The Difference Between MOSS 2007 and WSS 3.0

It always astounds me what Microsoft are willing to bundle with their software, Analysis Services or SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services) with SQL Server for example! They haven't stopped, they bundle Windows Sharepoint Services with Windows Server 2003, with is basically a fully functional SharePoint Server, however they still have SharePoint Server 2007 as a product. So what are the differences? At first glance it doesn't appear to be much, however for tight integration into the enterprise, it seems that MOSS 2007 (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) is a must! I will highlight the most interesting bits that MOSS 2007 has over and above WSS 3.0 (Windows Sharepoint Services) :
User Profiles support - Allows each user to store profile information
Site Manager - Manage Navigation, Security and look and feel with drag an drop functionality
Enterprise Search Tools - numerous tools to search Sharepoint Sites and Portals across entire enterprises
Business Data Catalog - The Business Data Catalog (BDC) tightly integrates external data, providing access to external data residing within other business applications, and enabling the display of, and interaction with external data
Business data search - Search data residing in your business applications using the BDC (See Above)
Business Data Web Parts - Used for viewing lists, entities, and related information retrieved through the Business Data Catalog
Business document workflow support - Automate document review, approval, signature collection, and issue tracking using workflow applications
Retention and auditing policies - Allows customized information management policies to control retention period, expiration, and auditing
Browser-based forms - Integration with InfoPath, allows integration on to SharePoint of created forms and surveys.
Integrated, flexible spreadsheet publishing - Allows information workers to easily choose what they want to share with others and determine how others can interact with published spreadsheets.
Share, manage, and control spreadsheets - Provides access to spreadsheet data and analysis through server-calculated, interactive spreadsheets from a Web browser. Can help to protect any sensitive or proprietary information embedded in documents, such as financial models, and audits their usage.
Web-based business intelligence using Excel Services - Allows spreadsheets to be broadly and easily shared. Fully interactive, data-bound spreadsheets including charts, tables, and PivotTable views can be created as part of a portal, dashboard, or business scorecard.
Data Connection Libraries - Document Libraries storing ODCs (Office Data Connections), Making one single location for all data connections.
Business Data actions - Easily create actions that open Web pages, display the user interfaces of other business applications, launch InfoPath forms, and perform other common tasks.
Integrated business intelligence dashboards - Rich, interactive BI dashboards that assemble and display business information from disparate sources by using built-in Web parts, Excel spreadsheets, Reporting Services, or a collection of business data connectivity Web Parts.
Report Center - Provides consistent management of reports, spreadsheets, and data connections.
Key performance indicators - A KPI web Part can connect to Analysis Services, Excel Spreadsheets, SharePoint Lists, or manual entered data.
Notification service - Improved allowing workflow users to receive emails by default, and improved triggering and filtering
Single Sign-On (SSO) - Allows the User to log onto a variety of applications with a single user name and password, therefore integrating back office applications, and helps pre-population with integration to the Profile part of MOSS 2007.
Social Networking Part - Connect to Public My Site pages to help establish connections between colleagues with common interests
Personal Site Support - Allows Users to create Personal Web Sites
Content syndication - Use RSS feeds to syndicate content managed in a portal site.

This is just a few of the extras you get in MOSS 2007, and I have highlighted those that are more angled to Business Intelligence! As for the cost, you can find that here: (In USD$ I am afraid) http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver...

KB article 2345304 SharePoint Security update

Issue: SharePoint is down after applying KB 2345304
Env: Mostly seen in WSS 3.0 FARM
Error: Cannot connect to Config db or PSConfig fails with Access Denied errors or while file uploads in the Document library we get Access Denied errors.

Resolution:
1. Go to SQL management studio expand the Databases
2. Go to the properties of SharePoint Configdb -> Options -> Auto Close parameter set to "False".

When this security update is applied, the SQL databases are closed and for that we need to change the "Auto Close" option to "False" from "True"

Do the same for all the SharePoint Databases in use and then run the PSConfig wizard.

Your client does not support opening this list with Windows Explorer

Issue:- SharePoint Windows Explorer View not working on IE 8
Env:- Windows Server 2008, Windows 7
Error:- "Your client does not support opening this list with Windows Explorer"

Resolution / Workaround:
1. On Windows Server 2008 Install "Desktop Experience" Feature. This will install the "Web Client service. Keep it to Automatic and make sure its Started.
2. Use IE 8 32 bit version and browse the SP site and check the explorer view. By Default it will open IE 8 64 bit version which continues to give the error regardless the "Web Client" service being started.

Note:
=======
Note sure about the difference between this behaviour in IE 8 32 and 64 bit versions. But on both Windows server 2008 and Windows 7, both the versions are installed by default.

Report Builder Report Download 401 Unauthorized Error

Environment:-
Server1 -- SQL services, SQL reporting services all 2008 R2 64bit, SharePoint installation 2010 and Reporting services add-in

Server2 -- SharePoint installation with Central Administration hosted 2010, Reporting services add-in .

Issue:- While downloading Report Builder report Externally (from Internet) it does not download and gives a "Cannot Retrieve error"

Error:- PLATFORM VERSION INFOWindows : 5.0.2195.262144 (Win32NT)
Common Language Runtime : 2.0.50727.42
System.Deployment.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
mscorwks.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
dfdll.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
dfshim.dll : 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)

SOURCESDeployment url :
http://URL/ReportServer/ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder.applicationERROR SUMMARYBelow is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed later in the log.
* Activation of http://URL/ReportServer/ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder.application resulted in exception. Following failure messages were detected:
+ Downloading http://URL/ReportServer/ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder.application did not succeed.
+ The remote server returned an error: (401) Unauthorized.
COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION FAILURE SUMMARYNo transaction error was detected.WARNINGSThere were no warnings during this operation.OPERATION PROGRESS STATUS* [08/05/2008 09:33:39] :
Activation of http://URL/ReportServer/ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder.application has started.

Tried and tested
So many blogs and articles online on this issue that I have lost count how many read and how many times I might have deleted and recreated web applications. As most of the articles and blogs suggest to enable Annonymous Access on the ReportBuilder Virtual directory in IIS, but SQL 2008 reporting services does not create this Virtual directory in IIS so how do we give annonymous access??? Broken my head on this issue with my colleagues and lot of hours reading long msdn and technet articles but all in vain...

Resolution:-
1. Browse to Central Administration of SP 2010
2. Application Management
3. Manage Web applications -> Select the Web Application which will be used for SSRS
4. Select Authentication Providers -> Select "Enable Annonymous Access" checkbox
5. Click Ok.

This will setup the most required annonymous access for the virtual directories in IIS and Report builder will start downloading from Internet also. Hope this helps to many out there. Also to mention our SP site was also configured with Kerberos and SSL using a Hostheader.

.WMV Documents are not visible after uploading in Doc lib in Sharepoint 2007

Environment: Sharepoint 2007 x64bit
IIS 7.0
Windows server 2008 SP2

When we try uploadig documents in sharepoint 2007 doc lib, it was giving me error due to big file size.
After research got the technet article as http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925083 which says that we need to do changes in web.config file for that web application along with settings in IIS related to connection timeout.

Increase the maximum upload size

Click Start, All Programs > Administrative Tools, and then click SharePoint Central Administration > click Application Management.
Under SharePoint Web Application Management > Web application general settings.
On the Web Application General Settings page, click the Web application that you want to change.
Under Maximum upload size, type the maximum file size in megabytes that you want, and then click OK.

Increase the connection time-out setting

By default, the IIS connection time-out setting is 120 seconds. To increase the connection time-out setting in IIS 7.0 , follow these steps:
Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
Selecet the site for which you want to imcrease the connection time out settings > on right had side, click advanced settings
Under Behavior, click on the + sign for connection limit and edit the connection time out settings (seconds) to 360(as per required).

Add the executionTimeout value

Use Notepad to open the Web.config file. By default, this file is in the following location:
Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS
Add the executionTimeout value that you want. For example, replace the value as follows.

Existing code (Note: remove -- from the tags)
<--location path="upload.aspx">
<--system.web>
<--httpRuntime maxRequestLength="2097151" />
<--/system.web>
<--/location>

Replacement code (Note: remove -- from the tags)

<--location path="upload.aspx">
<--system.web>
<--httpRuntime executionTimeout="999999" maxRequestLength="2097151" />
<--/system.web>
<--/location>

After you change the file, click Save on the File menu.
Use Notepad to open the Web application Web.config file. By default, this file is in the following folder:

Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\VirtualDirectoryFolder

Change the following line in the file.

Existing line (Note: remove -- from the tags)

<--httpRuntime maxRequestLength="51200" />

Replacement line (Note: remove -- from the tags)

<--httpRuntime executionTimeout="999999" maxRequestLength="51200" />

After you change the file, click Save on the File menu.
Exit.
Restart the site from IIS and try uploading the required .wmv file
You will be surprised to see that there was no error and it seems as if the file got uploaded.
What is this!!!!!

When you browse to that document library, you will be surprised to see that the file is not there :(

Yes... this is where we need to do some more changes in web.config file for IIS 7.0 users
The changes are as follows:

Adjusting File Size Limit in IIS 7

The problem is that in IIS 7 on Windows 2008 Server, the web application will reject any file that is larger than 30 MB. You can increase the maximum file size by adding the following code to in the web.config file:
(Note: remove -- from the tags)

<--security>
<--requestFiltering>
<--requestLimits maxAllowedContentLength=”2000000000″ />
<--/requestFiltering>
<--/security>

and inplace of the

<--httpRuntime executionTimeout="999999" maxRequestLength="51200" />

that we changed earlier, we need to increase the value to '2000000000' from '51200'

<--httpRuntime executionTimeout="999999" maxRequestLength="2000000000" />

With the above maxAllowedContentLength and Max RequestLength, users can upload files that are 2,000,000,000 bytes in size. This setting will work right away without restart IIS services.

Enabling Barcodes for Library or List

Configure Barcoding system (Barcode) in SharePoint for Document libraries and Lists.

Note:- We can configure the Barcodes for only Document and List libraries in SharePoint 2007
Barcoding is configured for unique identification of Physical assests in the company. SharePoint generates the Unique Barcode values automatically out of the box.

Steps to Enable the Barcode Policy at Site Collection level.
1. Browse to the site where you need to configure Barcodes.
2. Click Site Actions -> Site Settings -> Modify All Site Settings -> Site Collection Policies
3. Click on Create to create the Policy
4. Enter the desired Name and Policy Statement
5. Select the Enable Barcodes checkbox -> Click OK



The Site Collection Policy will be created, now we need to activate this policy for a library or list. The steps are same for both. It needs to be activated at the Content Type level.



Steps to Activate the Policy to a List
1. Browse to the List -> Select Settings -> List Settings -> Advanced Settings -> "Yes" for Allow Managment of Content Types -> OK
2. Click on the Content Type (by Default Item will be shown) -> Select Information Managment Policy Settings -> Select Use a Site Collection Policy -> from drop down, the one we created in above steps -> Click OK

Now when you start Adding items using the Content Type to which the Policy was applied, Barcodes will be generated. Modify the View to show the columns "Barcode" and "Barcode Value"

ORA-01036: illegal variable name/number

Error:- ORA-01036: illegal variable name/number
Env:- Crawling Oracle database and views from SP BDC using SSO.

I had used BDC Meta Man to create the ADF file and after that it was giving the below error while doing full crawl. After working with the BDC support, I found out that the Identifiers we specify in the tool are suppose to be unique in data. Once selecting those Unique identifiers, import the ADF file again and crawl from SharePoint, it will work fine.

Log Name: Application
Source: Office SharePoint Server
Date: 3/12/2010 10:08:30 AM
Event ID: 5701
Task Category: Business Data
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: server name
Description:
Could not run query/stored proceedure 'Select ORACLE STRING QUERY Pooling=True;User ID=readonly;Integrated Security=False;Persist Security Info=false;User ID=readonly;' in App Domain 'DefaultDomain'. The full exception text is: ORA-01036: illegal variable name/number

Event Xml:
event xmlns="a href="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event/a>">
5701
2
1330 0x80000000000000 10916226
Application Servername

Select ORACLE STRING QUERY Pooling=True;User ID=readonly;Integrated Security=False;Persist Security Info=false;User ID=readonly;
DefaultDomain
ORA-01036: illegal variable name/number

The error code returned was 0x800706b9 - Configuring SSO for first on fresh installation

I was trying to resolve this error since almost a week and was about to give up. Had tried all the following steps to resolve the issue.

1. Removed the quotes from ssosrv registry key for ImagePath key (as per research on other sites)
2. Made the SSO service account a member of DomainAdmins account.
3. Rebooted the server, stopped the service, re-entered the credentials and password for the service account in Services.msc and started the service
4. Configured the service account in Central Adminstration - Service Accounts for SSO

All the steps you can possibly find on google I had tried and still was getting the below error in the ULS Logs and event viewer.

02/22/2010 20:43:40.65 SSOSRV.EXE (0x1518) 0x162C SharePoint Portal Server SSO 0 Medium NetUserGetInfo said User username exists 02/22/2010 20:43:40.65 SSOSRV.EXE (0x1518) 0x162C SharePoint Portal Server SSO 0 Medium Destroying CCommandEx 02/22/2010 20:43:40.65 SSOSRV.EXE (0x1518) 0x162C SharePoint Portal Server SSO 0 Medium Destroying CSessionEx 02/22/2010 20:43:40.65 SSOSRV.EXE (0x1518) 0x162C SharePoint Portal Server SSO 0 High ::RpcServerUseProtseq() failed with rpc error 1721 02/22/2010 20:43:40.65 SSOSRV.EXE (0x1518) 0x162C SharePoint Portal Server SSO 0 High Error code is: -2147023175 02/22/2010 20:43:40.65 SSOSRV.EXE (0x1518) 0x162C SharePoint Portal Server SSO 0 Critical One or more RPC services for the Microsoft Single Sign-on (SSOSrv) service failed to start. The error code returned was 0x800706b9. For more information, see the Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Software Development Kit (SDK). 02/22/2010 20:43:40.65 SSOSRV.EXE (0x1518) 0x162C SharePoint Portal Server SSO 0 High CRPCService::RegisterRPCInterface() failed to register ISingleSignonConfiguration 02/22/2010 20:43:40.65 SSOSRV.EXE (0x1518) 0x162C SharePoint Portal Server SSO 0 High Error code is: -2147023175 02/22/2010 20:43:40.65 SSOSRV.EXE (0x1518) 0x162C SharePoint Portal Server SSO 0 Critical User domain\username failed to configure the single sign-on server. The error returned was 0x800706b9. Verify this account has sufficient permissions and try again.

Log Name: ApplicationSource: Office SharePoint ServerDate: 2/22/2010 2:23:07 AMEvent ID: 6517Task Category: SSOLevel: ErrorKeywords: ClassicUser: N/AComputer: servername.domain.com Description:User domain\username failed to configure the single sign-on server. The error returned was 0x800706b9. Verify this account has sufficient permissions and try again.
1358321 Application servername.domain.com domain\username 0x800706b9

Resolution:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/246784
1. Go to this registry path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Rpc\Internet

"Ports" key was having the value 5000-50002 with no spaces ( like other articles which mentioned to remove spaces )

2. I changed the value to 0-65335 without any spaces or hitting the enter key, Click OK

3. Restart the server.

Now SSO was Configured without any error. If you check the above registry key, the values will be changed back to what it was before. Dont change them again, if your SSO is configured, dont temper with that registry again.