Sharepoint Extensions for Visual Studio [VSeWSS] 1.1 CTP

Being more a MOSS programmer than a administrator, the announcement (Announcing the CTP for VSeWSS Version 1.1) of the release of the VSeWSS CTP by the Microsoft SharePoint Designer Team Blog is something important to me.

Note: This CTP is for evaluation only - it's not recommended for use in production systems.

What's New in VSeWSS 1.1?

• WSP View, aka "Solution Package editing"
• New Item Templates:
  • "List Instance" project item
  • "List Event Handler" project item
  • "_layout file" project item
• Faster F5 speed
• Many bug fixes

for more info read the article Announcing the CTP for VSeWSS Version 1.1

MOSS2007 Web Application Creation Fails - Exception from HRESULT: 0×80070094

Recently while creating new web applications, I received the following error:

Sharepoint path specified cannot be used at this time. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070094)

System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0×80070094): The path specified cannot be used at this time. (Exception from HRESULT: 0×80070094)
at System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry.CommitChanges()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPMetabaseObject.Provision()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPProvisioningAssistant.ProvisionApplicationPool(String applicationPoolId, Int32 identityType, String username, SecureString secStrPassword)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPApplicationPool.ProvisionInternal(SecureString sstrPassword)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPApplicationPool.Provision()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebServiceInstance.Provision()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.CentralAdministrationSiteTask.ProvisionAdminVs()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.CentralAdministrationSiteTask.Run()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()

...as most things in Moss this is related to the "WSS Timer service" , just restart it and that should do the job.

The lesson here seems to be that along with IISRESET, restarting the WSS Timer service should be in your TODO when you have trouble with the MOSS/WSS.

Moss/Sps Database with wrong DBO

Ok , so what happens when you let a ruckie Sharepoint Admin/Developer install your company's sharepoint? yes ladies and gentlemen - he installs it under HIS login 'MyDomain\HisUserName' . Problems ? yes, and what if he decides to leave the company and go freelance or something ? yes boys and girls his login and mailbox is been deleted . problem ? yes - all the DBs runs under his permission and not body knows it until a restart to the machine is made - aghhh   :s

Solution ? yes

I KNOW I HAVE A LIFE - Part2

I KNOW I HAVE A LIFE - An old post that I have decided to post the Part 2 of it.

This time at Nanuchka, a Georgian restaurant in lilenblum 28 , Tel Aviv.

Due to the fact that even uzbek ( natasha ) think that Georgian food is good for you , I have decided this would be great place to celebrate my 35th birthday.

A small advice - celebrate your life, EVERYDAY !

p.s.

1. sorry for the quality of the picture , it was done by my nokia 6230i 1.3 mega pixel camera, we forgot the real thing at home :'(

2. My birthday is a polindrom which is something special 27-08-72, for me anyway =)

Moss 2007 Migration [Part2] - Check errorlog file for the reason that full-text catalog became offline and bring it online

In my pervious post I mentioned a Moss 2007 64Bit Migration Experience , well here's the follow up : Ok , so we had an INDEX problem that was inherited from the Sharepoint 2003 Version. The Problem was that we got on our main 'spscontentdb' database:

"Object spscontentdb failed in event OnBackup. For more information, see the error log located in the backup directory. SqlException: The backup of full-text catalog 'ix_SPSPortal_SITE_db' is not permitted because it is not online. Check errorlog file for the reason that full-text catalog became offline and bring it online. Or BACKUP can be performed by using the FILEGROUP or FILE clauses to restrict the selection to include only online data. BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally."

Steps take to resolve the problem:

1. SELECT * FROM sysfulltextcatalogs - which gave us the FCTATID , NAME , STATUS , PATH. I took a look if the path existed and - No , it didn't exist. so the Index is poiniting to a non exsiting File/Directory. Seeing that most of the Articles I came accross told me to remove the index I have decided to take this corse of action - drop the index.
2. Ok, now I have to drop the index. Have it's name did the following: DROP FULLTEXT CATALOG ix_SPSPortal_SITE_db.  Where "ix_SPSPortal_SITE_db" is the name of the catalog.
3. Now try again to backup the Farm. Don't forget that the backup directory name should be a UNC path for example \\xmoss\backup\ , and that the User who runs the SqlServer Service has write permission
4. don't forget the Complete reference of all STSADM operations (with parameters) in MOSS 2007

Moss 2007 64Bit Migration Experience

I'm currently doing with Yossi Zaaroor a migration of Sharepoint 2003 on a 32 bit machine to a Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 Enterprise edition on a 64bit web farm. Did some say DLL hell ? because that's the exact feeling I'm having right now. We're doing this operation on one of the gov.il offices and what can I say ? the experience IS enriching from being a Sharepoint programmer I have transformed to a Sharepoint SysAdmin - solving Sql and Moss management problems.

The current problem I'm facing is "The backup of full-text catalog ... the reason that full-text catalog became offline and bring it online" , links ? here some

• MSSQLSERVER_9987
• SQL Full Text Catalog Errors Backing up and can't drop
• How to move, copy, and back up full-text catalog folders and files

... tips and tricks are more to come

Developer Acedemy 2 - A location ?

channel9.microsoft.co.il

CardSpace and Your Mobile

Windows Mobile UK has announced about The first wave of FREE Windows Mobile 6 upgrades for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices as a result all I'm thinking is MORE CARDSPACE FOR ME ;)
For those who were in my Israel Visual Basic User Group - June 2007 Meeting one of the things we've talked about is the integration of the .NET Framework Version 3.0 into the mobile device , when the platform is Windows Mobile 5.0/6.0 . The point is that Mike Jones - Microsoft's Identity Diplomat has announced in the XBD07 - Enable Windows CardSpace and Information Cards in Your Web Site the possibility of enabling CardSpace in the Mobile Flatform so this news is good news for me , any way ;)

"How do I?" Videos

MSDN has started to build a small list of "How do I?" Videos which currently have

• ASP.NET
• ASP.NET Ajax
• Devices
• Native Coding
• Silverlight
• Visual Studio Tools for Office
• Visual Studio Extensibility
• Visual Basic
• Visual Studio Team System
• Windows Forms
• Windows Presentation Foundation
  

... but I'm adding my link to that WSS 3.0 For the people ;) , just in case you forgot.

"51 Channels And Nothing On" (Bruce Springsteen)

We'll MSDN has released ANOTHER channel ;) Channel8 which would join it's brethren channel 9 and channel10 - all they have to do now is to enable it on my media center automatically and we have another "IE" on my TV 

( when I say "IE" I mean a propriety of Microsoft which is installed on it's platform and which is displayed by default on the list of installed files & on the desktop it self ) 

WCF LOB Adapter SDK is Released

The BizTalk Server Team Blog has announced the release of the WCF Line-of-Business Adapter SDK. This SDK for Windows Communication Foundation provides the tools to quickly develop adapters to business applications. Adapters built using this SDK can be consumed by any .NET application, including Microsoft’s BizTalk, SQL, and SharePoint Servers, and your own custom .NET applications.
I don't know about you, but I think that each step Microsoft as a hole which steps towards perfecting WCF and integrating it into it's products is a step towards perfecting and enabling Microsoft ESB Guidance CTP3 into it's infrastructure.

Acropolis August CTP2 for VS 2008 Beta2 is now available

I am happy to announce that "Acropolis" August CTP (aka VS 2008 Beta2 Refresh) is available! :)
I know I don't fumble with it , but heck it must be important to some one ;)
This release is mainly an update in order to help customers to continue to evaluate the "Acropolis" with the latest VS 2008 Beta. In addition to VS 2008 Beta2 support, one small feature named "FloatingLayoutPane" was added.
Download from http://windowsclient.net/Acropolis ;)

Microsoft ESB Guidance CTP3

Microsoft ESB Guidance at CodePlex has updated to CTP3

      Overview

The Microsoft ESB Guidance provides architectural guidance, patterns, practices, and a set of BizTalk Server and .NET components to simplify the development of an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) on the Microsoft platform and to allow Microsoft customers to extend their own messaging and integration solutions.

We are thrilled to announce this most recent drop of the ESB Guidance! This is easily the most solid release to date both in terms of code-based guidance and documentation. You should really be able to see it's final form beginning to take shape in this build. While we are making the documentation and source code available as two seperate downloads, in order to install and run the source code, you will have to download the documentation.

Important: Because the BizTalk R2 features this guidance is using, we have worked with the BizTalk team to get a CTP build that is different than the beta versions of R2 previously available. Basically, there are just a few bugs we needed fixed so we could continue development of the ESB Guidance. You can learn about how to download this R2 CTP in the "Installation Prerequisites" section of the documentation under the "Installing the ESB Guidance" section. This is one of the reasons why you need the documentation if you want to run the bits ;)

There are a LOAD of changes in this release of the ESB Guidance. Rather than me enumerate them here. I would rather you just get started downloading it ;) Once you have it, check out the "Changes in This Release Version" section of the documentation under the "Introduction to the Microsoft ESB Guidance" section.

The CLR has been unable to transition from COM context

As most people I read the electronic version of the newspaper in the morning.But unlike some people afterwards I try to scan the newsgroups for questions I can answer.Well this one is worth publishing

"The CLR has been unable to transition from COM context"

Well it seems that this is caused by the ContextSwitchDeadlock managed debugging assistant (MDA) (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms172233.aspx), which is a new feature in VS2005.

The MDA works to detect deadlock with a pre-defined timeout, and it's only effective when you're running the program under debugger. To turn off this, please add following content to your application configuration file:

<mdaConfig>
  <assistants>
    <contextSwitchDeadlock enable="false" />
  </assistants>
</mdaConfig>

Or you can use following steps to turn off this MDA globally:

1) Open your project in Visual Studio 2005
2) Click on the Debug menu on the main menu of the Visual Studio IDE.
3) Choose the Exceptions option (Debug -> Exceptions).
4) The Exceptions window will open.
5) Expand the "Managed Debugging Assistants" node.
6) Uncheck the ContextSwitchDeadlock option under the Thrown column.
7) Click on Ok and close the Exceptions window. You can now run your
application
and test it to see whether the exception occurs again.

This is occurring because you are essentially stalling the message
loop by spending a lot of time stepping through code.  In your case
it's probably more of a nuisance than anything else.  I'd just disable
it.  The implications of disabling it are that you may lose a useful
tool for discovering bugs before you release the application.  MDAs are
disabled in release builds anyway.  That's why you only see it during a
debugging session. if you don't see this option in the Visual Studio then right click on the toolbar area and select Customize.  You'll find it in the list of commands under Debug.  Just drag it up to your Debug menu.