Deleting Service Application Pools in SharePoint 2010

Recently while deleting a service application my system got unresponsive and while trying to create the service application again i constantly got the following error.

“An unhandled exception occurred in the user interface.Exception Information: An object of the type Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPIisWebServiceApplicationPool named "SearchServiceApplication" already exists under the parent Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPIisWebServiceSettings named "SharePoint Web Services". Rename your object or delete the existing object.”

This seems to be happening because one of the service application pools were not removed while deleting the service application. This can be removed by using PowerShell.

First load the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell by navigating to Start –> Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products –> SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

Then use the “Get-SPServiceApplicationPool” command to view all the existing service application pools.

Get-SPServiceApplicationPool

Now use the “Remove-SPServiceApplicationPool -Identity SearchServiceApplicationPoolName” command to remove the service application you want removed. If the service application pool’s name is having spaces remember to use double quotes.

Remove-SPServiceApplicationPool -Identity SearchServiceApplicationPool1

PowerShell will ask to confirm the deletion, after confirming the action, it will remove the service application pool.

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Expandable Regions using HTML

You can create nice looking expandable regions using just HTML and some Java scripting. This is specially useful if you are to create a site without any major programming languages. Today I thought to share an expandable region that I created to give you an idea to get it done.

When the code works it will look like the following.

You should be excited by now, to get it working you need the following code inserted into a body section of a HTML file. Please note I have added the CSS also in to the page body, but if you have a separate CSS file please separate the CSS .

1. <style type="text/css">
2.     a.headingStyle
3.     {
4.         text-decoration: none;
5.         margin-left: 0.5em;            
6.     }
7.     a.headingStyle:hover
8.     {
9.         text-decoration: underline;
10.     }
11.     a.headingStyle span.charStyle
12.     {
13.         font-family: monospace;
14.         font-weight: normal;
15.     }
16.     .contentStyle
17.     {
18.         display: none;
19.         margin-left: 1.5em;
20.         margin-right: 0.5em;
21.         margin-bottom: 0.5em;
22.         border-width: thin;
23.         border-style: outset;
24.         background-color:#D2E3FF;
25.     }
26.     .upArrowStyle
27.     {
28.         height:32px;
29.         background-image: url('Up_Arrow_32x32.png');
30.         background-repeat:no-repeat;
31.     }
32.     .downArrowStyle
33.     {
34.         height:32px;
35.         background-image: url('Down_Arrow_32x32.png');
36.         background-repeat:no-repeat;
37.     }
38. </style>
39.  
40. <script type="text/javascript">
41.     function display(item) {
42.         if (document.getElementById) {
43.             // Retrieving the first child item.
44.             var firstChildItem = item.firstChild;
45.             // Getting the correct child item with inner HTML text.
46.             firstChildItem = item.firstChild.innerHTML ? item.firstChild : item.firstChild.nextSibling;
47.             // Toggling the + or – according to the state after click.
48.             firstChildItem.innerHTML = firstChildItem.innerHTML == '+' ? '-' : '+';
49.             // Toggling the display image after click.
50.             item.className = item.className == "downArrowStyle" ? "upArrowStyle" : "downArrowStyle";
51.             // Get the sub item to toggle visibility.
52.            var nextSubItem = item.parentNode.nextSibling.style ? item.parentNode.nextSibling : item.parentNode.nextSibling.nextSibling;
53.             // Toggle visibility of the sub item.
54.             nextSubItem.style.display = nextSubItem.style.display == 'block' ? 'none' : 'block';
55.         }
56.     }
57.  
58.     // Displaying everything if item could not be found.
59.     if (!document.getElementById)
60.         document.write('<style type="text/css"><!–\n .dspcont{display:block;}\n //–></style>');
61. </script>
62.  
63. <!– If Java scripts are blocked, display everything expanded. –>
64. <noscript>
65.     <style type="text/css">
66.         .dspcont
67.         {
68.             display: block;
69.         }
70.     </style>
71. </noscript>
72. <div>
73.     <!– If + or – is required to be displayed besides the image simply change display:none; to display:block; in following sections. –>
74.     <h1>
75.         <a href="javascript:void(0)" class="downArrowStyle" onclick="display(this)">
76.             <span style="display:none;">+</span><span style="margin-left:34px;">Main Title 1</span>
77.         </a>
78.     </h1>
79.     <div class="contentStyle">Title 1 content goes here.</div>
80.     <h1>
81.         <a href="javascript:void(0)" class="downArrowStyle" onclick="display(this)">
82.             <span style="display:none;">+</span><span style="margin-left:34px;">Main Title 2</span>
83.         </a>
84.     </h1>
85.     <div class="contentStyle">
86.         <h2>
87.             <a href="javascript:void(0)" class="downArrowStyle" onclick="display(this)">
88.             <span style="display:none;">+</span><span style="margin-left:34px;">Sub Title 1</span></a></h2>
89.         <div class="contentStyle">
90.             Sub title 1 content goes here.</div>
91.         <h2>
92.             <a href="javascript:void(0)" class="downArrowStyle" onclick="display(this)">
93.             <span style="display:none;">+</span><span style="margin-left:34px;">Sub Title 2</span></a></h2>
94.         <div class="contentStyle">
95.             Sub title 2 content goes here.</div>
96.     </div>
97.     <h1>
98.         <a href="javascript:void(0)" class="downArrowStyle" onclick="display(this)">
99.         <span style="display:none;">+</span><span style="margin-left:34px;">Main Title 3</span></a></h1>
100.     <div class="contentStyle">Title 3 content goes here.</div>
101. </div>

Remember to correct the image URLs, otherwise they will go missing.

I need to thank M. C. Matti for his great article which gave me this idea. Also you can use this method to create expandable regions in other sites which use different technologies. For example if you need to add this to a SharePoint site, just use a Content Editor web part and paste the code using Source Editor in web part properties.

Hope this helps.

TechEd Australia – Videos

As you might know TechEd Australia ended few weeks back. I am sure lot of you might not have the chance to visit it. The good thing is you can watch the recorded sessions online now by visiting the following site.

http://channel9.msdn.com/events/teched/australia/tech-ed-australia-2011

I think this will be mostly useful to people who didn’t visit TechEd and also to people who visited it to refresh their minds.

Comparing Content Management Systems

Recently I needed to compare the features of different Content Management Systems (CMS) and came up to the following site which has a huge list of Systems with the ability to compare their features.

http://www.cmsmatrix.org/

SharePoint 2010 Videos

Thought to share few sites I found which might help you start development on SharePoint 2010.

Official Microsoft SharePoint Site

Getting started developing on SharePoint

SharePoint Resources for Developers – This has links to many SharePoint learning videos

Using SharePoint 2010

Hope these helps.

Sorting SharePoint Folder Contents

Recently I needed to sort the contents of a SharePoint folder, in which I used IComparer to get my task done. Following is the code I used. Hope it is helpful.

As you see below I am using the TimeCreated property of SPFile object to do the comparison, other than this you can use any other property of the SPFile object. For a list of available properties refer MSDN.

1. // Comparer Class.
2. public class SPFilesComparer : IComparer
3. {
4.     #region IComparer Members
5.     public int Compare(object object1, object object2)
6.     {
7.         return new CaseInsensitiveComparer().Compare(((SPFile)object1).TimeCreated, ((SPFile)object2).TimeCreated);
8.     }
9.     #endregion
10. }

1. ArrayList fileList = new ArrayList(attachFiles);
2. IComparer compFiles = new SPFilesComparer();
3. // Do the sorting based on the SPFilesComparer.
4. fileList.Sort(compFiles);
6. foreach (SPFile attachFile in fileList)
7. {
8.     // Use the sorted list.
9. }

Comparing SharePoint 2010 vs 2007

It is some time since the SharePoint 2010 is released and now is a good time for you to migrate to the new improved version of it. When searching the net I found some good sites which compares the 2 versions.

Read through the following sites if you are interested.

http://www.rharbridge.com/?page_id=103

http://www.khamis.net/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=4

Business Data Catalog – BDC

As of Microsoft, Business Data Catalog is a new feature introduced with SharePoint 2007 which can be used to integrate business data from backend server {Line Of Business (LOB)} applications.

There are few good articles I found in the following web sites if you are interested to read more.

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms563661.aspx
• BDC Purpose and Technical Architecture
• Application Definition File (ADF) and its Development
• Developing an ADF to Connect to Web Services
• Consuming Business Data through Web Parts and SharePoint Lists
• Implementing Enterprise Search with Business Data
• Integrating User Profiles with Business Data
• Working with the BDC Object Model
• Using Actions in BDC
• http://blah.winsmarts.com/2007-4-SharePoint_2007__BDC_-_The_Business_Data_Catalog.aspx

SharePoint Page Types

Do you know in SharePoint there are two types of pages?

In a SharePoint site each page you see is either a ghosted page or an unghosted page.

Ghosted (Uncustomized) Pages

These are the pages stored in the severs file system but not in the database. The other important thing is these files are common to all the site collections within the SharePoint server and are generally based on the "out of the box" site definition templates. Basically they are working as template files. Ghosted pages are faster since ASP.NET parser will be used to parse them and as you might know ASP.NET parser will compile the page into an assembly on the first time it is rendered, on subsequent executions the compilation is skipped since the assembly is already there.

When ghosted pages are modified by SharePoint designer then they will become unghosted pages, and then SharePoint will start using that file in the future not the file stored in the file system. A common example for this would be the “default.master” file on the “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\Global“.

Unghosted (Customized) Pages

These are the pages which are stored on the database. Unghosted pages are specific to the SharePoint web site the page is in. If you change these files it will not affect any other site in the same SharePoint server. Unghosted pages will be parsed by the safemode parser which will not compile the pages. The only dynamic code allowed is server-side controls that are marked safe (Safe Controls, Trusted Controls).

Why Ghosting?

This allows SharePoint to,

• Increase it’s performance by enabling caching the main site template into memory and then apply the changes that are stored in the database for the specific file.
• Increases security by not allowing unghosted pages to run code so an attacker who injects code will not be able to crash your server.

An error shown when you try to start the SharePoint Search service

After installing the SharePoint Server when you try to start the search service you might end up with the following error.

An unhandled exception occurred in the user interface.Exception Information: OSearch (Administrator)

or

An unhandled exception occurred in the user interface.Exception Information: OSearch (UserName)

If this comes don’t panic, what you need to do is when providing the username provide it with the full domain name. For example Domain.Local\Administrator.

You can find the Microsoft knowledge base article here.