The Angry Coder

This morning, while I added my existing SharePoint project to a solution it start giving me this Error when I do the build.

Error   8   Value cannot be null.Parameter name: PublicKey   

Graphically

Strange, because the last time when I run this project it was working fine. Search on the internet doesn’t prove to be much fruitful. So, I compare this project with the existing project which are working fine and realize that for some reason Visual Studio remove the Sign the Assembly checkbox on the project properties and the Public Key is not available. Like below.

 

So just check the “Sign the assembly” check box which means that you are signing your assembly with the public key which will now available to Visual Studio to build your SharePoint Project and the error will disappear.

Scenario :

After working on some modules, I have to deploy my site collection to an other machine. For that, I used stsadm.

Once the site collection is restore it keep giving me this

Error File Not Found.

Troubleshoot issues with Microsoft SharePoint Foundation.

Graphically :

Of course, my site collection have variation implemented. I spent an hour on it but didn’t find any thing useful. Then Shehzad Ahmed pointed me to the Language Packs.

So if you are restoring a site collection that have Variation Implemented. You have to install Language Packs before.

But this is not the only thing you should care about. In fact, installing languages pack for me didn’t do the job. So I have to open the log file and check what actually is going wrong.

Then, I realize that the web parts that I was deploying from Visual Studio in my development site is not available on the deployment machine.

That is why, I decided to re-deploy all of my modules to the deployment machine and once I done that. It start working fine.

Why I am posting this is because the error is quit confusing ambiguous.

If you are installing SharePoint 2010 on a new box you might see the Setup Errors notification from the installer. In my case, I am using Windows Server 2008 R2, but I have seen the similar Error on Windows 7 as well with little less requirements.

As you can understand all the “-“ bullets are the requirements that needs to be installed or configured on the box.

There are two ways to do this

1) Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Product Preparation tool

In the SharePoint 2010 Splash Form, you can find that with title “Install software prerequisites” or alternatively you can run file “PrerequisiteInstaller” on the same folder as of the setup file. 

2) Manual installation of Prerequisites

Now the question is, why would one select to chose the manual installation when we already have utility provided by Microsoft. The answer is that utility some time fails for me at least, it fails 2 / 3 times.

So, let me explain all of them one by one.

- “A System restart …….”

Hopefully you will not see this because I am installing SharePoint 2010 just after an other installation that is why it is there. So if you see this better to restart your machine.

- “This product requires Windows Identity Foundation”

Download  KB Update from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=17331
Select your operating system carefully. Windows 6.1 is for Windows 7 & 2008.

- “……… Sync Framework Runtime”

Download from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=17616
It downloads a zip file which have five folders container some setup. Now, you don’t need to run all the setups. Execute the setup inside “Microsoft Sync Framework” and you are done with this step.

- “…….. SQL Server 2008 Native Client”

Download it form http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?DisplayLang=en&id=8824
Scroll down to find Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Native Client

- “Windows server features or role services required …. ”

For sure, you will not face this issue in Windows 7 because there is nothing like server featured in Windows 7 but In Windows 2008 (maybe) for security reasons you have configure the features that will be used through Server Manager. To do that

1) Go to Server Manager
2) Select the Features from the tree on the left hand
4) On the right hand you have a page with Feature Summary Panel. Click on Add Features and following window will appear.

From the list of Features  you have to select the following:

.Net Framework 3.5.1 Features with WCF Activation
Message Queue
Remote Server Administration Tool
Windows Process Activation Service with all sub options.
and feature settings is complete.

5) Select the “Roles” from the tree on the left hand.
5) If you are working on a new box, you will see only Role Summary section in the configuration on the right hand.
7) Click the Add Roles button on the Role Summary panel. The following window will appear

This window is only informing you about the security concerns. So just click next. The following window have the list of Server Roles available. Microsoft SharePoint 2010 require Application Server and Web Server to be installed. So select them from the window.

Notice the required sections are highlighted in the underline. Since I have all these requirement already installed that is why the buttons are disabled, but it should be enable for you.

In the Web Server (IIS) section, make sure to select asp.net. However, the default selection is what you needed. Once you finish this, your Roles window should look like this

Containing sections for Application Server and Web Server.

 

- “Microsoft Filter Pack 2.0 required ……..”

Ok, you will find Filter Pack 1.0 easily on internet, but that is not the requirement. Actually, Filter Pack 2.0 is available with the name of Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Packs which actually make sense because SharePoint 2010 is the part of Office Suit 2010. Anyway, you can get it from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=17062

- “Internet Information Services 7.0 or higher is required …….”

In Windows 2008, If you have successfully completed the Features and Roles configuration, this is already done because in Role Configuration we already installed Web Server (IIS).

For Windows 7, you have to make sure that IIS 7.0 is installed and configure to  run asp.net.

- “IIS 6.0 Management Compatibility…….. ”

For windows 2008, it is completed with Features and Roles Configuration. But to make sure

1) Go to Server Manager
2) Roles
3) From the Web Server (IIS) panel on the right hand (not on the tree), maximize the Role Service and see if you have IIS 6 Management Compatibility there like below

For Windows 7,

1) Go to Program and Features
2) Select Turn Windows features on or off.
3) Make sure you have IIS Management Compatibility feature checked under Internet Information Services.

- “Microsoft .net Framework 3.5.1 required  ……. “

For Windows 2008, if you have completed Features and Roles configuration you are done. For Windows 7, just make sure that you have .net Framework 3.5 SP 1 runtime is installed. Get it from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=22

 

- “Hotfix for Microsoft Windows (KB976462)”

This is Windows 2008 R2 Specific, which can be found at
http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=23806

- “Microsoft Chart Control ……..”

It is straight forward setup download which you can get it from here
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=14422

 

Hopefully once the above steps are taken, the setup errors will be finished. Your comments are welcome if you face any issue which is not listed above and you think that can help someone else.

In my attempt of installing and configuring SharePoint 2010 Farm, I have given a new Windows Server 2008 R2 box that should have SQL Server 2008.

So when I attempt to install SQL Server 2008 on it, I came across the following error message.

Not so weird because every server product have a set of requirement to be installed. First off, before you do any thing Just run the Windows Update. That’s recommended because there can be some thing else that is not mention in this post or any other but can hanged you for some time.

Ok now come to the second part of Enabling .Net Framework Core Role. For that you have to
1) Open Server Manager and Go to the Features on the tree available on left hand.
2) From the Features Summary, Click Add roles.
3) Following window will appear.

4) You have to check the top most option which is (in my case) .net Framework 3.5.1 Feature. That’s it

if you are installing SQL Server 2008 for SharePoint, make sure to check WCF Activation also, Like I did.

Cheers

In my life, whenever I attempt to install Team Foundation Server (TFS). I experienced some new issues, fixes, updates and work around and we are now again moving to TFS for source controlling and project management. So, this time I planned to put my installation experience on a blog.

In my knowledge TFS is the only Microsoft technology, that doesn’t work with Next Next stuff. You need to be sure what you are doing when you are installing things.

In this post I will explain you the process of installing TFS to the new machine.

Pre-Requirement:

1. SQL Server 2005 With Reporting and Analysis services. (Service Pack 2)
2. Install SharePoint Services 2007.
3. Once installed, go to administration tool and run SharePoint Product and Technologies Configuration wizard. Ignore the popup saying that
"The following services may have to be started or reset during configuration:
Internet Information Services
SharePoint Administration Service
SharePoint Timer Service".
Just press ok and let it go.

Once the the Wizard is finish, A browser will open containing the SharePoint site.
If it open up with the error, Go to IIS and see if there is an other site which is using SharePoint. If yes, then either you can change port of your site or you can also change SharePoint default port. For that see the following post.

http://www.theangrycoder.net/sharepoint/how-to-change-default-port-of-sharepoint.html

4. Now go to the Central Administration Site and see the Administration Task. And complete configure outgoing email settings and create new web applications task which will ensure your that SharePoint is successfully installed and able to create web sites with no problem.

I have no idea, what went wrong but my reporting services doesn’t create any database neither it was configures on my machine. So I waste some time to do it myself.

Configure Reporting Services:

1. Now go to Programs – SQL Server 2005 - Configuration Tools - Reporting Service Configuration.
2. Click on the Tab on the left called "Report Server Virtual Directory" and then simply press create button on the form. Give appropriate web site on the popup "Default Website" in my case.
3. Repeat the Step six for "Report Manager Virtual Directory".
4. Go to Database Setup Tab and if you cannot see any thing in database drop down. Click on new button. A screen will appear. Give correct credentials to create new database. Once your are done with new DB creation. Add user name and password on the main form and click apply.

I have not put the TFS DVD yet, all this was a pre-installation stuff.

Installation:

1. Now go to the TFS Installation screen and run Windows SharePoint Service Extension, but make sure you have successfully installed SharePoint before this.
2. At the end of the setup a popup will appear which will ask for the following URL.
SharePoint Site URL (Which will be your default SharePoint Site)
Reports
ReportServer

Last two are the virtual directories which will be find either under your default website in IIS, or under the website running on port 80. So, you have to check it manually and give the path.
3. Then Run Team Foundation Server Installation but before that make sure you have done following things.
   
   Create a user that has full rights on SharePoint Administration. In my case, I simply, create an admin user with different user id and password. You need to provide this user authentication information during installation.
   
   Set SQL Server Agent / SQL Server browser Services to Auto Start.

Yeah, this was the story of my last 1.5 days :). It is my thinking, that TFS always comes up with some unique problem. So you might face some thing that is not listed here. In that case, Create post on your blog and share with us.

Cheers everyone :)

In this post, I will explain you how can we change the default port of SharePoint. 
To do that, take the following steps.

1. Goto IIS, Right Click on Sharepoint Site and change the port (Lets say to 90)
2. Goto Sharepoint Central Administration, Click on the operation tab then Alternate acccess mapping under global settings.
3. Now you can see the list of sharepoint sites. Now edit the one without port, and alter the URL. in My case I change it from
   http://srv-production to http://srv-production:91

And you are done with port stuff.

This morning we had another TFS Error. I guess, I can write a book called "Team System Errors and Solutions" :).The Error occured during the creation of New Project

The Project Creation Wizard was not able to connect to the Windows SharePoint Services at [Server-Name]

The error is mainly because the sharepoint admin services (Sharepoint Central Administration Site) is no more working.So to remove the error I took following steps on the server

1. Goto IIS2. Click Application Pools3. Right Click -> Sharepoint Administration Site V3 (It is the application pool which is in used by Admin site)4. Click Properties5. Identity Tab and make sure the user which is in use by Application Pool is a valid TFS Service Acccount. If it is then re-enter user id and password

and it will work.

While we were in the process of moving to the live server (with static ip address). I realize that the sharepoint site is not working when I access it through IP Address (For the outer network public). It is running fine from the local network both by dns or by name.

So I diagnose, I need to register the new URL (with new ip address) somewhere in the sharepoint.

1 . Let's move to share point central administration
2. Goto Operations then goto Alternate Access Mappings.

You might see the following screen.

Click Edit Public URL's.

Click the circle box.

Select your sharepoint site.

Press Save and thats it.