11 July, 2009

The document could not be opened for editing. A Windows SharePoint Services compatible application could not be found to edit the document.

One of the user from my project reported that he was not able to edit as well as check out the office documents. When i tried to follow the same procedure (i.e. Edit, check-in, check-out) and strange thing was me also got the same error message. When i started my troubleshooting, I found out user created document library with multiple nested folders.

When we go to third or fourth level of the folder and try to edit any file with office application, we are getting an error – The document could not be opened for editing. A Windows SharePoint Services compatible application could not be found to edit the document. However if we try to edit the document uploaded on the root of the document library, we can edit it properly.

I tried reproduced the issue 2-3 times and found out one common thing and that is: You cannot edit the office document once the URL path reaches characters limit 340. You can edit the documents only till URL path length is up to 339 characters. You can open the documents, you can upload documents but you can't edit them by right click on document and click on "edit in Microsoft Word". Even this behavior is same with non-office documents also like text documents.

Workaround:
The only workaround possible is - open the file directly from the folder, modify and save it as a new file. Every time you need to save it as a new file. It won’t allow to save in the existing file. Or, Move the file one level up and you will be able to do all the operations like edit, check-in and check-out too.


I hope the above information helps you to resolve your problem and time also!! Thanks!!

04 July, 2009

Summary Links Web Part (Error 0x80070002)

Today, We faced one wierd error message regarding Summary Links Webpart.
Due to some requirement, one of the user in my project demanded me the replication of one of the site collections. So, Itried to take the export and imported it one to a new one with blank site template. Export and import both were successfull and replication has been done properly but the problem starts now, when we open the site and we found out one error message related to Summary Link Webpart.

Unable to add selected web part(s). Could not load XSL file. The system cannot find the file specified.(Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070002).
Solution:
This error is usually raised when you try to add a publishing-related web part (such as Summary Links) into a non-publishing site. You have to either add it into a site built with a publishing template (Collaboration Portal or Publishing Portal), or to activate the publishing features manually:

-Activate Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure feature in site collection features, in Site Collection Administration section of Site Settings page
-Activate Office SharePoint Server Publishing feature in destination site features, located on Site Administration section of Site Settings page

SharePoint Server 2010 Preliminary System Requirements

Very Soon, Microsoft will release the new version of SharePoint and that is Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2010 i.e. Office 14

SharePoint Server 2010 Preliminary System Requirements
1.SharePoint Server 2010 will be 64-bit only.
2.SharePoint Server 2010 will require 64-bit Windows Server 2008 or 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2.
3.SharePoint Server 2010 will require 64-bit SQL Server 2008 or 64-bit SQL Server 2005.

Microsoft also announced some important requirements regarding SharePoint Server 2010 browser compatibility:
-To ensure the best possible experience across multiple browsers, Microsoft is focusing on SharePoint 2010 engineering efforts on targeting standards based browsers (XHTML 1.0 compliant) including Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.x. running on Windows Operating Systems.
-In addition, Microsoft also planning to increased level of compatibility with Firefox 3.x and Safari 3.x on non-Windows Operating Systems.
-Due to this focus Internet Explorer 6 will not be a supported browser for SharePoint Server 2010.

You can find additional information on Microsoft’s Support Lifecycle Policy including specific dates, product information and support offerings here: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy.

Advantages of 64-bit hardware and software (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd630764.aspx

Migrate an existing server farm to a 64-bit environment (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd622865.aspx

25 June, 2009

Columns in Edit in Datasheet View are read-only

Few Days before, we encountered a weird error message, not error we can say but normal properly working list or document library turned out to be readable only and we were not able to edit anything by using datasheet.
In standard view, it worked properly but our users wanted to use datasheet view only because they are more comfortable with that view and also it is more flexible to apply the metadata for multiple documents in datasheet view. I tried to reproduce the issue and strange thing is i am also facing the same behavior.

After lots to research and troubleshooting, we are able to find out the cause as well as resolution.

CAUSE:
User was using Office 2003 and then later installed an Office 2007 component so the Windows SharePoint Service Support tool portion of Office defaulted to using the Office 2007 version. Office 2007 will by default use Access instead of Excel for opening lists in Datasheet view. The types of columns that were being used in the list did not translate correctly to Access from Excel and so were changed to read-only.

This issue is by design and Microsoft is working on this one:

WORKAROUND:
This will in effect remove the Office 2007 integration with SharePoint and change it back to using Office 2003 integration.

On the client machine:-
1.   Go to Add/Remove Programs
2.   Select the Office 2007 component, if there are more than one, do this for each of them.
3.   Select “Change” and then Add or Remove Features Expand the Office Tools section and
4.   Change the install state for Windows SharePoint Service Support to Not Available (Right click on it and choose “not available”) Continue through the wizard.
5.   Reboot

Go to Add/Remove programs --> Select Office 2003 -->Select Change and then Repair-->Continue through the wizard.


I hope the above steps helps you to resolve your problem and you are able to use the data view properly. If you face any issues after applying the above steps then please let me know!! Thanks!!

20 June, 2009

unable to connect to database or unable to connect the configuration database

Issue with SharePoint after installating the hotfix which solve DNS issue

If you install the DNS fix (KB 953230) and experience SharePoint trouble – such as error message which says unable to connect to database or unable to connect the configuration database.

You can follow the steps below if you're using Windows Internal Database/MSDE:
• Download and install SQL Management Studio Express (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C243A5AE-4BD1-4E3D-94B8-5A0F62BF7796&displaylang=en) if you don't have any SQL 2005 management tool available
• Connect the server using the following information
oServer: \\.\pipe\mssql$microsoft##ssee\sql\query
o Windows authentication
• Detach the SharePoint configuration database
• Reattach the SharePoint configuration database
• Restart your SharePoint server

Your issue should have been solved!!!