Recently, I had to troubleshoot a custom .NET web application within SharePoint not loading as it was encountering the following error: ( the web site was deployed to a folder within _layouts)

Cannot create file when that file already exists. (Exception from HRESULT:0X800700B7)

It turns out the culprit was the entries in the web.config for the custom web application. There was some entries in the web.config that was conflicting with SharePoint web.config and the above error occurred.

Suggestion is to remove configsections and controls and try out. If you still encounter errors, try with minimal entries in the web.config such as customErrors, connection strings, app settings, and assemblies. That should fix the error.

Here is how to convert an existing web application configured with Classic Mode Authentication to Claims Based. This can be done using PowerShell.

Note: Once converted from classic to claims, you will not be able to revert the change.

Screen Shot showing web application in Classic Mode

Now, run the Powershell command:

You can see the web application is now converted to Claims Based Authentication:

I will be doing a session on FAST Search 2010 at Atlanta SharePoint Saturday event. Check it out:

http://sharepointsaturday.org/atlanta/speakers/35/SathishTK.aspx

Here is my webcast on SharePoint Application Lifecycle Management

Download the Recorded Webcast from Neudesic.com

Join me at Atlanta SharePoint UserGroup monthly meeting. The topic I will be presenting is SharePoint ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) Deep Dive.

More Information here.

Registration Link

See you there!

Join me on Feb 9th, 2011 at 1:00 pm for K2 Roadshow session on Tips & Tricks with SharePoint Deployment & Governance. I will be representing Neudesic.

Click here to register.

Update: 2/21/2011 -- Thanks to the attendees for voting me to the Top 10 speakers list. I enjoyed the event as well.

SharePoint 2010 Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)

I am back at Philly for bi-annual SharePoint Saturday event on 2/5/2011 at Devry University, Fort Washington, PA. Over 325 people have registered and the registration will close at 400.

My topic will be on SharePoint 2010 ALM:

SharePoint 2010, VS 2010 & TFS 2010 ALM tools help developers to improve code quality and metrics. ALM stands for Application Lifecycle Management - It is management & co-ordination of all software development lifecycle activities like requirements gathering, requirements modeling, code development, build process, testing activities and implementation events. Developers now can use all the ALM features of TFS & VS to develop quality SharePoint solutions . ALM is no longer just confined to .NET developers but to the SharePoint development as well. This session will demo TFS integration with SharePoint & Visual Studio and how developers can utilize ALM tools to deliver better quality conscious products to customers.

See you at SharePoint Saturday!

FAST Search for SharePoint 2010 - Using PowerShell to execute searches.
In some cases, you may want to test query results and there is a relatively easy way to do using PowerShell.

General steps are:

 
1) Pass the site URL to the Search object
2) Pass the QueryText (the query that you want to test)
3) Set search parameters
4) Execute query and format the results

Here is the code:

   1:  #load the site and set the keyword query object

   2:  $searchSite = Get-SPSite http://www.sathishtk.com

   3:  $keywordQuery = New-Object Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Query.KeywordQuery $searchSite

   4:  $keywordQuery.ResultTypes = [Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Query.ResultType]::RelevantResults

   5:  # activate FQL queries

   6:  $keywordQuery.EnableFQL = 1 

   7:  $keywordQuery.RowLimit = 10

   8:  #Pass the query text - SharePoint

   9:  $keywordQuery.QueryText = "SharePoint"

  10:  #query execution

  11:  $results = $keywordQuery.Execute()

  12:  #display total number of rows

  13:  Write-Host Total hits: $results[1].TotalRows

  14:  $resultsTable = $results.Item([Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Query.ResultType]::RelevantResults)

  15:  $resultsDataTable = $resultsTable.Table

  16:  # display the results in table format for better view

  17:  $resultsDataTable | Format-Table -AutoSize -Property title, url

User Profile synchronization is bit complicated to troubleshoot and this post will aim to give you some pointers and save some time.


Useful Links (there are many useful web sites out there, I am listing a couple)


1)    Technet -- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee721049.aspx -- As of writing this the last update was done on September 30, 2010. I am sure MS folks will update this document as they discover new information.


2)    http://www.harbar.net/articles/sp2010ups.aspx - Spencer Harbar -- Good write up on UP sync.



Now pointers:

• Create a new web application and site collection to host My Sites. Do not mix your content apps with My Sites web apps.

• If possible, create the My Site Host at the site collection root. Example: My Site Host – http://mywebapps.com/ and personal sites at /personal. If done right, the managed path (/personal) will be created for you and you don’t have to create it manually.

• Do not use the Farm Configuration wizard to create the User Profile service apps. No, don’t. Use the New option under Central Admin (CA) – Application Management - Manage service applications.

• Do not start the Forefront services manually (Forefront Identity Manager and Forefront Identity Manager Synchronization). Use CA - System Settings - Manage Services on server and start the User Profile service – This will automatically start the services. The initial state of these services will be “Disabled” but the UP service will reset the status and start it. After this step, execute IIS reset.

• Use the ULS Log viewer and yes read the logs. It does show some useful information sometimes. Do read it to troubleshoot.

• It is tempting to select the entire AD container, but organize your users into specific OUs and then select only those relevant OUs.

• AD Sync – In the first run, ensure the AD sync account you using has all administrator privileges on AD as well as the sync server. Yes, I understand this is not best practice, but this will save you time.  Next, tweak the account for exact privileges. For specific rights, check Technet article. Don’t forget to remove the account from the admin group once you are done.

• Enable Self Service site creation CA– Security – Configure self-service site creation.

So to sum up – Create UP service application – ensure Sync, Profile databases are created – Start UP services – Setup AD Connection – Start full import and then schedule incremental sync.

I encountered a "Specified value is not supported for the parameter" error when trying to create a web application in SharePoint 2010. Tried to create a couple of service applications and met with the same error. This was on my laptop that was part of corporate domain but was not joined to the domain. So, after some error log reviews, I was able to resolve it by joining the Windows 7 laptop to corporate domain before performing these operations.

SharePoint actually checks whether the machine (user account too) is connected to the domain before these actions are completed. This happens to machines that are part of the domain during SharePoint install and configuration.