Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Excel file opening in Excel Services

Normally this would be a good thing, however the file being accessed is not an Excel Services file. What's worse is I can't recreate the issue and every other user I've asked to open the file can't either. Screen shots from the problem user though are clearly trying to open in Excel Services and giving a access denied error.

SharePoint only frustrates me when stuff like this happens. When stuff affects one user, it's a life or death issue to the one user so I have to spend time researching it and trying to recreate it. I admit I'm stuck, I have no fix except for a direct link to the file. Explain that one...

Kindly reply to this post if you think you know what's going on.

Friday, August 14, 2009

SharePoint ULS logs - Tracing service lost trace events

Another bug - go figure.

Deployed workflow last night, didn't go, went to check ULS logs and guess what.

08/12/2009 13:45:51.90 wsstracing.exe (0x0758) 0x127C ULS Logging Unified Logging Service uls1 Monitorable Tracing Service lost trace events. Current value 4.


Log files are filled with errors. Tried to stop the service and it's hung on a "stopping" state, tried to kill the process via task manager and got nothing. Last line of action is to reboot the server, will try tonight after hours.

Here are Microsoft's Workarounds: https://connect.microsoft.com/feedback/Workaround.aspx?FeedbackID=408671&SiteID=428

Thursday, July 16, 2009

SharePoint Meta Data doesnt transfer with a "COPY"

I'm in the middle of redoing some file organization and came to the realization that the "COPY" function does not keep associated meta data and content types. You must use "CUT" if you want this data to transfer with the files.

The issue is that when doing this with Windows Explorer is it might or might not work with CUT - most folders error out with a file name being too long.

The solution is to use the "Manage content and structure" feature - well that doesnt work for me.

I haven't tested with RoboCopy, but will soon and hope to use the CUT command as I have several thousand files and folder to move and delete.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

SharePoint Designer Workflow Error

Another lame error from Microsoft, forgive me for naming my task the same as my workflow...go figure.

"You specified identical destination filenames for some of the files you are trying to copy. Make sure all destination files have unique names and try again."

This message appears when you attempt to compile a workflow that:
Is set to start manually.
Includes a task action where the name of the task is identical to the name of the workflow.

Cause
When you compile a workflow, Office SharePoint Designer 2007 saves the initiation form (Workflow_name.aspx) and the custom task form (Task_name.aspx) to the same workflow folder. A workflow will not compile successfully if these forms have the same file name because two files in the same folder cannot have the same file name.

Resolution
Rename the task in the workflow:
In the task action, click the link that opens the Custom Task Wizard.
Click OK in the warning message about how changing the custom task may break running instances

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Out of the box Approval Workflow errors out

Recent issues with custom workflow led to testing out of the box basic functionalty. I set up the most basic approval process on a test document library and everything functioned properly until the approver approved the document. After checking logs, event errors I found nothing that really gave me an idea on how to fix it.

I called good ole' microsoft support and they are aware of this issue, however they have an unpublished internal article with the fix.

The Solution:
Document Library Settings > Workflow settings > Click on your active workflow > Next > Uncheck the Post-Completion Workflow Activities check box!

Rerun your workflow and you will be error free.

MOSS Diagnostic Logs are not Generating!

I recently noticed the logs just randomly stopped generating on our production server, however they were working fine in development. I compared settings, checked service accounts, rebooted the server, freed disk space...

The Solution:
Navigate to the services on your server and check the Windows SharePoint Services Tracking service. It should be started, set to automatic and using the local system account. This service had not started properly during a reboot or something and was disabled therefore no logs where being generated.