HttpCode

The following code will create a site based on a template, then it will add a new contributor group:

//create the subsite .. subSite is an SPWeb object
SPWeb createdWeb = subSite.Webs.Add("Url", "Title", "Project Subsite", 1033, "Template Name", true, false);

createdWeb.BreakRoleInheritance(true);

SPMember member = createdWeb.Users[createdWeb.Author.LoginName];
//create the user groups ...

createdWeb.SiteGroups.Add(createdWeb.Title + " Contributors", member, createdWeb.Author, "Contributors to the site");
SPGroup newContribGroup = createdWeb.SiteGroups[createdWeb.Title + " Contributors"];

SPRoleDefinition contribRole = createdWeb.RoleDefinitions.GetByType(SPRoleType.Contributor);
SPRoleAssignment contribRoleAssignment = new SPRoleAssignment(newContribGroup);
contribRoleAssignment.RoleDefinitionBindings.Add(contribRole);
createdWeb.RoleAssignments.Add(contribRoleAssignment);

The above code will break the permission inheritance, so the created site will have unique permissions, this code could be refactored to also create Owners and Reader’s groups.

I was playing around with setting up the navigation created by a legacy custom site definition. Information posted for my reference more than anything else:

<WebFeatures>

    <Feature ID="541F5F57-C847-4e16-B59A-B31E90E6F9EA">

        <Properties xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

            <Property Key="InheritGlobalNavigation" Value="true"/>

            <Property Key="IncludeSubSites" Value="true"/>

            <Property Key="IncludePages" Value="false"/>

            <Property Key="InheritCurrentNavigation" Value="false"/>

        </Properties>

    </Feature> 

</WebFeatures>

Some of the settable properties are:

The boolean properties:

• IncludeInGlobalNavigation
• IncludeInCurrentNavigation
• InheritGlobalNavigation
• InheritCurrentNavigation
• ShowSiblings
• IncludeSubSites
• IncludePages
• SortAscending

The next properties take an enum:

• OrderingMethod - Automatic, ManualWithAutomaticPageSorting, Manual
• AutomaticSortingMathod - Title, CreatedDate, LastModifiedDate

I’ve been working with a client recently that had a problem with the Web Front End servers randomly rebooting. The servers were Windows Server 2008 running virtually on VMWare ESX. Interestingly the problem didn’t occur on any of the other Win 2008 servers that also ran on VMWare.

Firstly we discovered that the machines weren’t just rebooting they were in fact blue screening and then rebooting after they did a dump.

So we fired up WinDbg and had a look at some of the dumps.

We found that the offending method was:

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  X64_0x7E_BAD_IP_HTTP!UlAuthenticate+73

The loaded module was HTTP.sys

This seemed to fit, the environment that was crashing was the only one to have Kerberos enabled, so we suspected some interaction between Kerberos and VMWare to be the cause (hence these were the only servers crashing). But since Windows 2008 runs HTTP.sys which is a kernel mode driver, we knew that as part of the Kerberos setup we had to explicitly allow the kernel to authenticate as the app pool user (via the application host file). We also knew that we could use IIS manager to move this authentication out to user mode, if you open IIS manager, expand the web site, select Authentication from the right and select the advanced properties on the Windows Authentication item. This will present you with the following option to ‘Enable Kernel-mode authentication’:

After we deselected this option our servers have been running solidly.

I received an interesting error today while trying to ‘Manage Data Sources’ on a report “The resource object with classname ‘ReportServer’ and the key ‘DataSourceList’ was not found”:

I found that sometimes it would work, but other times it would fail. A bit of tracing showed that when I hit web1 in the farm it would fail, but web2 would succeed.

With this information in hand I hand a look at the App_GlobalResources folder under c:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\virtualdirectories\<web application name>

Interestingly web2 (which worked) had some resources called ReportServer.resx, but web1 (which failed) did not have these resources, that was what was causing the failures.

I copied the resources across and the issue resolved itself.

I suspect that the report services add on wasn’t installed properly.

A little while ago I created a simple Application Definition for working with some CRM 4 data via the BDC.

Well recently the CRM Search Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 have been released, which provides a better Application Definition File:

The enterprise search accelerator allows Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) customers to view and search for Microsoft Dynamics CRM data directly from their SharePoint portals. By combining these two technologies users from different areas of the business will be able to:

• View and edit any Microsoft Dynamics CRM data such as accounts, contacts, opportunities, sales orders, invoices, service cases and any custom entity data through MOSS.
  
• Launch a MOSS search which can return documents, emails, web content and Microsoft Dynamics CRM data.

If your interested in seeing how Commerce Server and SharePoint can be integrated, you might want to take a look at the December 2008 CTP of Commerce Server 2009:

The bullet point of interest is:

• Complete out-of-the-box e-commerce shopping site in SharePoint with new search functionality, new shopping features, and what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) content management and design experiences. This helps to facilitate rapid assembly and maintenance of e-commerce Web sites by business users and creative professionals.

For more information about this upcoming release, the PDC session is a good place to start.

A new web part for CRM 4 integration into SharePoint has been released by Microsoft:

Overview

The List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 provides a way to view and update Microsoft Dynamics CRM records using a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 Web site. Microsoft Dynamics CRM users can create shared or personal List Web Parts of Microsoft Dynamics CRM records from a SharePoint Web site, open records in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 from the List Web Part, and create connected List Web Parts.

Ascentium has a blog post with some screen shots.

I was working with a client recently who had the idea that they could make use of Excel Calculation Services to render parts of a spreadsheet that they use heavily inside their business. The client hoped to be able to publish the spreadsheet in it’s current form.

Unfortunately if any of the following features are inside your spreadsheet, it will fail to render:

• Spreadsheets with code.  This includes spreadsheets with VBA macros, forms controls, toolbox controls, MS 5.0 Dialogs, and XLM Sheets.
• IRM-protected spreadsheets
• ActiveX Controls
• Embedded SmartTags
• PivotTables based on “multiple consolidation” ranges
• External references (links to other spreadsheets)
• Spreadsheets saved in formula view
• XML expansion packs
• XML Maps
• Data validation
• Query Tables, SharePoint Lists, Web Queries, and Text Queries
• Spreadsheets that reference add-ins
• Spreadsheets that use the RTD() function
• Spreadsheet that use spreadsheet and sheet protection
• Embedded pictures or clip art
• Cell and Sheet background pictures
• AutoShapes and WordArt
• Ink Annotations 
• Organization Charts and Diagrams.
• DDE Links

In my case the complex spreadsheet that the client was using contained a number of these features, which basically meant that they need to maintain a cut down spreadsheet just for rendering on the intranet.