Accessing databases using integrated security from Sharepoint.
When creating custom webparts or other custom features in SharePoint that retrieves data from a SQL server, there are a few gotchas and pitfalls that you should be aware of. I spent a few hours battling a couple of problems, so I thought I’d document the things I found out here to spread the knowledge.
SQL access with integrated security from SharePoint - Code - eCraft Labs
Publishing reports on a daily basis to Reporting Services is trivial with the Sharepoint delivery extension and Reporting Services.
More details:
SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Service Pack 2 (SP2) includes a delivery extension that you can use to send a report to a SharePoint library. The delivery extension is installed and configured when you apply SP2.
To use the SharePoint delivery extension, you must create a subscription from an application page on a SharePoint site, and then select SharePoint document library as the delivery type. You cannot use the SharePoint delivery extension for subscriptions that you create in SQL Server Management Studio or Report Manager.
If you’re trying to work with Windows 2008 domain controllers, things have changed slightly (read-buried). Allowing a user to allow logon locally to the controller is a bit more complex than in 2003.
Grant a Member the Right to Logon Locally
Applies To: Windows Server 2008 R2
Domain controllers, by default, restrict the types of user accounts that have the ability to log on locally. By default, only members of the Account Operators, Administrators, Backup Operators, Print Operators, and Server Operators groups have the Allowed logon locally system right. If you want to grant a user account the ability to log on locally to a domain controller, you must either make that user a member of a group that already has the Allowed logon locally system right or grant the right to that user account.
Downloads & Files
Content Type Hierarchy Feature (separate download)
application, 2K, uploaded Mar 22 2007 - 2542 downloads
application, 4K, uploaded Mar 22 2007 - 6704 downloads
application, 13K, uploaded Aug 31 2007 - 1936 downloads
application, 12K, uploaded Mar 22 2007 - 1545 downloads
application, 9K, uploaded Jan 8 2008 - 1226 downloads
application, 7K, uploaded Mar 22 2007 - 3956 downloads
application, 6K, uploaded Jan 24 2008 - 1730 downloads
application, 4K, uploaded Mar 11 2008 - 1258 downloads
application, 4K, uploaded Mar 22 2007 - 2735 downloads
application, 2K, uploaded Mar 23 2007 - 3106 downloads
application, 11K, uploaded May 24 2007 - 3364 downloads
application, 8K, uploaded Aug 17 2007 - 1019 downloads
application, 9K, uploaded Oct 31 2007 - 892 downloads
application, 9K, uploaded Apr 30 2008 - 3052 downloads
application, 12K, uploaded Nov 2 2007 - 547 downloads
application, 5K, uploaded Jan 8 2008 - 880 downloads
application, 25K, uploaded Nov 2 2007 - 1079 downloads
application, 12K, uploaded Nov 7 2007 - 492 downloads
application, 6K, uploaded Sep 2 2008 - 615 downloads
application, 7K, uploaded Feb 27 2008 - 2847 downloads
application, 16K, uploaded Mar 3 2008 - 1631 downloads
application, 8K, uploaded Apr 6 2008 - 788 downloads
application, 11K, uploaded Apr 30 2008 - 1612 downloads
application, 6K, uploaded Jun 11 2008 - 429 downloads
application, 12K, uploaded Jul 15 2008 - 553 downloads
application, 6K, uploaded Sep 2 2008 - 275 downloads
application, 5K, uploaded Sep 22 2008 - 269 downloads
application, 15K, uploaded Sep 22 2008 - 202 downloads
application, 6K, uploaded Dec 9 2008 - 174 downloads
application, 11K, uploaded Dec 9 2008 - 184 downloads
source code, 11178K, uploaded Dec 9 2008 - 2188 downloads
Documentation for All Features
documentation, 766K, uploaded Dec 9 2008 - 3305 downloads
Do you sometimes use a "reflector" program to examine SharePoint source code? This can be necessary to:
- Understand out how SharePoint is doing something, to find what elements can be customized.
- Understand what members to override in classes you create that inherit from SharePoint classes.
The de facto standard program for doing this is Lutz Roeder's Reflector. The MSDN article on ten must-have tools has a great description of how helpful it can be and how to use it.
One thing the article doesn't tell you is where to find SharePoint's assemblies; fortunately it's not that hard. Click "Open" in Reflector, then with a little bit of browsing, most people easily find the dlls in the ISAPI directory of the "12-hive" (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\ISAPI).
Mark Arend : Using Reflector to See SharePoint's "Source" Code
OverGen is a tool I wrote that will take an assembly and find all methods in it that are optional and then generate overloads for all those methods that will allow the user to pass in a smaller amount of parameters. For each optional parameter a method has, an extension method will be generated.
Extension Methods are basically a very simple compiler construct that allows a class to extend another class by way of adding methods to it - the extension is very superficial - no methods are actually added to the class but rather, the compiler knows that when such a method is called on class, it will try and find it in supporting classes.
Notice the "this" keyword on the first parameter? That's what makes this method an extension method. If you did not have this guy, this is what ANY call to .Open would have to look like, even if you only use the first parameter:
app.Workbooks.Open("c:\\temp\\file.xlsx", Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing);
And here's what the code looks like if you are using the extension method shown above:
app.Workbooks.Open("c:\\temp\\file.xlsx");
Starting from scratch in Sharepoint, in 64 lines of code or less.
Whatever happened to <html></html>?
Creating and completing a master page to begin your SharePoint site customization takes planning and time. If you can, you want to prevent having to rewrite or back out code you don't need in your master page. This topic shows you how to create a minimal master page that includes only the minimal functionality that Office SharePoint Server 2007 requires so that you have a stable platform upon which to build your own master pages. Creating a minimal master page can help you avoid the time-consuming process of backing code out of a pre-existing .master page such as BlueBand.master, or removing functionality and then building it back in when your customization needs change again. How to: Create a Minimal Master Page
The actual page code for your “minimal” template below.
<%-- Identifies this page as a .master page written in Microsoft Visual C# and registers tag prefixes, namespaces, assemblies, and controls. --%>
<%@ Master language="C#" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<%@ Import Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="SPSWC" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="SharePoint" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="WebPartPages" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ 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="wssuc" TagName="Welcome" src="~/_controltemplates/Welcome.ascx" %>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="wssuc" TagName="DesignModeConsole" src="~/_controltemplates/DesignModeConsole.ascx" %>
<%@ 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" %>
<%-- Uses the Microsoft Office namespace and schema. --%>
<html>
<WebPartPages:SPWebPartManager runat="server"/>
<SharePoint:RobotsMetaTag runat="server"/>
<%-- The head section includes a content placeholder for the page title and links to CSS and ECMAScript (JScript, JavaScript) files that run on the server. --%>
<head runat="server">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder runat="server" id="head">
<title>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderPageTitle" runat="server" />
</title>
</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
<Sharepoint:CssLink runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderAdditionalPageHead" runat="server" />
</head>
<%-- When loading the body of the .master page, SharePoint Server 2007 also loads the SpBodyOnLoadWrapper class. This class handles .js calls for the master page. --%>
<body onload="javascript:_spBodyOnLoadWrapper();">
<%-- The SPWebPartManager manages all of the Web part controls, functionality, and events that occur on a Web page. --%>
<form runat="server" onsubmit="return _spFormOnSubmitWrapper();">
<wssuc:Welcome id="explitLogout" runat="server"/>
<PublishingSiteAction:SiteActionMenu runat="server"/>
<PublishingWebControls:AuthoringContainer id="authoringcontrols" runat="server">
<PublishingConsole:Console runat="server" />
</PublishingWebControls:AuthoringContainer>
<%-- The PlaceHolderMain content placeholder defines where to place the page content for all the content from the page layout. The page layout can overwrite any content placeholder from the master page. Example: The PlaceHolderLeftNavBar can overwrite the left navigation bar. --%>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderMain" runat="server" />
<asp:Panel visible="false" runat="server">
<%-- These ContentPlaceHolders ensure all default SharePoint Server pages render with this master page. If the system master page is set to any default master page, the only content placeholders required are those that are overridden by your page layouts. --%>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderSearchArea" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTitleBreadcrumb" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderPageTitleInTitleArea" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderPageImage" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderBodyLeftBorder" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderNavSpacer" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderTitleLeftBorder" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderTitleAreaSeparator" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderMiniConsole" runat="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderCalendarNavigator" runat ="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderLeftActions" runat ="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderPageDescription" runat ="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderBodyAreaClass" runat ="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTitleAreaClass" runat ="server"/>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderBodyRightMargin" runat="server" />
</asp:Panel>
</form>
</body>
</html>
Had to do some Sharepoint security troubleshooting today…. this article is a good recap of the security model in Sharepoint.
As a site owner, when you create the permission structure for your site or grouping of sites, you should balance ease of administration with the need to control specific permissions for individual securable objects. With any Web site, it is also important to follow the principle of least privilege when authorizing access to the site.
About controlling access to sites and site content - SharePoint Server - Microsoft Office Online
Maxime has posted some very cool new Visio stencils for laying out SharePoint site structures.
Real World Software Architecture: Visio Stencils for Sharepoint 2007 Site Structures documentation
For some reason this would scare me away from deploying a Sharepoint Site. Information Overload!
Actually it gets worse.... with over 40 planning worksheets.
They're not all that bad - most are one-pagers- though a wizard interface or maybe an Access application would be a good start. Or perhaps integrating this into the product itself? What ever happened to the evolving model of a self-maintained, self-documented wiki? Perhaps this would be too chaotic with the Sharepoint model...
Anyway, the first step is to plan... and there's lots of materials available:
Downloadable book: Planning and architecture for Office SharePoint Server 2007
Planning worksheets for Office SharePoint Server 2007
Plan Web site structure and publishing (Office SharePoint Server)
Plan for personalized content and sites
Plan for business intelligence
Plan search (Office SharePoint Server)
Plan communication (Office SharePoint Server)
Plan site and content security (Office SharePoint Server)
Plan for site creation and maintenance (Office SharePoint Server)
Design server farms and topologies (Office SharePoint Server)
Plan for authentication (Office SharePoint Server)
Plan for and design security (Office SharePoint Server)
Plan for performance and capacity (Office SharePoint Server)
Plan for and design database storage and management
Link to Planning and architecture for Office SharePoint Server 2007
Lots of useful articles and templates here.
Certification
We strongly encourage passing of our new certifications as a proven way to validate that you have the prerequisite skills and knowledge to implement and manage SharePoint solutions.
- Technology Specialist: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Configuration
- Technology Specialist: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Application Development
- Technology Specialist: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Configuration
- Technology Specialist: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Application Development
TS Exam 70-541: WSS 3.0 - Application Development
I took this exam on Friday and I want to share the following with anyone who is interested in taking it:
- For a limited time (while it's still in beta), you can take the exam for free using promotion code BTA541. You save $125 (and you don't have to deal with your company's beloved expense-tracking and reimbursement system). Register at www.prometric.com.
- Don't bother looking for practice exams or Microsoft e-Learning courses that will help you prepare for this. There isn't anything as far as I can see.
- Ishai Sagi has a blog post with some tips for this exam and the MOSS equivalent (70-542). I also need to thank Ishai for posting the promo code.
- Don't rush. There's more than enough time to think about each question thoroughly.
- There seemed to be a lot of questions on Records Management, which I wasn't expecting because that's more of a MOSS thing. But I guess it integrates with WSS-only spaces, so they saw it as fair game. On the other hand, I didn't notice there being a lot of questions on custom field types like Ishai mentioned.
- It looked to me as though the exam is in beta for some good reasons. I am very sure I saw questions where the only sensible answer had a typo or two in the code. And I suppose I could be wrong but I swear I looked at some answer choices line by line and couldn't notice any difference except a variable name. For example, in at least one case it looked as though the only difference in the choices was a change from the word "site" to "web" but only in the variable name (they probably meant to change the object type too but missed that). So if the exact same code appears in two different choices for the answer, what if I wanted to pick that code.. which one do I choose?
I found that when writing this exam, the following (which is true in general) is especially true in this case: You can often see to it that you probably get the right answer even if you get to a question where you've never seen the code before. Maybe a question is asking about a certain part of the SharePoint object model that you have never encountered in your work, or whatever may be the case. You really cannot (or at least you should not) be completely prepared for any possible code question. It would be a huge, wasted effort if you memorized all aspects of the SharePoint OM and CAML syntax.
So what do you do? Answer what you can where you know your stuff, and then note the following to help you with the rest:
- Sometimes the code in a multiple choice answer selection simply doesn't make sense. You have to realize that code is not something magical that happens to do what you want as long as it's written in a certain way. When you code, you are providing instructions to something that can't read your mind and doesn't know what you want to do. So in your code you have to be explicit about the things you intend to do and what exactly it is that you're doing these things on. So if the code doesn't, in some way, incorporate an instruction or piece of information that anything or anyone would need in order to do the right task on the right thing, it couldn't possibly be correct. I hope this is clear.
- It may not hurt to be a little subjective about the code that is presented to you as possible answers to a question. Ask yourself things like:
- "If I was Microsoft (or VTI, I suppose) and I created this object model, would I really expose this method on this object with these parameters in this way?".
- "Is this good code?" (of course, it doesn't have to be in order to be the right answer... But read the following.)
- If a possible answer to a question is built on an object model or markup language syntax that really deviates from standard best practices (like using enums, following the OOP paradigm, etc) then it's possibly more likely to be a wrong answer. I find that "embarassing" examples of a programming model or syntax are usually conspicuously absent from SDK documentation, learning material and other publications that a company puts out. It's usually us bloggers that find and expose these sorts of things.
- You don't need to get every answer right. So don't worry about it and move onto the next one.
Now it's time for the MOSS exam. This one's going to be tough...
Source: Home - Nadeem's Blog