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| Issue
If you’re trying to debug a mapped custom page in SharePoint from PowerShell, but come across this issue:
PS C:\> $webapp = get-spwebapplication http://sp2010
$webapp.GetMappedPage([Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication.SPCustomPage]::Error)
Unable to find type [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication.SPCustomPage]: make sure that the
assembly containing this type is loaded.
At line:2 char:90
+ $webapp.GetMappedPage([Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication.SPCustomPage] <<<< ::Error)
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (Microsoft.Share...on.SPCustomPage:String) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : TypeNotFound
Solution
Try this instead:
$webapp.GetMappedPage([Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication+SPCustomPage]::Signout)
The Clue
I’m not sure why the syntax is different for this. I would have expected a period instead of a plus there before SPCustomPage. None of my research on Enums showed a plus sign, but finally I noticed this:
PS C:\> $webapp.GetMappedPage
MemberType : Method
OverloadDefinitions : {string GetMappedPage(Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication+SPCustomPage key),
string GetMappedPage(string page)}
TypeNameOfValue : System.Management.Automation.PSMethod
Value : string GetMappedPage(Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication+SPCustomPage key),
string GetMappedPage(string page)
Name : GetMappedPage
IsInstance : True
Reference
Mapping Custom Error Pages for SharePoint 2010 Site, Ram Prasad MCTS, http://www.spdeveloper.co.in/articles/pages/custom-error-pages-for-sharepoint2010-sites.aspx |
| Have you ever thought creating a new SharePoint Server would be as easy as adding a new item to a list in SharePoint? Today, you can set that up in about 15 minutes with Nintex Workflow 2013.
Rackspace Actions in Nintex Live
Automating server creation in SharePoint starts with Nintex Live.
Creating a new SharePoint server is only one of the new workflow actions available since May 1st on Nintex Live. Check out the full list below and in the screenshot.
 Rackspace Actions
- Rackspace resize a server
- Rackspace rebuild a server
- Rackspace state management
- Rackspace create server
- Rackspace change password
Configuring the Action
When Nintex Workflow 2013 is installed in your farm, you can add a new Nintex Workflow from the Workflow settings menu on the List ribbon of any SharePoint List. Adding the Rackspace create server action shown above allows you to drag the action into your new workflow. Below is an example configuration I used today to create a new server. I used the Windows Server 2012 + SharePoint 2013 Foundation with SQL 2012 Standard image, but you can choose from any of the 41 Rackspace Cloud Images available today.
Note that you will need a Rackspace Cloud Server account, free with registration, to get the username and API Key needed to create a server. I chose to use the title of my new SharePoint list item as the name of my new Server instance.
View the Server in your Rackspace Cloud Control Panel
After I created the new workflow and started it on a list item titled Nintex SharePoint Server 1, I could see the new server building in my Rackspace Cloud Control Panel like below.
What great things will you do with the power of the Open Cloud in SharePoint?
I’m curious to see how these new actions get used in the community. I have a feeling this is just the beginning. If you have a dream or a real use, let me know below in the comments or on twitter @resing. |
| I was asked today by a friend, How do you modify the web.config through a WSP? My quick answer, I don’t! Not if I can avoid it other than the changes made through Visual Studio item properties like safe controls entries and others. However, showing my true consultant nature, I turned the question into the above. That’s a more specific question with a couple good possibilities I’d like to share, but still, it seems like there may be better answers I haven’t found. How do YOU automate FBA web.config changes? If you don’t use one of the options below, let me know in the comments or at http://twitter.com/resing First, the Manual Way After going through the Microsoft Certified Master training, I consider Steve Peshka’s writing on FBA to be the go to source. Read Configuring Forms Based Authentication in SharePoint 2010 for the step by step. Basically, Steve outlines the manual processes you need to take. But what if you have 100s of servers to apply the changes to and need to maintain consistency? Scripting is the key in my mind Taking some of the manual processes Steve describes to script, like creating web applications with the correct properties are already covered by others on the web. However, updating web.config is a bigger issue. And it’s a necessary script. When we say “NEVER TOUCH THE WEB.CONFIG BY HAND” it always comes with a disclaimer for cases like FBA. You kind of have to. However, Steve also provides an automated approach. 2 Forms Based Authentication Configuration Managers I haven’t tried out either of these 2 options, but I feel comfortable recommended you at least check them out based on the source (Steve) and the source (codeplex.) First, Steve had produced what he calls the SharePoint 2010 Forms Based Authentication Configuration Manager. He explains it in his blog post and provides a readme file in the download. It uses primary SharePoint concepts like a Solution Package, .wsp, and timer jobs to make the changes. Seems very reasonable. Second, there is another project, this one on codeplex, based on the same manual techniques. The author explains his approach in a post on his blog, FBA Configuration Manager for SharePoint 2010. What I like about this solution is two things. 1, the code is available on codeplex, so you can explore the technique used and tweak it if you want. 2, it uses PowerShell. I’m a big fan of PowerShell, so I think that is just cool.
The Custom Code Way If neither of those approaches work for you or you are just the type to write your own code and live on the edge, read What every SharePoint developer should know about the web.config file. The author does a good job of explaining the code options and some of the many issues with it. Honestly, I recommend against this method. This method I have tried before and run into some major issues. I don’t trust it. And if you can’t trust it, it won’t achieve the desired result of consistency. However, under the perfect conditions, this may work for you and some people seem to like it, so I mention it. However, be wary. Your Way One of the things I love most about sharing with the SharePoint community is the great feedback I get. If you’ve used one of the methods above or have a better way, please let me know! I’ll be sure to update this post with your solution if it can help the community. |
| I’m so excited to see that the second book I’ve co-authored has made it to the Early Release stage!
You can purchase Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Inside Out Early Release at Oreilly.com today.
When you purchase an Early Release book like this, you will receive the first 10 chapters we’ve drafted and all updates to the digital edition including the final release E-book. If you’re not familiar with O’Reilly E-books, they are all DRM free and available to read in formats readable on most book readers, tablets and computers. The Early Release is also selling today at $39.99 which is a discount to the list price showing at Amazon of $49.99.
Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Inside Out is for the Advanced Information Worker Topic. A basic understanding of SharePoint IW concepts is assumed so that my co-authors and I could dive deep into more advanced topics like Administration for Business Users and in the 23rd chapter, after all the other topics, Enhancing SharePoint with Custom Development, two favorites of mine!
I’m so lucky to have worked on this book with such a great team including my co-authors, Darvish Shadravan, Penelope Coventry, and Christina Wheeler, contributing authors Javier Barrera and Sam Larko, technical editor Neil Hodgkinson and editors Katharine Dvorak and Kenyon Brown. With so many great contributors, I hope you get a chance to enjoy our work and I hope it helps you in your work. |
| Have you checked out the SharePoint 2013 workflow samples from MSDN? I sometimes hesitate to download these because you never know the quality. Some of them don’t even compile without changes. Recently, I found a pair of examples from the Apps for Office and SharePoint Samples that do work with the RTM SharePoint 2013 and latest developer tools, one I had to tweak. SharePoint 2013 workflow: Workflow-powered app for SharePoint http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/officeapps/SharePoint-2013-workflow-580034f9/view/Discussions Fixes I had to make a few changes to get this to compile. I replaced a reference to Microsoft.Activity with System.Activity and then I had to fix the XAML for BuildDictionary based on the BuildDictionary I dragged in from the toolbox. After that it would compile against the most recent tools for SharePoint in Visual Studio 2012 on my Windows 8 box with all Windows Updates installed. What to do after it deploys There is no walkthrough of the functionality of this app, so I had to decipher the workflow sequence in Visual Studio to see it work. Here are the steps: - After deploying, click the List1 link on the App Web default.aspx
- create a new item with any title
- refresh the page until the title is replaced with "Workflow1 is waiting"
- edit the item to change the text to Go workflow
- refresh the page until the title is replaced with "Workflow1 is completing"
- go back to default.aspx and click the List2 link
- A new item will have been created in List2 titled "Workflow1 ran on List1"
My Take While I get that this is basically a no-code example that does a lot of stuff, I have a hard time picturing a real time scenario based on this example. The activities in the Workflow editor are fairly complicated to understand and I’m not sure I could repeat them with real data. Despite this, it’s interesting to me. My favorite part was that I downloaded this on Windows 8, compiled it and deployed it to a free Office 365 Developer Site without touching a SharePoint Server that I had to set up or use local resources for. I also liked that it deployed in the App Model. That is super cool to me because of the removed burden on administrators to worry if this will take down the server. SharePoint 2013 workflow: Workflow OM in an app for SharePoint http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/officeapps/SharePoint-2013-workflow-050f5211/view/Reviews Fixes None. Deployed with no changes when I set the url to my Office 365 Developer Site. What to do after it deploys Very straightforward. Click the link to the test harness. Click the buttons to run different Javascript functions that use the Workflow Object Model My Take This one is interesting. It uses JSOM and sp.workflowservices.js to create a workflow. Very easy to install and use. The meat of the project is in the JavaScript functions stored directly in WorkflowOMTest.aspx. It’s hard for me to find any other references to sp.workflowservices.js, so I’m not sure how to go deeper into this one. It would appear you can run this JavaScript from anywhere, so it could be a good example for non-SharePoint JavaScript developers. Your take Have you tried these examples or had better luck with the other 5 or so Microsoft has provided? Do you know of better code examples? I like to learn through experimenting with existing code like this, so I’m always looking for examples that show me how to do something new. Reply in the comments, email me resingnet-website@yahoo.com or mention me on twitter @resing. |
| I’m trying to do more and more with PowerShell lately. I’ve found it’s a really quick way to make changes on Windows Server. Experimenting with Information Rights Management in SharePoint 2013, I needed to create 3 registry keys and set the value of 2. Here’s a script example for setting the Windows Registry keys for client-side ADRMS service discovery: New-Item -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSIPC\ServiceLocation'
New-Item -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSIPC\ServiceLocation\EnterprisePublishing'`
-value 'http://adrms.adventureworks.com/_wmcs/licensing/license.asmx'
New-Item -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSIPC\ServiceLocation\EnterpriseCertification'`
-value 'http://adrms.adventureworks.com/_wmcs/certification' If you need to delete a key it’s just as easy: Remove-Item -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSIPC\ServiceLocation\EnterpriseCertification' Reference Note AD RMS is the Active Directory Rights Management Service |
|  On January 1st 2012, I was honored to hear about an award that is very special to me. I was notified that I had received the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for community work in SharePoint.
Over the years, I’ve had the chance to learn quite a lot from recipients of the MVP Award, commonly referred to as MVPs or Microsoft MVPs. Clearly, they set a great example for me to follow in their footsteps.
I’ve learned from MVPs through answers to questions in online forums, excellent technical content published in blogs and books and helpful and entertaining presentations online and in person at events. Many lead technical communities such as SharePoint User Groups and SharePoint Saturday Organizations. I’ve tried to return the favor by doing much of the same.
Thank You
I’m grateful to Microsoft for granting this award. However, my thanks now go to you, the blog reader.
The primary reward to me for sharing my technical experience through writing and presentations has always been the positive comments from those I’ve helped. This MVP award is a result of positive comments you and others have shared with the decision makers at Microsoft.
So thank you. Thank you for reading and attending my presentations. And thank you for telling me how I could improve. And thank you for telling others about the help I’m willing to give.
MVP Profile
I’ve published an initial profile on the MVP Awardees page at https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Resing
I haven’t had a chance yet to update it with all of the relevant community activity they give the space for. For now, you can refer to my recap of 2012 Community Activity blog post if you’d like to see where I’ve contributed by writing, speaking or leading. |
| Happy New Year! Wondering what I did in 2012? I hope I saw you at one of these events, but if not, you have a good idea how to find me next year. In 2013, I’ll no doubt be engaging the SharePoint community by in person presentations, webinars, organizing events, book writing, blogging and tweeting once again. Take a look below to see how I’ve been measuring my community impact and feel free to let me know what you think. Am I applying my talents and experience to the right places in the community? Would you like to see more or less of my contributions in any of these areas? For example, one way I plan to expand this year is with more book writing and more conferences like SPTechCon. Gave 13 presentations at 11 events to approximately 450 attendees. Organized 11 Tuesday night meetings of the San Antonio SharePoint User Group and 1 SharePoint Saturday San Antonio. Continued promotion of SharePoint Foundation 2010 Inside Out while drafting SharePoint 2013 Inside Out for publication in 1H 2013 by Microsoft Press. Gained about 500 twitter followers after joining Rackspace in April and published 15 original blog posts. Outside of the details on my personal output below, my thought leadership and community participation had one public response that made me smile more than the rest. Todd Carter, an MCM instructor and Microsoft Veteran, wrote a post declaring the Rackspace Cloud “in some cases blows the competition away.” I was flattered that Todd responded to my request in such a prominent way. Collaboration is one of the highest forms of response to community work, at least from my way of looking at it. SharePoint Saturday Austin January 21st 2012 Topic: Integrate External Data with the Business Connectivity Services Link: http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/austin/speakers/36/TomResing.aspx Number of attendees: 30 Webinar in Lighting Tools SharePoint Webinar Series Feb 2012 Topic: Integrate External Data with the Business Connectivity Services Link: http://lightningtools.com/webcasts/ Number of attendees: 40 + plus downloads (unknown) Innotech San Antonio March 2012 Topic: Bring Business Data into SharePoint Link: http://www.innotechconferences.com/sanantonio/ Number of attendees: 35 SharePoint Saturday Houston April 2012 Topic: Mapping Mashups with SharePoint Designer Link: http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/houston/Pages/meetings.aspx Number of attendees: 30 Featured Free Rackspace SharePoint Training Webinar July 2012 Topic: SharePoint Development in the Cloud Link: http://www.rackspace.com/blog/upcoming-webinar-sharepoint-development-in-the-cloud/ Number of attendees: 25 + plus downloads (unknown) August 4th, 2012 Topic 1: Mapping Mashups with SharePoint Designer Topic 2: Integrate with Business Connectivity Services Link: http://sqlsaturday.com/150/eventhome.aspx Number of attendees: 80 Webinar in Rackspace Week of Free SharePoint 2013 Webinars August 2012 Topic: SharePoint 2013 Web Architectural Changes Link: http://www.rackspace.com/blog/sharepoint-2013-week-of-webinars/ Number of attendees: 30 + plus downloads (unknown) SharePoint Saturday Ozarks Sept 9th 2012 Topic 1: Mapping Mashups with SharePoint Designer Topic 2: A Mapping Web Part in 45 minutes Link: www.sharepointsaturday.org/ozarks/ Number of attendees: 45 Presentation to Austin SharePoint User Group October 2012 Topic: Mapping Mashups to the App Model Link: https://www.facebook.com/Austinspug Number of attendees: 30 (most of them dancing pic1 pic2 + video!) SharePoint Connections October 2012 Topic: Mapping Mashups to the App Model Link: http://www.devconnections.com/shows/fall2012/sessions.aspx?s=192 Number of attendees: 30 Webinar in Rackspace Week of Free SharePoint 2013 Webinars Friday, November 30th Another App Store? What for? Link: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/158221488 Number of attendees: 25 + recording downloads Webinar in Rackspace Week of Free SharePoint 2013 Webinars Monday, December 17th Another App Store? What for? Link: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/166846897 Number of attendees: 25 + recording downloads User Group Role: Lead Organizer of the San Antonio SharePoint User Group since January 2009 This year, I’ve recruited and coordinated the speakers and sponsors, arranged the venue, picked up the dinner, procure and handed out giveaways and organized and attended SharePints. I’ve written a monthly newsletter, wrote and sent the invite and managed registration. I’ve MC’d 10 meetings this year and handled the surveys. I organized an 11th meeting MC’d by Jeff Deverter. Most speakers were authors, MVPs, MCMs or Microsoft employees this year including 3 Rackspace MVP presentations. Next year, we’re looking to expand the leadership of the user group. I’m very excited about that. It should allow us to do even more! Link: http://sasug.net Members: 828 members in mailing list Meeting Schedule: 10+ Meetings a year Average Attendees per meeting: around 35 Event Organizer Event: SharePoint Saturday San Antonio, TX Date: Oct 2012 Link: http://sharepointsaturday.org/sa https://www.facebook.com/spssanantonio Total number of event attendees: 155 checked in on Eventbrite, (98 checked in before 9AM, 70 filled out and handed in the 6 sponsor scavenger hunt card at 4PM) Role: I lead the event, recruited speakers, recruited and organized the sponsors, ordered the speaker shirts, made sure everything was paid for, made website updates, coordinated a Windows Phone App, Spoke at the opening and closing general sessions and organized a SharePint. Forum Activity Answered questions in the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and 2013 forums Link to forum profile: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/profile/tom%20resing%20mcm Answer Questions, Ask Questions, Vote and Edit on SharePoint.stackexchange.com Link to SharePoint.StackExchange.com: http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com Link to forum profile: http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/users/2899/tom-resing Answer Questions, Ask Questions, Vote and Edit on stackoverflow.com Link to stackoverflow.com: http://stackoverflow.com Link to forum profile: http://stackoverflow.com/users/17063/tom-resing Blogging 16 new posts in 2012 Reach: Blog has an average of 6k unique visitors per month Rackspace.com/blog 2 posts http://www.rackspace.com/blog/author/tom-resing/ Co-author of SharePoint Foundation 2010 Inside Out published by Microsoft Press Published: October 2011 Link: http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-SharePoint-Foundation-2010-Inside/dp/073562724X?tag=resingnet-20 Twitter http://twitter.com/resing - Grew from 1,912 followers in January to 2,577 in December |
| A funny thing happened on Day 1 of SharePoint Conference. Scott Guthrie did not announce the Microsoft Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2012 - Preview 2, despite the Apps for Office and SharePoint Blog post that went live just after the keynote. I could have missed it, but you’re free to stream the whole 2 hours for yourself and tell me the minute mark. Or, you can stream just the 23 minutes Scott Guthrie was talking.
While we’re on the SharePoint Conference YouTube channel, you might notice they added a SharePoint TV video 8 hours ago, so there may still be content to come.
At any rate, the tools were released, despite the fact that the announcement got cut from the keynote. Installation instructions below after some highlights.
jQuery Intellisense
One of the things I noticed during the developer breakout sessions was a change in the script files I was seeing in Visual Studio 2012 demos. I noticed a jQuery script with Intellisense in the name. Turns out, the presenters from the SharePoint Product Team had Preview 2 (or newer) installed.
Take a look at the new feature in practice:
Notice two things: first, the new files included when you create a new SharePoint Hosted App from the project template and second, when you type $( you see jQuery intellisense code completion suggestions.
Compare the screenshot about created from the Preview 2 App Project Template to the clip of the scripts in the Solution Explorer below. Notice, that the version of the jQuery files was updated from jquert-1.6.2.js to 1.7.1 in Preview 2, as well.
High Trust Apps
My favorite session of the conference was a breakout by fellow Texan and multiple time SharePoint MVP award winner, Eric Shupps. Eric got such a great response, he started a @SPYoda twitter account after the session to capture all his hilarious quotes from the session. One of the things Eric demoed was a horribly painful configuration process necessary for high trust apps in SharePoint 2013. Read his 30 page post, or at least the 1st paragraph, for a great explanation of high trust apps.
Yesterday, Kirk Evans, who I believe still lives in Dallas, wrote this new post on the subject, Creating High Trust SharePoint Apps with Microsoft Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2012 - Preview 2. While I haven’t walked through either process myself, I take it that Preview 2 made things a little easier on us. If page length is any indication, the newer post is only 6 pages long. Does that mean deploying high trust apps got 5 times easier? I hope so.
Install the Tools
If you’d like to install, download Preview 2 of the SharePoint Developer Tools or launch the Web Platform Installer and search for SharePoint.
Watch the Webinar
This Friday, November 30th, I’m delivering a webinar on the App Model, free registration, as part of Rackspace SharePoint Services’ 2nd Free Week of SharePoint 2013 Webinars.
Friday, November 30th 2:00 p.m. CST
Another App Store? What for? – with Tom Resing, Racker and SharePoint MCM |
| Did you know that SharePoint 911 is now part of Rackspace SharePoint Services? When you’re looking for the experts from SharePoint911, you’ll probably see them with Rackspace shirts on and often at the Rackspace booth. Also, they’re very active presenting, signing books and working with the community. The Rackspace booth is number #704 and it’s in the 6th row of exhibitors when you head forward with your back to the main entrance of the Exhibit Hall. As part of the team, I’ll be doing book signings at the Rackspace Booth and the O’Reilly Booth and I will be volunteering at the Community Lounge for the San Antonio SharePoint Community. I’ll also be checking in at the Rackspace booth everyday when I’m not attending sessions. Book Signings at the Rackspace Booth Look in your attendee bag for a coupon for a free, signed book from the Rackspace book. Bring the coupon to the booth at one of these times to claim your book. Quantities are limited, so line up early to make sure you get one. 
Presentations by Rackers Rackspace employees are affectionately known as Rackers. This year Rackers will be making quite a few presentations. Watch out for special opportunities for session attendees. I hear there may be giveaways. Shane Young & Todd Klindt Monday, November 12, 2:00pm-3:15pm What’s New with Service Applications in SharePoint Server 2013 Reef Room John Ross & Randy Drisgill Wednesday, November 14, 9:00am- 10:15am Creating Your Brand in SharePoint 2013: On-Premises or In the Cloud South Seas Ballroom CDFJI John Ross & Randy Drisgill Wednesday, November 14, 1:45pm—3:00pm Planning and Creating Well Designed Intranet Sites in SharePoint Online Breakers Room Jennifer Mason & Laura Rogers Wednesday, November 14, 6:45pm—7:00pm Document Trafficking: Now safer than ever with External Users Microsoft SharePoint Pavilion in the Exhibition Hall Jennifer Mason & Laura Rogers Wednesday, November 14, 7:10pm-7:25pm From Zero to SharePoint Hero: 5 Easy Steps for bringing Business Value to Collaboration Solutions Microsoft SharePoint Pavilion in the Exhibition Hall Shane Young & Todd Klindt Thursday, November 15, 2:00pm-5:00pm SharePoint 2013 Deployment and Administration End to End This is a post conference session with additional cost - Registration. Microsoft Press Book Signings O’Reilly is hosting book signings all week at their booth. Rackers who have co-authored Microsoft Press books will be there at the following times: - Monday, 3:15PM Laura Rogers with Darvish Shadravan signing Using Microsoft InfoPath 2010 with Microsoft SharePoint 2010
- Wednesday, 6:15PM Jennifer Mason with Wes Preston, , Christian Buckley and Brian Jackett signing Microsoft SharePoint 2010: Creating and Implementing Real-World Projects
- Wednesday, 7PM Tom Resing with Penelope Coventry, Jonathan Lightfoot, Michael Doyle, Troy Lanphier signing Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Inside Out
See also: Full schedule of Microsoft Press book signings Microsoft SharePoint Community Lounge Jennifer Mason and Tom Resing will be at the Community Lounge with other SharePoint Community Leaders on Wednesday from 4:30-5:30PM. The Community Lounge is located at the back of the Exhibit Hall on Level 1, Bayside C. Event organizers say the Community Lounge is the place to be at SPC12 – aside from our time at the User Group kiosk, there will also be an interactive mural wall, an interactive timeline, book signings, and live interviews with top Microsoft personalities. |
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Tom was awarded the Microsoft MVP award in January 2013. He is a Microsoft Certified Master in SharePoint 2007. Tom posts an average of 2 posts a month on topics he has interest in and experience with.
Contact Tom: resingnet-website@yahoo.com or twitter @resing |
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