Search results matching tag 'SharePoint Deployment'

Visual Studio 2008 extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, v1.3 - Mar 2009 CTP released

hvdkamp — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:36:37 GMT

A new CTP version of the SharePoint project and item templates for Visual Studio 2008 are available. Remember that an CTP version is still in development, so Microsoft Support doesn’t officially support them.

Download VSeWSS v1.3 March 2009 CTP from the Microsoft Download Center.

Error logging

The descriptive error’s, which I blogged about in “Getting the Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint v1.3 CTP to work on Windows Server 2008”, are better documented now. VSeWSS creates a log file with debug information, e.g. why the deployment of a web part has failed. Some example errors that VSeWSS shows you are:

The feature name WebPart1 already exists in SharePoint. You need to rename the feature before solution deployment can succeed.
The solution can not be deployed. The feature '7c05e196-d953-4b90-a910-0f6802648e7d' uses the directory "MyList instance" in the solution. However, it is currently installed in the farm to the directory "List Definition1 instance". Uninstall the existing feature before you install a new version of the solution.
No SharePoint Site exists at the specified URL.

VSeWSS 1.3 Overview

For those who are new to SharePoint development with VSeWSS, here is Microsoft’s overview.

This is the SharePoint developer tools for Visual Studio 2008. These tools are suitable for use with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. It includes project and item templates for common SharePoint artifacts, it includes build, packaging and deployment for SharePoint solutions and it includes the SharePoint Solution Generator which creates a new Visual Studio 2008 project from a SharePoint site.
The tools provide item templates for List Definition, List Definition from Content Type, Content Type, Field Control, Web Part, Module, Root File, Template, Event Receiver, and List Instance. It provides project templates for Team Site Definition, Blank Site Definition, List Definition, Web Part and Empty. It works with Visual Basic .NET and C# languages and a comprehensive user guide is included. It does not include the SharePoint Workflow templates as they are built in with Visual Studio 2008.
New features in version 1.3 include:

Can be installed on x64 Server OS machines running SharePoint x64. Previously only x86 Server OS could be used
Separate build commands for package, deploy and retract are added as Visual Studio menu items
WSP View improvements for consistency of deleting feature elements, merging features and adding event receivers to features
Command line build, package and retract commands are included enabling continuous integration and build servers. Previously command line build of SharePoint projects was very difficult
Refactoring support for renaming of Web Parts. Previously renaming a web part required changes in several files in the project
Solution Generator can now generate solutions from publishing sites. Previously only regular sites could be generated
Allowing partial trust BIN deployments of web parts
New project item template for SharePoint RootFiles items
Deployment will now optionally remove conflicting existing features on the development server prior to redeployment. Previously any feature name conflicts would result in an error
Ancillary assemblies such as for business logic can now be added to the SharePoint Solution WSP
Hidden features related to Site Definition projects are now shown in WSP View. They are no longer hidden
For advanced users a fast deploy is included to update only the compiled assembly on the SharePoint development installation
Deployment step logging is included
The List Definition from Content Type template now allows for the creation of a List Definition Event Receiver
The User Guide is now installed with the extensions instead of being a separate download

Getting the Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint v1.3 CTP to work on Windows Server 2008

hvdkamp — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:21:00 GMT

January 2009 the Microsoft SharePoint Product Group announced the Community Technology Preview of Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint v1.3 (VSeWSS). Previous VSeWSS versions were not out-of-the box installable on x64 machines, therefore I blogged about Installing Visual Studio Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services on 64-bit machines. It’s great to see that x64 support has been added to version 1.3. The complete list of new features are:

Can be installed on x64 Server OS machines running SharePoint x64. Previously only x86 Server OS could be used.
Separate build commands for package, deploy and retract are added
Command line build, package and retract commands are included enabling continuous integration and build servers. Previously command line build of SharePoint projects was very difficult
Refactoring support for renaming of Web Parts. Previously renaming a web part required changes in several files in the project
WSP View improvements for consistency of deleting feature elements, merging features and adding event receivers to features
Solution Generator can now generate solutions from publishing sites. Previously only regular sites could be generated
Allowing partial trust BIN deployments of web parts. CAS configuration must still be provided by the developer.
New project item template for SharePoint RootFiles items
Deployment will now optionally remove conflicting existing features on the development server prior to redeployment. Previously any feature name conflicts would result in an error
Ancillary assemblies such as for business logic can now be added to the SharePoint Solution WSP
Hidden features related to Site Definition projects are now shown in WSP View. They are no longer hidden
For advanced users a fast deploy is included to update only the compiled assembly on the SharePoint development installation
The User Guide is now installed with the extensions instead of being a separate download

The final release of VSeWSS 1.3 is planned for the North American Spring of 2009. The CTP version is available on the Microsoft Connect VSeWSS website where you are welcome to post your feedback.

What I did to get the VSeWSS 1.3 CTP working on my Windows Server 2008 development machine

The new VSeWSS version makes use of a Web Service to connect to local SharePoint sites and WCF is used to connect to that Web Service. Because the current VSeWSS version is a CTP version, it’s not marked as stable and contains bugs. Error messages can contain very little information about the problem and how to fix it, so here are my tips to get you started.

Read the “Release Notes”

The Release Notes document contains a lot information how to get this VSeWSS version working and needs to be your starting point.

Getting around the error “The communication object, System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel, cannot be used for communication because it is in the Faulted state.”

The deployment of my SharePoint solutions failed with the error “The communication object, System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel, cannot be used for communication because it is in the Faulted state”. On my x86 environment I re-registered WCF using the command:

%Windir%\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v3.0\Windows Communication Foundation\ServiceModelReg.exe -r

x64 users can re-register WCF using the command:

%Windir%\Microsoft.Net\Framework64\v3.0\Windows Communication Foundation\ServiceModelReg.exe -r

More information on the MSDN Forums thread “VSeWSS 1.3 Deploy fails with Faulted state”.

Getting around the error “Error: Assembly {0} not found.”

After I fixed the previous error, the deployment of SharePoint solutions failed with the cryptic error “Error: Assembly {0} not found.”. The VSeWSS Web Service account needs to be in the local administrator group and have SharePoint Farm Administrator rights. My Windows Server 2008 machine is enrolled into it’s own domain, so I did the following:

Started IIS7
Created a new application pool with the administrator account as its identity
Put the VSeWSS Web Service into the new application pool
Added the administrator account to the WSS_RESTRICTED_WPG user group.

Maybe not the most security friendly way, but for me it is acceptable at the moment for my development environment. More information on the MSDN Forums thread “Problems with use of VSeWSS 1.3 in Visual Studio 2008”.

After all this work I’m able to make use of the new VSeWSS version, hope this helps you.

Deploying reusable Data Form Web Parts for SharePoint

hvdkamp — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:51:00 GMT

An introduction into Data Form Web Parts

The Data Form Web Part is a Web Part component that is available out-of-the-box with WSS 3.0. It allows you to display information from different data source types, with the possibility to change or insert new data. You can display a single item or a collection of items, use grouping, sorting, conditional formatting, share information between Web Parts and much more. Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 supports the Data Form Web Part which gives you a WYSIWYG way of setting up your Web Part.

For more information on the Data Form Web Part see e.g. the Data Form Web Part presentation in Dutch of Maarten van den Dungen and the MSDN documentation. The "Getting to Know the Data Form Web Part" series of SharePoint Beagle give you also a good overview:

Deployment of Data Form Web Parts

Now you know where to find introductions how to work with Data Form Web Parts, you can quickly create data views and forms. To deploy and reuse your Data Form Web Parts on multiple (sub)sites and environments keep the following tips in mind.

Reference SharePoint lists based on the list name instead of the list ID

By default a data form web part that has a SharePoint list as its data source, gets the data from that specific list. The list is referenced by using the list's GUID identifier, which means that theoretically only one list in the world is referenced. When lists are deployed using a CAML List Definition, a list is created and automatically gets a new GUID identifier. The Data Form Web Part I have used for the original list cannot be used to reference the new list instance without changing the ListID reference.

The trick is to reference a SharePoint list based on it’s name instead of it’s ID. To change the DataFormWebPart’s ListID attribute to ListName, use the following steps:

Replace all ListName="{GUID}" to ListName="LIST_NAME"
Replace
<WebPartPages:DataFormParameter Name="ListID" ParameterKey="ListID" PropertyName="ParameterValues" DefaultValue="{GUID}"/>
to
<WebPartPages:DataFormParameter Name="ListName" ParameterKey="ListName" PropertyName="ParameterValues" DefaultValue="LIST_NAME"/>
Replace
<ParameterBinding Name="ListID" Location="None" DefaultValue="{GUID}"/>
to
<ParameterBinding Name="ListName" Location="None" DefaultValue="LIST_NAME"/>
Save your Web Part

Thanks to Sandeep Rohilla.

Reference a Lookup field based on the lookup value ID instead of the text value

Displaying data from multiple lists or using web part connections can easily be done. When you want to filter items based on a Lookup field but don’t want to reference items based on the string value, use the ID of the item. Use an ID e.g. if you want to filter information based on an ID in the query string.

The Data Form Web Part uses a CAML query to fetch data, which means you can use the LookupId attribute to refer a field based on it’s ID. The CAML attribute is:

LookupId='True'

The Data Form Web Part’s .webpart file contains HTML encoded values, so the LookupId attribute has to be encoded to get things done. In SharePoint designer open the code view of the Data Form Web Part and follow these steps:

Find <property name="DataSourcesString" type="string">.
Inside the DataSourceString property, replace:
&lt;FieldRef LookupId=&quot;TRUE&quot; Name=&quot;NAME_OF_THE_LOOKUP_FIELD&quot;/&gt;&lt;Value Type=&quot;Text&quot;&gt;LOOKUP_VALUE&lt;/Value&gt;&
with:
&lt;FieldRef LookupId=&quot;TRUE&quot; Name=&quot;NAME_OF_THE_LOOKUP_FIELD&quot;/&gt;&lt;Value Type=&quot;Text&quot;&gt;LOOKUP_ID&lt;/Value&gt;&
Save your Web Part

Specify on which (sub)site your list is located

By default the Web Part that has a SharePoint list as its source, expects the list to be at the same site level as the Web Part. When you want a list to be at a different site level, specify the WebURL parameter. The WebURL parameter is also located inside the <property name="DataSourcesString" type="string">.

You can use different values, e.g. a fixed location /MyWebsite/MySubsite or a special location {sitecollectionroot}