List does not exist error

While adding a new list view web part to a homepage , stuck with the following exception.

List does not exist The page you selected contains a list that does not exist. It may have been deleted by another user.

After some fiddling, found Web.Id for a LVWP is required to resolve this issue. After providing the WebId for the ListViewWebPart, web part adds to the page perfectly.

ListViewWebPart lvp = new ListViewWebPart();
lvp.ListName = Web.Lists["Tasks"].ID.ToString("B").ToUpper()  ;
lvp.ZoneID = "Center";
lvp.Title = "Tasks List";
lvp.WebId = Web.ID;  
SPFile homePage = Web.GetFile("default.aspx");
SPLimitedWebPartManager webmngr = homePage.GetLimitedWebPartManager (PersonalizationScope. Shared);
webmngr.AddWebPart(lvp, "Center", 3);
webmngr.SaveChanges(lvp);

Happy SharePointing :)

Free alternatives for Redgate Reflector

Recently my Reflector time bombed and refused to open. As a SharePoint developer, this is one of the crucial tool in my toolbox to peep in to SharePoint binaries. Finally it seems like Redgate  betrayed .NET community for not keeping this little tool free and alive.
In search of an alternative for this great tool by Lutz Roeder, found some interesting projects.

ILSpy - a promising open source alternative.developed by SharpDevelop team.
Monoflector- uses Cecil,MEF
Resharper 6 Decompiler - Resharper is planning to provide a free stand alone decompiler,
Kaliro Explorer - bunch of other tools like Moss explorer, calendar sync are also available along with this
DotNet IL Editor - It can disassemble and debug the assemblies

Still wondering why this functionality is not integrated in VS 2010 ?

Adobe integrates Acrobat Reader X with SharePoint

Adobe's X series PDF editor and reader Acrobat X and Reader X now tightly integrates with SharePoint. We need to provide the OpenControl key in the DocIcon.xml and clients should use Acrobat X or Reader X to leverage.

Now it provides additional options like Edit Document, Check-in,Check out,Discard check out for PDF documents.

If I say Edit Document, PDF automatically opens the document in Reader X and also asks whether I want to check out

It also provides a UI cue for the checked out document too

Once the documents are checked out in MS Office suit, the document library page automatically refreshes to show the checked out icon but here that refresh is not happening.

How to configure SharePoint for this ?

• You need to add the following lines in DocIcon.xml 
  
  • You can find DocIcon.xml in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\XML

AdobePDF.png

• Right click and save the above Acrobat PDF icon to your machine in the name of AdobePDF.png and copy it to folder C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\IMAGES
• Now do an IISRESET and let IIS load these new resources.
• Repeat all the steps in all of your web front end servers

All these steps remain same for MOSS 2007, just change the \14\Template\XML to 12\Template\XML while doing modifications to DocIcon.xml and copying the AdobePDF.png file

SharePoint 2010 Approval workflow, a marvel

Way back our team built a multi stage approval workflow with serial and parallel flow options for MOSS 2007. Recently stumbled upon the SharePoint 2010 approval workflow which eventually showcases all these functionalities right out of the box. This is one of the huge improvement in SharePoint 2010

Lets see what are the configurable parameters it allows us to configure

Approvers
Accepts multiple users who are in the capacity of approving the content ,seperated by semicolons

Order:
Determines in which order the execution goes whether serial or parallel, technically in which order the tasks created to the Approvers

Flow of a Serial workflow

Flow of a Parallel workflow

Expand Groups

If checked and groups entered in approvers section will be expanded and tasks will be created for individual users else only a single task will be created for the whole group. Any user from the group can approve or reject

Request

A comment text which will be sent to the approver via email and approval screen also

Due Date for all Tasks

Final date on which all approvals should be completed

Duration per task

Amount of time for each task is due, works along with Duration Units

Duration Units

You can choose days,months or years in this drop down, works along with Duration per task

CC

Want to keep an additional person in approval loop, this is the place to go

End on First Rejection

Any approver rejects the document, workflow gets stopped and document rejected

End on Document Change

Some author changes the original document while the approval in progress, now the whole workflow gets terminated if the original is modified.

Enable Content Approval

Changes the content approval status of the library based on workflow approval

Microsoft Tech Ed 2011 India March 23-25

Microsoft Tech.ed in Bangalore, for more information and registration
http://www.microsoft.com/india/teched2011/

SQL server at xxx has an unsupported version 10.0.2531.0, SharePoint PSConfig error

While I was preparing a bonsai SharePoint 2010 web farm with Sql Server 2008 Enterprise database in my Dell Studio 1555. As I did numerous standalone SharePoint 2010 deployment for development activity on Windows Server 2008/R2/Win 7 with Sql Server 2008 express + SP1, I used to have the pre-requisites handy in my hard disk to build multiple virtual hard disks.

After building and networked the domain controller and the enterprise database server, executed the SharePoint 2010 installer and ran the PSConfig wizard on designated app server image. While connecting to the database server, wizard throws an error

---------------------------

SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard

---------------------------

SQL server at windb\dbsvr2010 has an unsupported version 10.0.2531.0. Please refer to "http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=165761" for information on the minimum required SQL Server versions and how to download them.

---------------------------

OK   

---------------------------

I never expected this behavior ,went back to my standalone SharePoint installation and verified the database server. It says 10.0.2531.0 and running happily.

Went back to MSDN Hardware and Software requirement, there's a different standard for Sql Server 2008 Express(standalone) and Sql Server 2008 Enterprise(Farm installation). 

If you are gonna install Sql Server Express 2008 as your data store you are good enough to go with only Sql Server SP 1 (10.0.2531.0) but if you are preparing a web farm and proceeding for Non-Express database then you should also install the Cumulative update 2(10.0.2714) or CU5 (Installing CU3 or CU4 is not recommended)

Now the PSConfig wizard is happy and configures my web farm successfully.

Expose SharePoint 2010 Central Administration out of the job server

We tried to access the central administration of a Test server(Windows 2008 R2, IIS 7.5) from a client machine by adding proper host entries and providing the right port number and we were able to access the central administration. But soon we realized that the hyperlinks end up in a ASP.NET authorization error.

After tweaking the following authorization settings IIS 7.5 admin console, we were able to expose the links

Open inetmgr and select ASP.NET Authorization

Expand the central administration node and Select the _admin node and you can see a "Deny" rule, remove the deny rule and add a "Allow" rule

Repeat the same for _vti_adm node

Do an IISReset and good to go, 

Even after this some buttons from the Ribbon were disable for e.g;,Create application, Extend application 

Switching off the User account control solves the issue, start -> search for UAC and do the following change

Instructions provided above relaxes the security on SharePoint Server and shouldn't be applied on test,stage or production servers.