Windows 2008R2 boot VHD

I was in need of a faster SharePoint 2010 development environment and saw some posts on booting from a vhd and decided to give it a try. I'm running Windows 7 ultimate on my laptop and will install Windows 2008 R2 on the vhd. The first thing I tried was converting my virtualbox hard drive. Big waste of time, the conversion from vdi to vhd just didn't work. So, it was time to create a new vhd and install everything all over again. In this post I'll go thorough the steps to create a new vhd and install Windows 2008R2 on to it.

Change the bios settings on your machine so the dvd will boot before the hard drive.

Boot your machine from the install dvd. Oh, you don't have an install dvd, you have an iso file don't you? So you need to create an install dvd from the iso file. It's not so bad. Use a utility like ImgBurn to unpack the image file to disk, you'll see all the setup files when your done. 

Boot your machine from the install dvd. Select your language and click next.


Go to the command prompt  - enter shift+F10
x:\sources > diskpart
diskpart > create vdisk file=c:\win2008r2.vhd maximum=40000 type=expandable
diskpart > select vdisk file=c:\win2008r2.vhd
diskpart > attach vdisk
diskpart > exit
x:\sources > exit

Install the operating system - you will be able to select your new vhd later.

Select the disk you just created, there will be more than one to choose from. Choose carefully. Ignore the warning that you can't use the disk.

Continue with the installation. 

When the installation is finished, remove the dvd from the drive and restart your machine. You will be able to choose between Windows 7 and Windows 2008R2.

Migrating to SharePoint 2010

Recently I've been migrating farms from SharePoint 2007 to 2010 using the attach database method. In this post I'm going to outline the steps I've used to perform the upgrade. I'm assuming SharePoint 2010  has been set up and that the visual compatibility mode will be used. 

Clean Up Your Current Environment 
Remove unused site collections, features, etc. Run "stsadm -o preupgradecheck" to identify potential problems.

Find the Customizations
Your disaster recovery plan will really come in handy here. If you don't have a disaster recovery plan, this will be a good start for one. Go to central administration and note your settings. They will need to be used to configure your new farm. Find the custom code and files that have been deployed to your farm. If solutions have been used to deploy customizations, they can be used to deploy to the new farm. Make copies of the web.config files, many of the custom settings have been made by hand. Think safe controls, http modules, application settings, connection strings. Run a comparison between your 12 hive and an oob 12 hive to find any differences. Check IIS for any folders or applications that have been added.

Copy your Content Databases
The databases can be detached and copied or backups can be taken. Copy the .mdf files to the new SQL Server.

Install Customizations to the new 2010 Farm
Install your solutions and features, move files into the 14 hive, edit the web.config files... Create new Web Applications for the ones you’re moving. Delete the configuration databases that are created.  

Attach the Content Databases to the new SQL Server 


Test Content Database against the Web Applications
Run Powershell command:     Test-SPContentDatabase -Name "contentdbname" -WebApplication "http://webapplicationurl"  This will give you the guids of missing features and let you know if there are any errors that would stop the upgrade.  

Attach the Content Database to the farm
Run Powershell command:     Mount-SPContentDatabase -Name "contentdbname" -WebApplication "http://webapplicationurl"

Test the upgraded farm

Copy DLL from GAC

From time to time you will need to copy a dll from the GAC or assembly. The easiest way I've found to copy the file is to open a command prompt and enter the following command.

           SUBST M: C:\Windows\Assembly

This will create a new drive M: that you can use to copy the file. 

Content Query Web Part - Common Enhancements

The content query web part affectionately known as CQWP is one of the go to oob SharePoint components. It's really great at rollups on content types within a site collection. The CQWP is built with xslt so this post will focus on modifications to "ItemStyle.xsl" or your own custom item style file. Be careful of white spaces and line returns when formatting the XSLT. A couple of tools that will help a great deal with the CAML and fields are U2U CAML query Builder, SharePoint Manager and SharePoint designer.

Use additional fields

First, export the webpart and open it in notepad. Edit the CommonViewFields property. The fields are formatted like this "internal name","type"; After adding the fields, save the file and import it back into the site. Test and make sure the web part still works. If not check names, types, white space and new lines.

   <property name="CommonViewFields" type="string">Sorted1,Text;Status,Text;CDate,Date;
   </property>

Formatting Dates

Add the highlighted line to the xsl:stylesheet tag.

<xsl:stylesheet
  version="1.0"
  exclude-result-prefixes="x d xsl msxsl cmswrt"
  xmlns:x="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
  xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/dsp"
  xmlns:cmswrt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebParts/v3/Publishing/runtime"
  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"
  xmlns:ddwrt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebParts/v2/DataView/runtime">

You can then format the date like this.

<xsl:value-of select="ddwrt:FormatDate(string(@CDate) ,1033 ,1)"/>

Headers and Footers

There are a number of posts out there on this subject but this is what has worked for me and has been the least painful to develop. First create variables for the header and footer and then use them at the top and bottom of the template.

   <xsl:variable name="HEADER">
     <xsl:if test="count(preceding-sibling::*)=0">
          <![CDATA[<table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
                <tr>
                <th>Header1</th>
                <th>Header2</th>
                <th>Header3</th>                </tr>]]>
      </xsl:if>
   </xsl:variable>

   <xsl:variable name="FOOTER">
     <xsl:if test="count(following-sibling::*)=0">
         <![CDATA[ </table> ]]>
      </xsl:if>
   </xsl:variable>

       You can then use them like this.

<xsl:value-of select="$HEADER" disable-output-escaping="yes"/>

<xsl:value-of select="$FOOTER" disable-output-escaping="yes"/> 

Only Show the Most Recent Entry

This is common requirement when rolling up status reports. This technique requires that the list items be in the correct order. To ensure that the list items are in the correct order the web part itself needs to be modified. To do this export the webpart and open it in notepad. Edit the QueryOverride property with the correct CAML statements. Save the changes and import the web part. (Any valid CAML can be placed in the QueryOverride tag.)

   <property name="QueryOverride" type="string"><![CDATA[<OrderBy><FieldRef Name="Sorted1"
     Ascending="True"/><FieldRef Name="CDate" Ascending="False"/></OrderBy>]]></property>

Now that the data is in the correct order, only show the first record. First create a variable that contains the value of the unique field. Then use the variable to get a count of records before the current record that contains the unique value.

   <xsl:variable name="UniqueField" select="normalize-space(@Sorted1)" />
   <xsl:variable name="CountUniqueField"
        select="count(preceding-sibling::*[@*['Sorted1']=$UniqueField])" />     

Wrap your detail html with the following if statement.

<xsl:if test="$CountUniqueField &lt; 1">
     <!-- Your xslt & html here --->

</xsl:if>

Format as KPI/Stop Light/Green Yellow Red

Here the status field is compared to green/yellow/red and the src attribute of the <img> tag is set appropriately.

   <img>
      <xsl:attribute name="src">
         <xsl:if test="normalize-space(@status) = 'Green'">/images/green.gif</xsl:if>
         <xsl:if test="normalize-space(@status) = 'Yellow'">/images/yellow.gif</xsl:if>
         <xsl:if test="normalize-space(@status) = 'Red'">/images/red.gif</xsl:if>
      </xsl:attribute>
   </img>

It looks like this all put together

    <xsl:template name="CustomItemStyle" match="Row[@Style='CustomItemStyle']"
    mode="itemstyle">
       
        <xsl:variable name="SafeLinkUrl">
              <xsl:call-template name="OuterTemplate.GetSafeLink">
                   <xsl:with-param name="UrlColumnName" select="'LinkUrl'" />
              </xsl:call-template>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="DisplayTitle">
              <xsl:call-template name="OuterTemplate.GetTitle">
                <xsl:with-param name="Title" select="normalize-space(@Title)" />
                <xsl:with-param name="UrlColumnName" select="'LinkUrl'" />
              </xsl:call-template>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="LinkTarget">_blank</xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="UniqueField" select="normalize-space(@Sorted1)" />
        <xsl:variable name="CountUniqueField"
               select="count(preceding-sibling::*[@*['Sorted1']=$UniqueField])" />
         
        <xsl:variable name="HEADER">
            <xsl:if test="count(preceding-sibling::*)=0">
                 <![CDATA[<table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
                     <tr>
                       <th>Link To Item</th>
                       <th>Status</th>
                       <th>Date</th>           
                    </tr>
                 ]]>
           </xsl:if>
       </xsl:variable>

       <xsl:variable name="FOOTER">
           <xsl:if test="count(following-sibling::*)=0">
                <![CDATA[ </table> ]]>
           </xsl:if>
       </xsl:variable>

       <xsl:value-of select="$HEADER" disable-output-escaping="yes"/>
  
       <xsl:if test="$CountUniqueField &lt; 1">
           <tr>
              <td class="ms-vb">
                <xsl:call-template name="OuterTemplate.CallPresenceStatusIconTemplate"/>
                  <a href="{$SafeLinkUrl}" target="{$LinkTarget}" title="{@LinkToolTip}"
                   style="font-size:12px;font-weight:bold;">
                       <xsl:value-of select="$DisplayTitle" />
                  </a>
              </td>
                       
              <td class="ms-vb">
                 <img>
                     <xsl:attribute name="src">
                         <xsl:if test="normalize-space(@status) = 'Green'">
                            /images/green.gif</xsl:if>
                         <xsl:if test="normalize-space(@status) = 'Yellow'">
                            /images/yellow.gif</xsl:if>
                         <xsl:if test="normalize-space(@status) = 'Red'">
                            /images/red.gif</xsl:if>
                     </xsl:attribute>
                  </img>
              </td>

              <td class="ms-vb">
                 <xsl:value-of select="ddwrt:FormatDate(string(@CDate) ,1033 ,1)"/>
              </td>

           </tr>
  
       </xsl:if>

       <xsl:value-of select="$FOOTER" disable-output-escaping="yes"/>

    </xsl:template>

Using SPList as Datasource for jQuery UI Autocomplete

A client recently wanted an auto complete field populated with a SharePoint list. Luckily, the jQuery UI library recently added an auto complete widget to their offering. So with the widget and SharePoint's ability to expose SPList data as xml we have a robust solution at our fingertips.

First, lets look at SharePoint's underutililized feature of exposing lists as xml through the url. That's right, use the right url and your list comes back as xml.  Here's the format

"#WEBURL#/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?Cmd=Display&List={#LISTGUID#}&Query=Title%20Name&XMLDATA=TRUE"

Replace #WEBURL# with url of your site.
Replace #LISTGUID# with your list's guid.
The "Query=Title%20Name" limits the fields coming back to "Title" and "Name". These are the internal field names, one more reason not to use spaces in your field names.

These are really only the basics of what you can do with this techinque, the rest can be found here. URL Protocol

Next, you will need jQuery version 1.4.2 and jQuery UI version 1.8.0. You can either download these from their sites or use the Google cdn. Take a look here about adding the jQuery library and code into SharePoint if you need to. Use the code below and you have an input box with auto complete feed by a list. Pretty cool.

  <script type="text/javascript">     
           (function(){
                 var xmlSource = "#WEBURL#/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?Cmd=Display&
                                  List={#LISTGUID}&Query=Title%20Name&XMLDATA=TRUE";

                 $.ajax({
                    url: xmlSource,
                    dataType: "xml",
                    success: function(xmlResponse) {
                        var data = $("z\\:row", xmlResponse).map(function() {
                            return {
                                title: $(this).attr("ows_Title"),
                                name: $(this).attr("ows_Name")
                            };
                        }).get();
                        $("#auto").autocomplete({
                            source: data,
                            minLength: 1,
                            select: function(event, ui) {
                                var title = ui.item.title;
                                var name = ui.item.name;
                           //TO DO what to do with the values that have been selected
                            }
                        });
                    }
                })//end .ajax

            }) //end function
  </script>

<input id="auto" type="text" />

This solution could be wrapped in a custom field control. If you were to do this you may be able to do away with lookup fields and provide auto complete everywhere in your site.

Too Many Users Remoted into Machine

There's a really easy way around the too many users remoted into the server. Just remember that you may be bumping someone else from the machine. An added bonus most of the time imo.

C:\>mstsc -v:MachinenameOrIP /F -admin

SharePoint TreeView Site Navigation

This is a really simple and powerful solution for site navigation within a site collection. It consists of a TreeView control, a PortalSiteMapProvider and a SiteMapDataSource. It sounds like there's a lot going on and there is, but SharePoint is taking care of most of the work for us.

Download the code

The TreeView control gives a familiar look most users will quickly recognize. It can be easily styled  with css or skins.

Here is the editor of the webpart. The TreeView section has been added for a few customizations. The Site Map Provider is provided by SharePoint. Additional providers can be found in the web.config file. Number of levels to Show sets the number of levels to expand. Only Display Subsites if checked will only display the current site and it's subsites.

The code below creates and customizes the sitemapprovider.

        //setup the sitemapprovider
        protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e)
        {
            base.OnInit(e);

            SiteMapProvider siteMapProvider = SiteMap.Providers[_siteMapProvider];
            if (siteMapProvider == null)
            { return; }

            InitPortalSiteMapProvider(siteMapProvider);
        }

        //set some defaults for the customized data provider
        //this is intended to only show sites and not pages
        private void InitPortalSiteMapProvider(SiteMapProvider siteMapProvider)
        {
            if (siteMapProvider is PortalSiteMapProvider)
            {
                _provider = siteMapProvider as PortalSiteMapProvider;
                _provider.DynamicChildLimit = 0;
                _provider.EncodeOutput = true;
                _provider.IncludePages = PortalSiteMapProvider.IncludeOption.Never;
                _provider.IncludeSubSites = PortalSiteMapProvider.IncludeOption.Always;
                _provider.IncludeHeadings = false;
                _provider.IncludeAuthoredLinks = false;
            }
        }

Here's the CreateChildControls method where everything is put together.

        protected override void CreateChildControls()
        {
            Controls.Clear();
            //create the datasource
            _datasource = new SiteMapDataSource();
            //associate the datasource with the customized provider
            _datasource.Provider = _provider;
            //if true only show self and subsites
            _datasource.StartFromCurrentNode = startAtCurrentWeb;

            treeView = new TreeView();
            treeView.ExpandDepth = levels;
            //set the datasource of the treeview and bind it
            treeView.DataSource = _datasource;

            treeView.DataBind();
      
            Controls.Add(treeView);
        }