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#SP2016 Technical Preview–SharePoint 2010 Workflows still available!
So I am running a project internally at the moment about moving away from a vended product to a capability in Office 365 / SharePoint Online using out of the box functionality as much as possible (cost saving exercise) – The Oil & Gas industry is hitting hard times if you haven’t seen commodity prices lately!
Anyway, this interim / temporary solution requires me to send an email to an external user.
With the SharePoint 2010 workflow engine, you could do this with a standard SharePoint Designer workflow.
In SharePoint 2013 they essentially deprecated the SharePoint 2010 workflow engine and introduced a new Azure based version.
This newer workflow engine requires the user that you send an email to an authenticated user with Active Directory / Azure Active Directory. This causes me an issue for my temporary solution in SharePoint Online!
Can Nintex Help?
I initially thought… perhaps Nintex Workflow for Office 365 Workflow can help?
Alas, it is based on the SP2013 Workflow engine, so no luck there…
(To be fair, you can’t really blame Nintex for supporting the current standard… I would do the same)
What are my options?
1. Add the external users to Azure AD – Not really an option in this case right now
2. Create a 2010 platform workflow with a single step – Email User. Call this workflow from the 2013 workflow and hope it stays supported – For this temporary solution, this may work but we all know how temporary often becomes permanent.
3. Create my own code / action to call a web service and send the email – This would work but for this temporary no code solution, it feels overkill. A good backup however, if the solution turns permanent.
4. Find a 3rd party product that can add actions. PlumSail has a package: https://plumsail.com/workflow-actions-pack/. $400 per year. – This is also a good option but there is of course this gotcha!
There isn’t going to be a SharePoint Designer 2016.
SharePoint Designer 2013 however still works.
Conclusions
Now that I have my newly installed SP2016 On-Premise environment and I can confirm that this is still currently available when you connect SharePoint Designer 2013 to a SP2016 On-Premise server.
I can also confirm that as of the time of writing, it is also still available in SharePoint Online.
So for this “temporary” project, this is likely the way we will go, knowing full well, it might go away at some point.
Stay tuned for more posts about SharePoint 2016 as I answer my own questions about the real business issues I face.
So… you want to print a List Item (dispform.aspx) in #SP2010 #SharePoint do you? We’ll see about that!
As my project continues to go through UAT, it is always when you let your projects loose onto the world that you find the niggles and the minor issues.
So having worked out the email issues (previous post) and a few other bits and bobs. This issue came along and flumuxed me for a sec.
Scenario:
Browser: IE8, IE9
Environment: Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise SP1
When opening the view item value from a list (dispform.aspx), those with a large body of text in any multiple lines of text fields appeared fine on the screen.
However on print preview / paper the text stopped at the end of the page, then it moves on to the next field.
Frustrat-icon!
I hear you say.
What on earth could that be?
I checked the previous system that I was migrating from (SharePoint 2007) and the issue was not present there. So it had to be something to do with the HTML markup right?
Well I compared the SharePoint 2010 dispform.aspx markup with the SharePoint 2007 output and apart from more divs to encase it in, the output is pretty much the same.
So I tried to override with my own print CSS but to no avail.
After Further Investigation…
It appeared to be the doc type. By default, in SharePoint 2010, this is set to IE8, where as in SharePoint 2007 it is set to IE7. This combined with IE8 or IE9 caused the issue.
Internet Explorer 10 and Chrome however, no issues.
How did we resolve?
At the moment we are potentially going to set the doc type to IE7 for this web application. We are lucky that in this scenario, this may work as a quick fix.
However, as for the full solution, that is still to work out!
Useful Links:
Group Policy reference for IE8: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3648
Attachment is missing from an e-mail message #SharePoint #SP2007 #SP2010 #SP2013
At a client recently, we were having the issue of emails being sent to a list but the attachments were not appearing with the email.
In this scenario, it was working if we sent it directly to the list email address, but if we forwarded from Exchange via a contact, no attachments came through.
Anyway, it would appear the following needs to be set:
If attachments are missing from email messages that are sent to a SharePoint document library, it might be because you associated the document library with an email address. When you do this, Directory Management Service may not add the following two attributes to the user associated with the email address:
-
internet Encoding = 1310720
-
mAPIRecipient = false
- Full details are below.
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 / Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926891
- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc287879(v=office.12).aspx#section8
SharePoint Foundation 2010 / SharePoint Server 2010
SharePoint Foundation 2013 / SharePoint Server 2013
More #SharePoint / #ProjectServer 2010 Service Pack 2 details #SP2010 #PS2010
So I see my fellow bloggers Paul and Khurram posted about Service Pack 2 for SharePoint and Project Server 2010.
Having looked around the blog-o-sphere, I came across some extra information that I believe will be useful to all:
Known issues when you install Office 2010 SP2 and SharePoint 2010 SP2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687520
In particular if you are installing Office 2010 SP2 on Windows Server 2003 (SP2) you will need to install this patch first: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925336
For SharePoint Server SP2 on Windows Server 2008 R2, you need to be careful of your custom XSL views from SharePoint Designer. Apparently they break but the fix is already available and it is recommended to install the June 2013 CU (or later) on top of the SP2
Links for June 2013 CU for SharePoint 2010:
The Full Server Packages for June 2013 CU are available through the following links:
- Download SharePoint Foundation 2010 June 2013 CU
- Download SharePoint Server 2010 June 2013 CU
- Download SharePoint Server 2010 with Project Server June 2013 CU
After installing the fixes you need to run the SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard on each machine in the farm.
Locations of all the SP2 download packages around SharePoint, Project Server, FAST, Office Web Apps, Office 2010 products etc…
Next up is that we of course need to consider the different products that we have installed in our farms. Do we have FAST or Office Web Apps?
This link will help: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687522
Further links are available here, including Office, Project, Visio, SharePoint Designer and the CSOM binaries:
- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687521/en-us
- http://blogs.msdn.com/b/joerg_sinemus/archive/2013/07/24/sharepoint-server-2010-sp2.aspx
- I haven’t seen a service pack 2 for the language packs yet, but will update if it comes up soon.
Changes for SharePoint / Office 2010 SP2 that are not in Cumulative / Public Updates
Handily Microsoft have also released a spreadsheet detailing the changes and additions as part of Service Pack 2. Be aware that these are not included in any previous CU / PU.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687453
Ok, hopefully you will all find the above useful. Till the next time…
DATEADD DAY parameters and the float based values #SQL #SSRS #SharePoint #CPSReportLink
Just a quick one. Recently bug fixing an issue with an SSRS report that calculated the date and time an SLA was due and highlighted fields accordingly.
The Setup
A choice field in SharePoint determining the expected SLA with values as follows:
- 0.5 days
- 1 day
- 2 days
- 3 days
- 5 days
- 10 days
- 15 days
- 20 days
- 30 days
- 60 days
- What I am trying to achieve
- The values are inside SQL (thanks to CPS ReportLink) as a string value but I need to work out based on a start SLA date and time, when the target SLA date and time is.
- So I need to strip “day” / “days”, convert to a float and then run a dateadd function to determine my target date.
- In SSRS we will then compare that to today and create a nice RAG indicator in some form or another.
- The Issue
- The DATEADD function doesn’t appear to like a float based number. In fact it rounded 0.5 down to 0 making the start date the same as the target date. This ultimately raised an issue in the UAT process I am going through today at a client.
The Original SQL
DATEADD(day, CONVERT(float, REPLACE(REPLACE(wss_SLA_String, ‘days’, ”), ‘day’, ”)), CONVERT(datetime,[wss_SLA Start Time_DateTime])) as [Target SLA Finish]
The Resolution
So given that I am on-site and the developers who created the SQL are nicely on holiday, I have had to roll up the sleeves and delve in.
So taking my developers original concept, rather than working with days, if we convert it down to hours, we get the desired result without any CASE co-fuffle in the SQL. (Co-fuffle – official word of the day @ SPandPS.com)
Update the stored procedure and bob’s your uncle, we are set and another UAT issue checked off the list.
The Updated SQL
DATEADD(HOUR, CONVERT(float, REPLACE(REPLACE(wss_SLA_String, ‘days’, ”), ‘day’, ”)) * 24, CONVERT(datetime,[wss_SLA Start Time_DateTime])) as [Target SLA Finish]
And lastly, a shameless plug
So how did you get SharePoint list data into a database for reporting without breaking the rules and going directly to the content database, I hear you ask…
Why I used CPS ReportLink of course.
It copies data from a list into a database and keeps everything in sync for easy reporting using the standard Business Intelligence tools provided as part of SharePoint (Excel Services, PerformancePoint etc…) / SQL Server (SSRS, PowerView etc…)
Full details here:
http://www.cps.co.uk/What-We-Do/Documents/ReportLink%20for%20SharePoint%20and%20Project%20Server.pdf
That’s it!, Keep SharePoint’n
Useful List based InfoPath form information
So as I continue my research, I have found a couple more interesting facts.
- You can use InfoPath 2013 against SharePoint 2010 to create, edit and update List based InfoPath forms.
- You can also save that List with the InfoPath form as a template and the XSN file comes along with it, whether you check the “with content” box or not.
- This also works across site collections
Have fun! Till the next time…
Exporting Admin Approved #InfoPath Forms. #SP2007 to #SP2010
Just a quick blog to remind myself for some research I am doing.
We need to export existing Administrator Approved InfoPath forms and I came across this article:
In short, use STSADM to export a CAB and reimport using PowerShell.
As it is an older article soooo… just in case I lose it. The details are below:
Admin approved form from MOSS 2007 get deployed as features within the 12 features hive under folders named with GUIDs. These need special handling to be moved to SharePoint 2010. The following steps need to be performed.
a) Export the Admin approved IP templates using stsadm command.
using stsadm -o exportipfsadminobjects command export the IP forms to a CAB file.
b) Import this into the SharePoint 2010 environment using the Windows PowerShell 2.0 Import-SPInfoPathAdministrationFiles cmdlet.
c) Check if the files are imported correctly by browsing to the Central Admin –> Manage Infopath Form Templates.
Other useful resources I found in my research on this topic:
Details further usage and includes updating of data connection files associated with InfoPath forms.
The Update-SPInfoPathUserFileUrl Command will allow you to updates your data connections in InfoPath form templates (.xsn files) and universal data connections (.udcx files) where references in the current farm should be updated when content is migrated to a different farm URL.
Upgrade resource links SP2007 to SP2010 from Microsoft
PowerShell CMDLets for importing into SharePoint 2010
Import-SPInfoPathAdministrationFiles
Imports Microsoft InfoPath 2010 form templates and .udcx files that are located on the SharePoint Central Administration Web site.
Update-SPInfoPathAdminFileUrl
Updates InfoPath form templates (.xsn files) and universal data connections (.udcx files), including all .xsn files and .udcx files that were deployed by an administrator.
Update-SPInfoPathUrl
Runs a Microsoft InfoPath 2010 .xsn/.udc fix-up on Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010.
Update-SPInfoPathFormTemplate
Upgrades all Microsoft InfoPath form templates on the farm.
Till the next time…
Why can’t I access the column in my SharePoint list programatically?
The answer might be simple. The first time a column is created and you title it “Column1” the database records that. If you (or someone else) later changes the column title to “Column2” your application will break. Why? Because behind the scenes that column is still “Column1”
Hiding and showing fields using jQuery in SharePoint Designer 2010
Building forms using SharePoint Designer can be a bit tricky at times. What if you wanted to a text box to show only if a certain radio button value is selected? This video will show you how I acheived this using jQuery.
This post might also help:
Validating a SharePoint form field in SharePoint Designer 2010
Using jQuery to hide form elements based on drop-down value
Using jQuery to hide form elements based on drop-down value.
SharePoint (and Project Server) Shenanigans 
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