Stupid mistake creates severe error in SharePoint 2010: "UIVersion property is invalid"

So which property? Where can you set UIVersion? Several places, but also in the feature definition. I had put the version number "1.0.0.0" in UIVersion instead of the Version field of the feature, and BANG! System Error!

So if you get "UIVersion property is invalid" when trying to administer your features then check your features :-)

SharePoint 2010 custom master page and submit button on dialog pages not working

I got a strange error when i was working with a branded master page. No matter what I did I got an Javascript error ("Function Expected ... in/around- c=a.frames(RTE_GetEditorIFrameID(b))", and some other strange errors) when I opened an item, e.g. editing a task or adding a task. This Javascript error causes the sumbit button to not work :-(.

Took me some time to find the cause, and it was not what I supected it to be. The cause was the following line:

meta content="IE=Edge" equiv="X-UA-Compatible"

It should be (what is default SharePoint 2010):
meta content="IE=8.0" equiv="X-UA-Compatible"

Problem connecting to a site collection using SharePoint Designer 2010

Got a weird error when I tried to connect to a SharePoint 2010 site collection:

"An error occurred while trying to fetch data from your sharepoint site" + "The status is 'OK'"

No it's not ok!

Looking at different blog posts several suggestions were provided: different build version, IIS binding issues, and so on.

BUT what fixed it in my case was these steps (suggested by JacobEgholm):

• In IIS select authentication for the web app that causes you headaches


• Select Windows Authentication


• Select Advanced settings and turn off Extended protection

Branding SharePoint 2010 My Site: Custom Master Page to replace mysite.master (MySitePublicWebPartPage)

We where creating a custom master page to replace the OOB mysite.master. Our plan was to use one common master for all usage scenarios. Applying our master page we got a server error:

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

in the method:

Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls.MySitePublicWebPartPage.OnInit(EventArgs e)

I had no clue what the issue was before i checked the implemntation of the OnInit() method using Reflector.

I turns out that pages inheriting from MySitePublicWebPartPage MUST have the content placeholder "PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" defined - it's hardcoded and NO check on null :-(.

Branding SharePoint 2010 My Site: Custom Master Page to replace mysite.master

We where creating a custom master page to replace the OOB mysite.master. Our plan was to use one common master for all usage scenarios. Applying our master page we got a server error:

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

in the method:

Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls.MySitePublicWebPartPage.OnInit(EventArgs e)

I had no clue what the issue was before i checked the implemntation of the OnInit() method using Reflector.

I turns out that pages inheriting from MySitePublicWebPartPage MUST have the content placeholder "PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" defined - it's hardcoded and NO check on null :-(.

SharePoint 2010 upgrading issue: Found 7 web(s) using missing web template 100002 (lcid: 1044) in WSS_Content

Upgrading a SharePoint farm that are using custom site templates turned out to not be as straightforward as it should. Running Test-SPContentDatabase resulted in several missing web template errors.

The issue is that when you install and deploy custom site templates in your new SharePoint 2010 farm you have to restart your server(s) - an iisreset is NOT enough.

After you have installed your solutions check that the site templates really are available. The template may very well be deployed at [14]\Template\[language]\XML, and even available when you select Create New Site, but that is not enough. Why? Don't ask me.

Run the command Get-SPWebTemplate to actually verify that the template is really there.

I struggled hard until I found this article: http://projectserverblogs.com/?p=4294

After removing, reinstalling, redeploying and rebooting and running the powershell Test-SPContentDatabase one more time, all the Site Template releated errors where gone!

Re-deployment errors when working with custom content types for SharePoint 2010 in Visual Studio 2010

I'm currently working on upgrading custom SharePoint 2007 solution packages implemented in Visual Studio 2008 and VSeWSS to SharePoint 2010 and Visual Studio 2010. I'm using VSeWSSImport as the tool for at least get most of the items converted automatically.

There are issues in the tool such as web part items are converted to modules, etc, but overall it's working ok.

The main issue I've been facing is a known bug in Visual Studio 2010 related to custom content types an redployment og solutions from within VS 2010. The annoying error I get is:

"Error occurred in deployment step 'Activate Features': The content type with Id '' defined in feature '{}' was found in the current site collection or in a subsite"

Microsoft have described a couple of work-arounds for this issue (KB2022443), but that was no help to me. Instead I'm using WSP Builder VS 2010 add-on, an manually deployment using Powershell - that always works!

SharePoint 2010 certifcation run ended today,

and all 4 certifications for SharePoint 2010 passed. Then it's Christmas!

Just 1 to go! Just passed the PRO: Microsoft SharePoint 2010,Administrator (70-668) exam

The last one: "70-576: Designing and Developing Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Applications" will be taken later this month (I hope :-)).

Impossible to delete the Search Service Service Application from the Gui in SharePoint 2010

Ok, I had to get this issue as well: Corrupt Search Service application in my development environment. I was not able to delete it from Central Administration so I had to find the correct powershell comands. Clean up by runnning these two commands:

1. Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication -Identity "Search Service Application"
2. Stsadm -o deleteconfigurationobject -id [Guid returned from previous command]

Access denied when trying to crawl sps3://mydomain

I've had a lot of Access Denied messages when configuring SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010, and especially when trying to switch service accounts or accounts to be used when SharePoint crawls content.

This time I got an access denied when trying to crawl sps3://mydomain. Checked account, password, assigned rights (Site Collection, Web Application Policies, etc), but everyhing looked ok. Hmmm... using Google I found and read a post in the Enterprise Search forum on msdn and this blog article.

These steps fixed my issue:

• Go to the Service Applications page
• Select the User Profile Service Application (NOT the link)
• Click on the administrators button
• Add your crawl / indexing count
• Give it the permission: Retrieve People Data for Search Crawlers
• Click Ok

The perform a new Full Crawl of your content source(s), and hopefully no access denied messages any more,

SharePoint 2010 User Profiles Syncronization fails

In a SharePoint 2010 installation that I recently worked we got Failures in the log when trying to perform a User Profile Syncronication. The account, domain, etc where all correct. Having Googled a bit we thought that it might be a FIM related issue.

Opening the Syncroniztion Service Manager (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\14.0\Synchronization Service\UIShell\miisclient.exe) we found the error: "The management agent failed on run profile "DS_FULLIMPORT" because of connectivity issues." Why??

We went through the checklists, guidelines and what we had done, and everyhing looked correct; correct user account, we've set the Grant Replicate Directory Changes permission on the cn=configuration manager, the FIM services where running correctly, etc.

But of course I had missed one step (there is always something :-( ): Granting Replicate Directory Changes permission on the domain.

So you must add Replicate Directory Changes permissions both on the domain AND the confiugration container!

It's all documentet on TechNet: Configure profile syncronization.

SharePoint 2010, REST API, JSON, Javascript , JQuery AND correct Date handling/serialization

Today I created a Javascript that displayed the calendar events from a SharePoint calendar. I used Javascript and SharePoint's REST API to inject the result in a cusom Spot web part that I've written. Combining the REST API and JQuery was straightforwad, but I ran into trouble when I was going to display the calendar event's start date.

It turns out that JQuery date serialization and WCF date serialization differs. Luckily (for me) I found the description of the issue and a solution written by Steve Commisso. Read it here.

Key elements in the JavaScript:

• $j = jQuery.noConflict();
• Mr. Commisso's FixJQueryDate() function
• jQuery.getJSON method
• Correct SharePoint 2010 REST Url : http://sp2010/aweb/_vti_bin/ListData.svc/MyCalendar?$filter=StartTime+gt+datetime'" + now.format("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss")+"'
• It's important to note the format of the REST filtering parameter and how it handles date and time values

SharePoint 2010 Certifaction Run Started!

Then I've started my SharePoint 2010 certifaction run. I'm planning to complete all 4 by the end of the year.

• 70-573 TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development. Sept. 2010. Passed!
• 70-667 TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Configuring. Okt 2010. Passed!
• 70-668 PRO: SharePoint 2010, Administrator. Nov 2010. Passed!
• 70-576 PRO: Designing and Developing Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Applications. Des 2010. Passed!

Using, embedding and deploying resources (gif, css, javascripts, etc) when writing SharePoint 2010 web parts

I came across an article by Maurice Prather, "Web Part Class Resources - a forgotten storage location", and I also failed to answer his question; What are Web Part resources? I've never thought about this way of deploying resources used by and in my web parts. I've more or less always used the "classical" way of deploying my images, css, js, etc to the /layouts/mydirectory. That may change in the future!

But here is also anohter option, and that is to deploy the resources as WebResource. I'm not 100 % sure that I can answer you when to use what method, but i gues WebResources should be used in non-webparts scenarios, and/or SharePoint solutions where the same resource is to be used by different sharepoint items (Web parts, Application Pages, etc).

On CodeProject you'll find a working example where both methods have been used: Site Map Web Part.