the "insufficient space" error.

Scenario 5 Solution) Try the following:
1) Delete the Web Application (incl. content database) (OPTIONAL STEP IF YOU ARE OK TO DELETE - MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A DATABASE BACKUP AND STSADM FULL SITE COLLECTION BACKUP)
2) Truncate content database transaction logs in SQL Server
3) Turn Mirroring off on all databases on the SQL Server
4) Ensure that the account performing restore has dbowner and dbcreator permissions

Searching internal documents is not working. The search service indexes all the documents ok, no errors in the logs etc but no results are displayed

Check the alternate mappings as this usually is the issue. For example if the default mapping is http://sitename.companyname.com/sites/sitename1 it would index but not display the results. Changing the default value to http://server (which is the server name of the MOSS web server) and the Extranet mapping to http://sitename.companyname.com/sites/sitename1 then the results will be displayed.

Team Collaboration lists such as Calendar, Tasks lists are unavailable within moss publishing site - How do i fix this?

Very Simple - Goto Site Settings > Site Administration > Site Features and Activate the "Team Collaboration Lists" feature

An error occurred during the compilation of the requested file, or one of its dependencies. The type or namespace name 'Publishing' does not exist

As simple as this error sounds - "An error occurred during the compilation of the requested file, or one of its dependencies. The type or namespace name 'Publishing' does not exist in the namespace 'Microsoft.SharePoint' (are you missing an assembly reference?)", it can be tricky to solve.

The easiest solution I have found to solve is to include the following snippet below your includes in your master page.

<%@ Register Tagprefix="PublishingWebControls" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

<%@ Register Tagprefix="PublishingNavigation" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

<%@ Register TagPrefix="PublishingVariations" TagName="VariationsLabelMenu" src="~/_controltemplates/VariationsLabelMenu.ascx" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="PublishingConsole" TagName="Console" src="~/_controltemplates/PublishingConsole.ascx" %>

<%@ Register TagPrefix="PublishingSiteAction" TagName="SiteActionMenu" src="~/_controltemplates/PublishingActionMenu.ascx" %></strong>

How to fix the issue "A feature with ID ... has already been installed in this farm. Use the force attribute to explicitly re-install the feature."

Use -force flag on your deploy operation. For example:

stsadm -o deploysolution -name MyBranding.wsp -immediate -force
stsadm -o execadmsvcjobs
stsadm -o activatefeature -name Mybranding -url http://testurl -force

The minimum accounts you need to install MOSS using MS recommended best practices

Ok - I have been asked this question several times and have also noticed that the right accounts are not used during MOSS installations. Here is a quick summary of all the accounts you need pre-configured in your AD prior to installing MOSS:

• mosssetupUSER – Pass@word1 – Moss Setup user – Member of: Administrator – SQL: dbcreator and security-admin
• sqlserversrvc – Pass@word1 – User to create db’s and sql configs – Member of: Administrator – SQL: dbcreator and security-admin
• caapooldbaccessUSER – Pass@word1 – caa app pool USER acct and to access db – Member of: Administrator – SQL: dbcreator and security-admin
• sspappool@AIFSMOSS.local – Pass@word1 = SSP App Pool Identity – User rights and entitlements assigned automatically
• sspserviceUSER – Pass@word1 – SSP Timer/Web Services – User rights and entitlements assigned automatically
• WssSearchSrvcUSER – Pass@word1 – used for wss search – User rights and entitlements assigned automatically
• searchcontentaccessUSER – Pass@word1 – default user for search content access – User rights assigned automatically
• searchspccontentaccessUSER – Pass@word1 – user for search specific content access – read access to external content source
• userprofilesaccessUSER – Pass@word1 – USER who access the AD and user properties – read rights to AD
• excelservicesUSER – Pass@word1 – USER to access excel content soruces – read rights to excel content sources

Why should i care about WSP / solution packages in MOSS

Often I find developers writing custom batch scripts, stsadm commands to deploy their customizations ( Site definitions, field types, event receivers, workflow, and features) to MOSS staging/production farms. This is considered a very bad practice due to the following reasons (but not limited to):
1) A farm disaster happened but luckily you had your scripted backup of your farm. But when you restore, web parts are throwing errors
2) Unable to isolate the WebPart errors as the WebParts were manually installed
3) What about WebPart dependencies? Forgot to restore them!
4) Ok I got the WebPart somehow working (VS debugging etc) but wait where are the images?
5) What about the killer Web.config changes in new farm? Did you back that up too?
6) Now that you fixed the WebPart and customizations somehow, how will you deploy this fix to each server in the farm - manually? What if there are 16 servers in the farm?

Bottomline, always wrap up your customization as a solution package (WSP) prior to deploying to MOSS farm. Even your custom Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) files, .aspx pages, and master pages will need to be deployed via WSP if they are to be used farm-wide. As a general rule, if the item in question will affect the entire farm it will likely need to be deployed via WSP.

Best practices steps to create a WebPart

When writing your own custom web part, always remember to execute the following steps:

1. Wrap the web part as a *.dll to be deployed to the web application BIN directory to ensure that code access security can be applied.
2 .Create a *.webpart XML file that will specify the above *.dll, namespace, and class for the Web Part and defines properties for it.
3. Create a Feature.xml file that is one of two files used to copy the .webpart XML file to the Web Part gallery of the site collection.
4. Create an Elements.xml file that is one of two files used to copy the .webpart XML file to the Web Part gallery of the site collection.
5. Write a safe control entry for the web application's web.config file that grants permission for your Web Part to run.
6. Set Code access security policies that define what the Web Part will be allowed to do

Once you finish coding your webpart, create a deployment package (*.WSP) before installing/deploying to your farm

Free SharePoint tools from leading vendors - DOWNLOAD TODAY!

Download these free SharePoint tools / add-ons from the following leading vendors:

1. Bamboo Solutions "Mashpoint" - Access external data sources directly from SharePoint, visualize and interact with them via Web Parts or custom applications
2. Idera SharePoint Performance Montoring Tool - Free tool that enables easy monitoring of critical performance counters for SharePoint, IIS and Windows Operating Systems.
3. AvePoint FREE Tool for Item-level SharePoint Restores - delivering full fidelity, item-level restore capabilities directly from live SQL and DPM databases and backups.
4. Quest SharePoint Discovery Wizard - Find out how many Microsoft SharePoint servers, site collections or sites are on your network. Discovery Wizard for SharePoint freeware gathers critical data about your SharePoint inventory and displays the discovered results in two easy-to-read, HTML reports.

How to implement "Bing.com" Type Ahead Search in your MOSS portal?

1. Download the Sharepoint AJAX Toolkit here - http://www.codeplex.com/sharepointajax

2. Develop a web part (VS project) to implement Bing.com Suggest type functionality using AJAX, .NET 3.0 and SharePoint Web services (you probably need the real code here huh! Email me if you need more information :)

3. Use the AutoComplete Extender in the Toolkit above by copying all the code out of the AutoComplete folder and paste into your web part project (as created in Step 2).

4. Compile and through errors and warnings find and add missing references, add more code files from the Toolkit as needed. Many common files were needed. Note that you need to set any .JS files to EmbeddedResources.

5. Use the MOSS 2007 Search API to build a ASP.NET Web Service to return a list of results based on input string value (keyword). Note that you need to host this web service within the same website (same port) as the Sharepoint site itself. Also dont forget to grant CAS trust for the Web Service assembly.

6) Post a comment if you successfully created the Bing.com type ahead search in MOSS, using the above steps

Importing custom attributes from Active Directory to MOSS 2007

To do this, first go to your Active Directory Management Console and hopefully you have the Exchange AD Management Plugin installed also (make sure you download this plugin from MS - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6be38633-7248-4532-929b-76e9c677e802)

1. Click on the Exchange Advanced Tab
2. Click Custom Attributes
3. Use one of those extensionAttribute values to store your custom information.
4. OK out of AD.

Now goto MOSS Central Admin and do the following:
5. Go to your Shared Services Provider
6. Under User Profiles and My Sites click on User profiles and properties
7. Click on View Profile Properties at the bottom of the page.
8. Add a Custom Property (For e.g. "RCNumber")
9. Select “Do not allow users to edit values for this property”
10. In the Property Import Mapping Section change the Data source field to map: to your corresponding extensionAttribute# (created above) and hit OK.

Do a full user import and your custom attributes should get populated into MOSS

When i try enabling Windows SharePoint Services Help Search i get an error - SPSearch (administrator)

If you are horrified by the one line error message saying SPSearch (administrator), dont panic. All you have missed is specifying the domain for that user (whom you selected as the administrator). So instead of entering username in the configuration screen as "Administrator" try "\Administrator" (e.g., DEMOS\Administrator)

AS A RULE OF THUMB, WHEN YOU CONFIGURE SEARCH OR ANY SHARED SERVICES IN MOSS AND YOU ARE PROMPTED FOR USERNAME ALWAYS APPEND THE DOMAIN NAME IN FRONT OF THE USERNAME

How to check SharePoint version (level of SharePoint you are running)?

1) Goto IIS, select the MOSS website
2) Right click and select Properties
3) Select HTTP Headers tab and you should be able to see a custom HTTP Header called "MicrosoftSharePointTeamServices" with a version number by its side.
4) Compare with table below to see what updates for MOSS your farm has installed:

• MOSS 20071 or WSS 3.0 Cumulative update (KB956056 & KB956057) 12.0.0.6327
• MOSS 20071 or WSS 3.0 Infrastructure Update (KB951695 & KB951297) 12.0.0.6318
• MOSS 20071 or WSS 3.0 post-SP1 hotfix (KB948945) 12.0.0.6303
• MOSS 20071 or WSS 3.0 post-SP1 hotfix (KB941274) 12.0.0.6301
• MOSS 20071 or WSS 3.0 post-SP1 hotfix (KB941422) 12.0.0.6300
• MOSS 20071 or WSS 3.0 SP1 12.0.0.6219
• MOSS 20071 or WSS 3.0 October public update 12.0.0.6039
• MOSS 20071 or WSS 3.0 August 24, 2007 hotfix package 12.0.0.6036
• MOSS 20071 or WSS 3.0 RTM 12.0.0.4518
• MOSS 20071 or WSS 3.0 Beta 2 TR: 12.0.0.4407
• MOSS 20071 or WSS 3.0 Beta 2: 12.0.0.4017
• Office 12 (PDC image - pre-beta): 12.0.0.3111 (This version of Office does not have a support link in the Add/Remove programs dialog box).

The Edit in Datasheet View is not available on a List or you cannot see "Connect to Outlook" on a list

The data grid view itself comes from web components provided with Microsoft Office. This can be problematic in organizations with customized installations of Office, as they often don’t include the Windows SharePoint Services Support feature. If you can’t edit a list in grid view, go to Add/Remove Programs, change the Office installation, locate the Office Tools category and select Windows SharePoint Services Support.

People Search does not return any results

Follow the steps below to address the problem around People Search returning no results (even though you know that there are people in the database that match your search criteria):

1) Open Shared Services Administration
2) Click on Search Settings > Content Sources and crawl schedules > Manage Content Sources
3) Select the "Local Office SharePoint Server sites" content source
4) On the "Edit Content Source" screen, Update the Textbox for "Start Addresses" to include a new entry for the URL of your site collection name starting with "sps3://". For example, "sps3://intranet:80"
5) Select the checkbox "Start full crawl of this content source" and Click "Ok"
6) Wait till the indexing finishes. (You can check the status of indexing by accessing this area - "Shared Services Administration: SharedServices > Search Settings > Configure Search Settings"
7) Goto your site collection (for example http://intranet:80) and perform your people search to find results