Christina Wheeler

Login as Different User in SharePoint 2013 Preview

Christina Wheeler — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 01:53:00 GMT

When you login to SharePoint 2013 you’ll notice the “Sign in as Different User” is missing from the Personal Menu.

Here are two workaround options:

Manually append the following URL to your site:

/_layouts/closeConnection.aspx?loginasanotheruser=true
Add a Custom Action to the SharePoint Personal Menu:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <CustomAction
    Id="MyLoginDifferentUser"
    GroupId="PersonalActions"

    Location="Microsoft.SharePoint.StandardMenu"
    Sequence="1000"
    Title="Sign in as Different User">
    <UrlAction Url="/_layouts/closeConnection.aspx?loginasanotheruser=true"/>
  </CustomAction>
</Elements>

Click here to download Custom Action Solution

Visual Studio 2012 RC Not Recognizing Installed SharePoint 2013 Preview

Christina Wheeler — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 01:30:00 GMT

If you try to create a SharePoint project in VS2012 RC and get the following error, you will need to install the Visual Studio 2013 Developer Tools.

Visual Studio 2013 Developer Tools - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=257068

Create Windows Scheduled Task to Kill OWSTIMER

Christina Wheeler — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:29:00 GMT

As most of you know, the OWSTimer memory leak is still an issue with SharePoint 2010. I created a scheduled task to run using PowerShell to stop the process nightly. Here are the instructions to create the scheduled task.

Open up your Windows Task Scheduler and right-click on Task Scheduler Library and then choose “Create Task” to start the Create Task panel.

Note: If you don’t know where the task scheduler is either search for it or type %windir%\system32\taskschd.msc /s in your Windows start menu search bar.

General
Type in the name and Description (optional) and change the security options to “Run whether user is logged on or not”.

Triggers
Set your preferred scheduling options. Make sure to set it at a time that that will NOT conflict with backups and other scheduled SharePoint jobs.

Actions

Program/Script: %SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe

Add Arguments: Get-Process OWSTimer| Stop-Process –Force

Once you’re done manually run the process to make sure it’s working. I keep my Task Manager open during testing to make sure the process is being stopped. Don’t worry about restarting the OWSTimer process manually because it will automatically restart on it’s own.

Real World Project: Transparent Overlays for SharePoint Interface Enhancement (EUSP Article)

Christina Wheeler — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:37:00 GMT

Introduction

I have a client that wanted to convert their outdated HTML district website to an external facing SharePoint portal. The client was brand new to SharePoint and brought me in to build an external facing portal using MOSS 2007 Enterprise. After setting up the new farm it was time to brand the site and create content. The one thing I had the client do before I started branding the site was have them send me references to sites they liked along with a list of elements they liked about the sites.

Read the full Article on EndUserSharePoint.com

Force IE7 Compatibility Mode in IE8

Christina Wheeler — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:42:00 GMT

Since the official release of Internet Explorer 8 many people are having problems with their custom branding for their SharePoint sites.

The way IE8 decides its rendering engine is based on certain criteria in your code or Master Page. IE8 will attempt to render a site as follows:

If it sees a valid DocType declared it will attempt to render the site in IE8 Standards Mode

If it doesn’t see a DocType it will attempt to render the site in quirks mode (otherwise known as pre IE7 rendering mode)

To correct this problem there are two different meta tag options:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=7" />
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" />

The first meta tag (IE=7) will force a page to render in IE7 mode no matter what. The second meta tag (IE=EmulateIE7) will force the page to render as IE7 would have rendered it historically. The difference between the two is that the EmulateIE7 meta tag will force the browser to look for a DocType before rendering in IE7 mode and if it doesn’t find one it will render in Quirks Mode.

If adding the meta tag to your Master Page make sure it is added first in the <head> before the CSS.

META Tags and Locking in Future Compatibility
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc817574.aspx

Content Query Web Parts and Anonymous Access

Christina Wheeler — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:42:00 GMT

If you have your site enabled for anonymous access and you use Content Query Web Parts (CQWP) when an anonymous user clicks on the links they end up with a "403" forbidden error. As it turns out the CQWP has all links go through the CopyUtil.aspx page instead of linking to the item directly. This page without customization, does not support anonymous access however there are two different workarounds to fix this problem.

Workaround:

1) Override the ContentQuery (ContentQueryMain.xsl) Web Part's XSLT to use "DispForm.aspx" instead of "CopyUtil.aspx".

        <xsl:if test="$UseCopyUtil = 'True'">
            <xsl:value-of select="concat('/_layouts/dispform.aspx?Use=id&Action=dispform&ItemId=',@ID,'&ListId=',@ListId,'&WebId=',
            @WebId,'&SiteId=',$SiteId)"/>
        </xsl:if>

2) Or you can create a custom CopyUtil.aspx page and override the AllowAnonymous property.

SharePoint Meeting Minutes – Custom Master Page Problem

Christina Wheeler — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:57:00 GMT

One of my clients had a problem after they re-inherited a custom master page through an entire MOSS website. After they did this, the recurring meeting workspace hyperlinks under “Select a date from the list below” throws a "g_instanceID is not defined" JavaScript error.

This problem occurred because when a Meeting Workspace is created it uses it’s own master page called mwsdefault.master which is found in the TEMPLATE\GLOBAL directory in the 12 hive (c:\program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\Template\Global). This master page has placeholders and code that are typically not found in other master pages and the g_instanceId global JavaScript variable is declared in a script registered runtime by the Microsoft.SharePoint.Meetings.PropertyBag web control.

If you want to use your own custom master page you can fix this by merging the missing code located from the mwsdefault.master and put it into your custom master page. The Best Practice is to create a feature to automatically set Meeting Workspaces to your modified custom master page file.

To fix this problem in your custom master page you need to:

1. Copy the register Microsoft.SharePoint.Meetings tag prefix from the mwsdefault.master and add it to your custom master page.

<%@ Register Tagprefix="Meetings" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Meetings" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

2. Then copy the Meetings:PropertyBag control into your custom master page.

<Meetings:PropertyBag runat="server"/>

3. Save master page, check in (if necessary), and publish the major version or deploy it in your feature.

Need a 64-bit VPN Client for Vista or Windows 7?

Christina Wheeler — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:27:00 GMT

Recently I installed Windows 7 (64-bit) on my laptop and I was wanting to connect to my Cisco VPN customers without having to go through my XP VPC. Since I do not have the AnyConnect VPN Client I started looking and found another 64-bit VPN client that works great!

NCP Secure Entry Client – is a universal client that works with many gateways including Cisco. I was able to easily import my Cisco profiles (.pcf) and connected with no problems. They do have a 30-day trial version that you can download.

I highly recommend this VPN tool!

http://www.ncp-e.com/en/solutions/vpn-products/secure-entry-client.html