SharePoint can not find user in its domain at 3:50 PM

It's quite weird that SharePoint (WSS 3.0) could not find any Active Directory user account from its own domain!

According to its log, WSS complained it could not get trusted domains:

05/08/2008 10:09:18.72  Error when trying to get trusted forests and domains. Exception message: Access is denied.  , callstack:    at System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.Forest.GetTrustsHelper(String targetForestName)     at System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.Forest.GetAllTrustRelationships()     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUserUtility.GetTrustedDomains(List`1 trustedForestNames, List`1 trustedDomainNames)  
05/08/2008 10:09:18.72  Found 1 trusted forests ad.int.com.  
05/08/2008 10:09:18.72  Found 0 trusted domains   
05/08/2008 10:09:18.87  Error in searching user 'Bob' : System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryServicesCOMException (0x8007052E): Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password.       at System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry.Bind(Boolean throwIfFail)     at System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry.Bind()     at System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry.get_AdsObject()     at System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher.FindAll(Boolean findMoreThanOne)     at System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher.FindAll()     at Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.PeopleEditor.SearchFromGC(SPActiveDirectoryDomain domain, String strFilter, String[] rgstrProp, Int32 nTimeout, Int32 nSizeLimit, SPUserCollection spUsers, ArrayList& rgResults)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUserUtility.SearchAgainstAD(String input, SPActiveDirect...  
05/08/2008 10:09:18.87* ...oryDomain domainController, SPPrincipalType scopes, SPUserCollection usersContainer, Int32 maxCount, String customQuery, String customFilter, TimeSpan searchTimeout, Boolean& reachMaxCount)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPActiveDirectoryPrincipalResolver.SearchPrincipals(String input, SPPrincipalType scopes, SPPrincipalSource sources, SPUserCollection usersContainer, Int32 maxCount, Boolean& reachMaxCount)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUtility.SearchPrincipalFromResolvers(List`1 resolvers, String input, SPPrincipalType scopes, SPPrincipalSource sources, SPUserCollection usersContainer, Int32 maxCount, Boolean& reachMaxCount, Dictionary`2 usersDict).  

But do I need care if the domain is "trusted" or not when only one domain exists? What I wanted was to get users from the same domain. MSDN also said "Users in the forest that the server is in (that is, a resource forest) are displayed automatically." But the reality was the opposite.

Finally, I had a try to add the WSS server's local domain using stsadm:

stsadm -o setproperty -url http://localhost:82
-pn "peoplepicker-searchadforests" -pv "domain:ad.int.com"

Although I had thought that the command should do nothing because I was not supposed to do that, ironically I could see users in the PeoplePicker control! :)

SharePoint XML Web Part and proxy setting at 11:24 AM

XML Web Part is quite useful when you want to collect data from other sites (e.g. RSS). Yesterday I wanted to display local weather information using Weather.com XML Data Feed. I followed these steps:

1. Registered to weather.com to download the SDK (to use weather images)
2. Copied SDK images to TEMPLATE\Images\weather\
3. Added XML Web Part to WSS site and set URL to

   http://xoap.weather.com/weather/local/(zipcode)?cc=*&prod=xoap
   &unit=e&par=null&key=(license key)

   [Update] Weather.com has changed the URL to

   http://xoap.weather.com/weather/local/[zipcode]?cc=*&dayf=5
   &link=xoap&prod=xoap&par=[PartnerID]&key=[LicenseKey]

4. Set up XSLT to display weather images

But I got errors on different WSS machines:

1. "Cannot retrieve the URL specified in the XML Link property"
2. "The web part has timed out"

The reason was my WSS sites were behind a proxy server. WSS XML Web Part need know proxy settings, otherwise it can not access the URL.

The first error happens when the WSS application pool does not use a domain account; the second error happens when a domain account is used.

After I added proxy settings in web.config, the problem was solved:

<!-- Proxy setting -->
<system.net>
  <defaultproxy useDefaultCredentials="true">
    <proxy usesystemdefault="false"
              proxyaddress="http://proxyServer:port"
              bypassonlocal="true">
    </proxy>
  </defaultproxy>
</system.net>

Reports cannot be deployed from VS 2005 to Reporting Services in WSS integration mode at 1:42 PM

I tried to deploy reports from VS 2005 from Dev machine to Prod Report Server across different domains, but VS 2005 did not allow me to deploy.

The Reporting Services on Prod was set up in WSS integration mode. I set up TargetDataSourceFolder, TargetReportFolder and TargetServerURL in VS 2005 on my Dev machine as mentioned in MSDN article "Deploying Reports, Models, and Shared Data Sources to a SharePoint Site". Then I tried to deploy reports to Prod machine. But VS 2005 keeps showing "Report Services Login" window, even when I used Administrator account of Prod.

The WSS log file on the Prod machine shows this error: "The file you are attempting to save or retrieve has been blocked from this Web site by the server administrators."

Solution? After two-day frustration and research, then the problem was solved: I need use Internet Explorer to log into WSS and check the "Remember my password" checkbox (Very important!). Then I could deploy from VS 2005 without seeing the login dialog window. The deployed report on Prod showed the author was the same account that I used to login from IE.

The same trick can be applied to Report Builder. When user tries to use Report Builder in WSS to build ad-hoc report, he/she should make sure to check the "Remember my password" checkbox in the login window. Otherwise, the user will see "unauthorized" error when downloading Report Builder application.

Do not remove VS 2005 and install VS 2008 if ... at 2:36 PM

Do not remove VS 2005 from your computer and install VS 2008 if:

1. You want to develop Business Intelligence solutions with SQL Server 2005, because VS 2008 does not support those projects (Report Designer, Report Model ...). Or to say, Microsoft does not want you to work on SQL Server 2005 with their own latest IDE!

2. You want to build Workflow (WF) solution for SharePoint. You will realize the old way in VS 2005 to install Features.xml is easier to use.

WSS Workflow Modification Form at 3:23 PM

It is easy to find WSS ASP.NET samples for Instantiation and Task Edit forms, but it is hard to find sample for Modification form. Maybe many people think there is no much difference, but is that true?

Modification form is quite useful in WSS work flow. For example, after a long running task has been assigned to an analyst, the analyst takes vacation for weeks. At this point, the Modification form can be used to reassign the task to another person.

You can define Modification form in Feature file with the similar way for Instantiation form. But how about the workflow part?

Instantiation form happens at the very beginning of a workflow, but Modification can happen anywhere in a scope.

A common way to define Modification in workflow is to put EnableWorkflowModification activity inside an EventHandlingScope activity. Other activities inside the same scope do the normal work. When Modification form is accessed, an event will raised to the workflow, so that the EventHandlingScope activity can handle the event and call event handler.

In Visual Studio, right-click the EventHandlingScope activity and select "view event handlers":


Then you can add OnWorkflowModified and UpdateTask activities to the EventHandlersActivity:



The Modification activities have their own ContextData and CorrelationToken, because they are actually outside the normal workflow.

One issue I saw: If there is an OnTaskChanged activity already defined in the EventHandlingScope (like below), you had better not add another OnTaskChanged activity inside the EventHandlersActivity; otherwise, you would be surprised to see only one OnTaskChanged activity is called.

WSS Content Type Was Not Updated at 4:22 PM

I tried to update a content type in WSS, but the system was still using the older version of content type somehow. After two-day frustration, I found out why :(

Here was what happened in the beginning: I created a simple content type like below:

<ContentType ID="0x01080100B7336179CFFE43e59B86E241C767010E" Name="GradingTask" Group="Grading" Description="Grading Task" Version="0" Hidden="FALSE">
</ContentType>

The content type worked perfectly and I added several items of GradingTask type to a list. Then I thought: How about adding custom Edit/Display pages? So I added these lines to the configuration:

<XmlDocuments>
<XmlDocument NamespaceURI="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3/contenttype/forms/url">
<FormUrls xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3/contenttype/forms/url">
<Edit>_layouts/Grades/GradesTaskEditForm.aspx</Edit>
<Display>_layouts/Grades/GradesTaskEditForm.aspx</Display>
</FormUrls>
</XmlDocument>
</XmlDocuments>

After I installed the updated content type and tried to edit a task, WSS kept showing me the default EditForm.aspx page, not the GradesTaskEditForm.aspx. Then I tried to deactivate and uninstall the content type for many times, but WSS still used the default page.

Finally, I saw a line in the "Real World SharePoint 2007" book: When you use Feature to install a new version of Content Type, WSS does not support cascading update if inherited content type is used somewhere. (No quote)

Oh ... That is the reason why I failed to overwrite the old content type definition -- WSS kept GradingTask's meta data for the list even after the Feature was uninstalled.

So I deleted all items of that GradingTask type, removed workflow setting, detached the content type from the list, deactivated/uninstalled the feature, deleted the list and then reinstalled/activated the feature, ... ... finally my lovely custom Edit page showed up :)

According to the book, to support cascading update I need write code using WSS object model API to force cascading update ... I would try that later.

[Updated 12/28/2007] I saw this great article this morning to deal with the mess of Content Type inheritance.

Can I use SharePoint Workflow on SPGridView? at 5:00 PM

Nowadays, it is quite easy to find articles about how beautiful it is to use Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Workflow and InfoPath to manage Documents or List.

But I am too poor to buy MOSS 2007 and InfoPath, is it possible to use WSS 3.0 Workflow frame to manage normal business objects (e.g. purchase orders, law suit cases) in an ASP.NET SPGridView on a WSS 3.0 site? Or to say, can I build a WSS Workflow and related ASP.NET pages (Workflow Association, Instatiation, Modification, and Task Edit pages) in Visual Studio, then use that workflow for each item of an ASP.NET SPGridView and modify data stored in a standalone database (not WSS Content database)?

From my current understanding, the answer is: No, because SharePoint Workflow processes SPListItem, not item of SPGridView; and of course, you are not supposed to create task from your code because the task is of SPWorkflowTask type that can only be created from SPWorkflow.

Ok ... fine. How about creating a SharePoint List to hold my business objects but I need save my business objects in a separate database?

Well ... To use SharePoint List, you have to create list columns inside SharePoint Content database, not in other databases.

&*%*^%%^$

So from my current understanding, if I want to use WSS 3.0 workflow framework for my own business objects in a standalone database (S_DB), I have to create a List and several columns (for display and search purposes) in WSS site. Those columns are duplicated because they are already defined in database S_DB.

When user starts workflow on the list item, the workflow (Instatiation) ASP.NET page will use ADO.NET code to load other fields from database S_DB. Then the ASP.NET page should save updated data back to S_DB, and at the same time save the data of the List columns to WSS Content database too.

Is there a better way to avoid data duplication in WSS Content database and the other standalone database?