Thursday, March 11, 2010

VSeWSS 1.3 nightmare

As I'm casually sitting around on a Thursday I decided to start making some custom web parts so I installed the Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint on my dev server (Windows 2003, running MOSS 2007 sp2).

I started with the good ole' Hello World Web Part, easy - great - done - deploy and ERROR. The error logs can be found on C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Application Data\Microsoft\VSeWSS 1.3

1st error I get is: Microsoft.SharePoint.Tools.WebNotFoundExeception: No SharePoint site exists at the specified URL. - Go back into the project properties > debug tab > URL I changed the URL from http://name/ to http://machinename/ so, deploy again and we get error #2

2nd error: VSeWSS Service Error: Feature GUID is not installed in this farm, and can not be added to this scope. - when I figure this one out, I'll post an update.

All I have to say is what a POS!!!!! I gave up on trying to figure it out in VS. I went to Central Admin > Operations > Manage Solutions - the dumb solution is there so I deployed it. Then went to my site collection settings > Site Collection Features and activated the stupid web part.

After all that, a whole 4.5 hours later the web part is on a page and working. Next time just take a pencil and stab me in the eye.

Friday, March 5, 2010

SharePoint 2010 Migration Process

So hopefully you have done the research and prepared your 2007 for migration. Great! Lets get started.

A few things to note:
  • 2010 CSS has totally changed, if you had 2007 custom branding cool, just need to take some extra time to work through it.
  • 2010 large lists will error out, in your 2010 Central Administration set your Server Throttling options (this is a pretty rockin feature in my opinion, look for it in Exchange 2010 as well) this will allow your server to take a breather and catch up to handle requests.
  • Custom code path changes from \12 to \14
  • List views use XLS instead of CAML - cool right? I'm glad I spent all that time customizing lists with CAML.
  • Remember JavaScript? Well...it's back! Bust out your books from 2000 and learn it.
  • Recompile your custom code using the FeatureInstalled, Uninstalling, Activated and Deactivating methods.

Choose a Upgrade Path, what are your options?

  • Inplace upgrade
  • Build new 2010 farm and attach databases

Upgrading SharePoint 2007 to 2010 Pre-Requisites

I attended a rather cool conference earlier this week, SharePoint TechFest 2010 located here in Dallas. The most beneficial session I attended was upgrading your 2007 farm to 2010. Here are all the main points you need to consider before jumping into the migration.

Be aware there are two upgrade paths to take. You should review all the pros and cons for each and decide what is best for you. The upgrade process will also happen in multiple stages, starting with your content and then going through a visual upgrade to get the cool 2010 look and feel; including the ribbon and ajax features.

SharePoint 2010 Prerequisites:

  • Only MOSS 2007 SP2 content can be upgraded to 2010

  • IE 6 will not be supported for managing content

  • 64x - 32x not supported

  • WFE - Windows Server 2008 or R2

  • SQL - Windows Server 2008 SP1, R2

What is being upgraded?


  • Binary files; SharePoint code & customizations

  • Content data; configuration settings & site content

Prepare your 2007 farm:


  • Document your farm customizations; include any 3rd party webparts you have deployed and site features as well as custom document icons, etc.

  • Choose your upgrade approach

  • Clean up your 2007 source environment; delete any site templates not in use, delete old sites, do some serious house cleaning of anything old and unused (I hear the fab 40 templates don't play nice with 2010 and are not supported so uninstall them if you aren't using them)

  • Create a test upgrade environment using virtual machines if possible.

Pre-Upgrade on your 2007 farm:


  • Run the pre-upgrade checker, stsadm.exe -o preupgradecheck this command will check your local server and farm-level settings. After you run the command a report will generate into your 12\logs directory. This report will come in handy for later so run it and save it.

  • Run Enumallwebs, stsadm.exe -o enumallwebs -databasename this report will also be useful prior to your upgrade. It will output a site map containing all site collections, sites and orphaned objects. This will guide you through your house cleaning as well as become a cheat sheet since it displays site GUIDS which will come in handy in the next few steps.

See my next post on the actual SharePoint 2007 to 2010 Migrating Process.