Installing SharePoint 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2

At the beginning when you try to install Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2 it will hesitate a little. So I thought to put the steps in.

Step 1 – Download the correct Setup.

You will not be able to use your normal SharePoint Setup to install MOSS on Windows 2008 R2, if you try you will see the following message appearing continuously.

Download the required version from the following Microsoft URLs.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP2 (x86)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=EF93E453-75F1-45DF-8C6F-4565E8549C2A&displaylang=en

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP2 (x64)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9FB41E51-CB03-4B47-B89A-396786492CBA&displaylang=en

Step 2 – Install MOSS using the setup.

Installation will not have any hiccups if you downloaded the correct version.

Step 3 – Configure MOSS.

When trying to configure MOSS and if your SQL Server is running in another machine which has Windows Server 2008 R2 then you will sometimes get an error saying the SQL Server is not present.

Mainly the reason for this would be that, in your SQL Server machine the Windows Firewall is turned on. Easiest step is to turn it off, but if you are worried about your security then read the other article I have on enabling a port in Windows Server 2008 R2.

After correcting the SQL related issue then you will be able to complete the MOSS configuration wizard successfully.

If you get into any more issues contact me, I will try to help you out as I can.

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Improving SharePoint Look and Feel

If you are thinking whether we can improve the look and feel of the SharePoint site a perfect example is the Glu Mobile site. If you visit them at http://www.glu.com you will hardly believe that it is done by SharePoint. But the truth is it is SharePoint.

If you would like to know how they did it read the following 3 articles discussing on its design and development.

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/06/14/moss-has-got-game-glu-mobile-s-website-www-glu-com-how-we-did-it-part-1-of-3.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/06/14/moss-has-got-game-glu-mobile-s-website-www-glu-com-how-we-did-it-part-2-of-3.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/06/14/moss-has-got-game-glu-mobile-s-website-www-glu-com-how-we-did-it-part-3-of-3.aspx

SharePoint Mobile Development

If you need to create a mobile view for a SharePoint site you will soon realise that the default mobile site created by SharePoint will not take you anywhere.

With its plain look and limited features you will not be able to do anything with the default view, so to give some thing valuable to your customer you need to do some development on the default mobile site.

To get more information on getting this done visit Microsoft.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms464268.aspx

Enabling Mobile View in a SharePoint Site

Microsoft SharePoint Server has a facility to render the site content into mobile devices as well.

In default this feature will be turned off. To enable mobile access execute the following command.

 

STSADM.EXE -o activatefeature -name mobilityredirect -url http://ms-sharepoint-site01/m

 

This will create a site under the given URL without any fancy items. It will be a plain site with only basic HTML. Whenever a mobile browser tries to access the site it will be redirected to the new mobile site.

You will be able to access the mobile sites using the URL.

http://ms-sharepoint-site01/_layouts/mobile/default.aspx

or

http://ms-sharepoint-site01/m

Backup a SharePoint Site

There are two methods to take a backup of a SharePoint site.

1.) Using SharePoint Central Administration

To take a site backup follow the steps below.

a. Go to the SharePoint Central Administration site by clicking,

Start -> All Programs -> Administrative Tools -> SharePoint Central Administration

b. Click on Operations.

c. Click on Perform a backup under Backup and Restore.

d. Select the site or the farm to backup the entire SharePoint farm.

e. Click on the Continue to Backup Options button on the top of the list.

f. Select the type and the location of the backup and click Ok.

2.) Using the STSADM tool.

Even though Microsoft had provided a UI method to backup a SharePoint site the best way to get it done is by the STSADM tool. If you are unfamiliar with STSADM refer the following post http://arjunachith.blogspot.com/2009/11/stsadm.html.

You will be able to use the following command to get a backup of a site using STSADM.

STSADM.EXE -o backup -url http://MySharePoint:10000/ -filename E:\Folder_Name\SiteBackup.bkp -overwrite

o – Mentions that the backup is an operation.

url – URL for the site collection that you need to backup.

filename – Path to the backup file, even a network path such as \\Machine_Name\Folder_Name\File_Name.ext can be provided.

overwrite – Will overwrite an existing back file if found in the backup location.

Instead of giving the path in the filename you can use the directory parameter to mention the location as well it is shown below.

STSADM.EXE -o backup -url http://MySharePoint:10000/ -directory E:\Folder_Name            -filename SiteBackup.bkp -overwrite

directory – Location for the backup, even a network path such as \\Machine_Name\Folder_Name can be provided.

filename -The name of the backup file.

The status will be shown in the command prompt.

If you would like to know the full set of available parameters for the backup operation visit the Microsoft at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263441.aspx.

STSADM Error

Recently I faced a curios error while using the STSADM.exe command line tool.

If anyone of you are not knowing wht STSADM is please refer my earlier post with links to get more information.

However powerful STSADM is, while using it suddenly Windows might tell you that STSADM is not a valid Win32 application.

If you check the file you will also notice that the Windows icon of that exe is disappeared and also the file size is 0.

The good thing is that you will be able to get the file from another SharePoint installation and replace, then everything will start working normally.

STSADM

STSADM is a command line tool which we can use to perform administrative tasks on SharePoint Server, this is very powerful since it provides features that are not available in the Central Administration site.

You will be able to find this executable at,

%COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\

For example – C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN

To learn more visit the following TechNet link.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261956.aspx
Following link will have the list of operations and properties.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263384.aspx

SharePoint Content Placeholders

I found the following image describing the content placeholders in Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 master page.

I think I got this from Microsoft. Thanks Microsoft.

Hope it helps to you.

Enabling Office SharePoint Server Publishing Feature

To enable publishing features you need to enable publishing in your SharePoint site.

Go to "Site Settings" by using the "Site Actions" button.

Click the "Site Features" link in the "Site Administration" category.

Clicking the Activate button of Office SharePoint Server Publishing to enable publishing.

 

• Some of you might get a message saying publishing is not enabled since Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure is not active.

This is because publishing is not enabled from the site collection level, what you need to do is select "Site collection features" from the "Site Collection Administration" category and activate the Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure feature for the entire site collection. Then you will be able to activate publishing by going to "Site features".

Changing the Default Welcome Page of a Site

Do you know that we can change the default page of a site in SharePoint?

 

This is done by going to "Site Settings" and accessing the "Welcome page" option under "Look and Feel" category.

• If you cannot find a link named "Welcome page" that means you don’t have Office SharePoint Server Publishing enabled on your site. If you need more help on how to enable Office SharePoint Server Publishing please feel free to read my next post.

 

Now browse or type the page that you want to set as the welcome page and click Ok.