Thursday, May 14, 2009

WSS3.0 Workflow History Deleted After 60 Days

By default, WSS3.0 automatically purges workflow history after 60 days. The purge doesn't technically delete the history but it deletes the association that ties the document to the workflow history. And it also deletes any tasks that were created by the workflow.

I have 1 workaround and 3 solutions:
Workaround:
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If you will ok with Workflow history option then please use this systex after your site name for finding all the deleted workflows:
/lists/Workflow%20History/AllItems.aspx

Example:
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http://xyz.com/sites/abc/lists/Workflow%20History/AllItems.aspx

Solution:
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1. Disable the Workflow Auto Cleanup timer job completely
2. We can include a specific xml tag in workflow feature.xml file that controls the number of days retained for the workflow history (max days = 9999)
3. Run a job nightly to force all the workflow history retention settings to a certain number of days (max days = 9999)

But it may be possible that youwill face some performance issues if you make these changes.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Configure Sharepoint 3.0 on "Active Directory Account Creation Mode"


This document is intended to help those that need to configureSharepoint 3.0 on "Active Directory Account Creation Mode". It is basedon real experience but it may not guarantee success on all cases.

1. Initially Follow the procedure described on the following MicrosoftTechNet Article (Install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 for a serverfarm environment)http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/WSS/en/library/700c3d60-f394-4ca9-a6d8-b597fc3c31b1033.mspx?mfr=true

http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/WSS/en/library/700c3d60-f394-4ca9-a6d8-ab597fc3c31b1033.mspx?mfr=true

2. Before running "SharePoint Products and Technologies ConfigurationWizard" Prepare the Domain Controller.3. Now it's necessary to follow part of the process described onSharepoint 2.0 Documentation.http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/wss/2/all/adminguide/en-us/stsc05.mspx?mfr=true<http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/wss/2/all/adminguide/en-us/stsc05.mspx?mfr=true>

  • Create an organizational unit (OU) for the user accounts
  • Delegate permissions to the organizational unit
  • Stop there; these are theonly steps necessary!!!

4. Start "SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard".Follow the Farm Installation instructionsa. When you arrive at: "Completing the Sharepoint Products andTechnologies Configuration Wizard", select Advanced.b. On Advanced Settings Page select "Enable Active Directory AccountCreation Mode" and enter the Domain name and the organizational UnitCreated before (Sharepoint_ou for example).

5. Now you can go back to the Server Farm installation documentand continue the configuration steps.

6. After creating a "New Sharepoint Application" remember to usethe command "iisreset /noforce" so that you leave your environment readyfor the next step.

7. Now you may click on the link "Create site Collection" and theresult should be an ERROR: "The Page cannot be displayed because yourserver's current configuration does not support it. To perform thistask, use the command line operations in Stsadmin.exe." and that is agood sign... Now you have to execute the following command:

C:\PROGRAM FILES\COMMON FILES\MICROSOFT SHARED\WEB SERVEREXTENSIONS\12\BIN>STSADM -O CREATESITE -URL HTTP://servername -OWNEREMAIL User@Domain -OWNERLOGINWindowsDomain\Windows Account

  • Substitute Servername, e-mail, WindowsDomain and WindowsAccountaccording with your implementation.
  • It's important to notice that this command will effectively send ane-mail, so you should already have configured the SMTP Server on the"Operations/Outgoing E-mail Settings" Page.

8. That's it!!!! You should have a working Sharepoint instance on"Active Directory Creation Mode".

Issues with Survey in Sharepoint

Issue:
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The number of total responses count is different than tabulated response.

Cause:
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After further technical investigation, I found that when a user responds to a survey, it is necessary for him to click on Finish at the end of the survey to complete the response.

If a user does not click on Finish, the response is not completed, but the incomplete response is saved anyway:

The number of responses is updated in the view Overview of the survey
In addition, the response does not appear in the view Graphical Summary of the survey.
In the view All Responses of the survey, the response is visible only to the user who began to respond. Others users only see the completed responses.

Solution:
=========
Only the user who began to response can solve this issue. Other users (including users with "Full Control" permissions, the owners of the TeamPlace and even the administrators of the TeamPlace servers) cannot solve it as they can't show the incomplete responses.

This user has to go the view All Responses of the survey, to find the response that is not completed, and to select Edit Response in the drop-down menu.

Then the user has to complete the response and to click on Finish at the end of the survey.
This is a by design behavior.

MOSS 2007 SP2 issues

After Microsoft releases Service Pack 2 for the WSS and MOSS (SharePoint 2007 SP2) I tried to update my Sharepoint environment to SP2.
There are no issues when you update clean environment, but for customized application there are few things you should be aware about.
Error 1:
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[SPDatabaseGbwSequence] [ERROR] Upgrade object too new (build version = 12.0.0.6341, schema version = 2.0.0.0). Current server (build version = 12.0.0.4518, schema version = 3.0.1.0).
When installed SP2 and run Configuration Wizard
This error tells you nothing what relates to the actual problem. You could think that you installed any hotfixes that changed your database schema or content database might be not in right state. I had the same thoughts but this didn't help at all.
The root of the problem lies in other side.
Cause:
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Investigating this issue I found that free SharePoint template from Microsoft cause you such issue, especially GroupBoard. If you have this template installed - that's the problem, because it interacts with the database schema and doesn't allow SharePoint SP2 to be installed.
Solution:
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Uninstall GroupBoard template
Install SharePoint SP2
Install GroupBoard template.
Error 2:
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“Feature '20477d83-8bdb-414e-964b-080637f7d99b' is not installed in this farm, and can not be added to this scope.”

If you get an error during the psconfig phase and you find this entry in the update.log file
“Feature '20477d83-8bdb-414e-964b-080637f7d99b' is not installed in this farm, and can not be added to this scope.”


Cause:
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A timer Job is missing.

Resolution:
===========

You need to install this feature to be able to proceed with the update.stsadm -o installfeature -name PublishingTimerJobs