Nerfed Tech

This is not ideal. BUT, if you need to create a question that requires no answers, you can workaround there being no label field in sharepoint surveys.

1.  Use custom code / tool to programmatically create a SpChoiceField without choices, and switch the EditType to RadioButtons:

list.Fields.Add(”This is a label, no input options will be displayed!”, SPFieldType.Choice, False)

Dim choicefield As SPFieldChoice = list.Fields(”This is a label, no input options will be displayed!”)

choicefield.EditFormat = SPChoiceFormatType.RadioButtons
choicefield.Update()

I have tested this, it works.

2. Edit your ~\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\qstnew.aspx. Remove the javascript validation at line 1077 that checks for no choices. I have not tested this.

3. Maybe even create a new qstnew.aspx that does not validate the form input for no choices, and use that your self only.

Looking at all that….it’s almost easier to create a custom field…

Oh well.

Having trouble using the MSDN documentation or the SDK documentation for making GetListItems work correctly?

It seems that the optional last parameter is not really optional, you have to include it. If you include it as a blank “” string or a null/nothing value, it still throws execptions….

1. If you are catching Exceptions on SOAP calls, stop. Start catching System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException .  There’s a member called “Details” which will give you the actual error, and not the generic soap exceptions.

2. The documentation says that the WebID field, if not given, will use the URL property of the Lists web service reference object. Well that should work right ? Well no… i guess they changed the way this property works. It appears to not be set. It appears that in an app.config file there is a config parameter that corresponds to this URL parameter. Im guessing that when the empty URL parameter is found, it goes to the app.config to find it, but it’s already passed the test for WebID, and so now it’s required.

This seems to be a change from the way  WSS 2.0 worked. An uneeded change. A stupid change.

http://www.heathersolomon.com/blog/archive/2007/02/21/6213.aspx

Grr.

Thanks to http://insidesharepoint.blogspot.com/2007/06/and-now-another-word-form-our.html

I see a whole lots of posts concerning the search drop down box missing some of the defined scopes from SharedServices. I recently ran into the problem on our farm and I thought I would pass along the fix.

The best place to start is to ensure that you actually have a SearchCenter site installed on the site. Without this, there will be no place for the scoped searches to land, and the scopes will not show up.

Once you have ensured that SearchCenter is installed, then go to SharedServices and make sure that the scopes are there. With MOSS, you will usually get two defined scopes out of the box, All Sites and People. Make sure that the scopes are there and that there is data in them.

If 1 and 2 are ok then next go to the base site for your collection. Log in as the SysAdmin and click on “Site Settings - Modify All Site Settings”.

From All Settings, find the Search Scopes link in the Site Collection Administration column and click on it.

Sometimes SharePoint loses the scoping information, if it has lost it for your site collection, you will see your two scopes here in the category of Unused Scopes. In order to reset your scopes correctly, click on the “New Display Group” button on the menubar.

In order for the Scopes to show up in the Search Drop Down, place “Search Dropdown” in the Title box here. Place a description in the next field. Now check both of the scope “Display” checkboxes and select a position for each (usually it is All Sites (1) and People(2). Make the default scope “All Sites” and click on “OK”

When you return to the view you will see your defined scopes in the new Category: “Display Group: Search Dropdown(2)”. And when you go to your site you will see that the scopes are now part of the dropdown box.

To set up Advanced Search, create another Display Group. In this group place “Advanced Search” in the title and check on “All Sites” and make “All Sites” the default, BOOM! Advanced search shows up.

Hopes this helps some of you frustrated Sharepoint people

JMC

Thanks to http://soerennielsen.wordpress.com/2007/04/16/fixing-those-pesky-dcom-event-log-error-10016-in-a-sharepoint-farm-environment/
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Fixing those pesky DCOM event log error 10016 in a SharePoint farm environment

Posted by Søren Nielsen under Deployment , SharePoint 2007 , Troubleshooting

I’m responsible for a couple of SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) farms where all SharePoint servers showed the following error in the system event log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: DCOM
Event Category: None
Event ID: 10016
Date: 1/17/2007
Time: 4:31:48 AM
User: <DOMAIN>\sa_adm
Computer: <SERVER>
Description:

The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID

{61738644-F196-11D0-9953-00C04FD919C1}

to the user <DOMAIN>\sa_adm SID (S-1-5-21-162740987-2502514208-3469184634-1119). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

The error would show up at regular intervals in clusters (4-12 at roughly the same time) and there would be a few more with other usernames and other class id’s. I had two fully functional farms with 3 SharePoint servers each and a number of standalone development machines. They all exhibited similar behavior.

The error listed above is that the user running the Central Administration web application doesn’t have access to activate (instantiate) the IIS WAMREG admin Service object (search the registry for the CLSID).

Strangely enough I didn’t observe any functional errors in the farms as a result of these errors – nothing seemed amiss (plenty of stuff didn’t work but none directly related to this).

An important note here is that the service users used in the farm are all standard domain accounts and only given additional local rights by the SharePoint installer and Central Administration (The one exception is that “aspnet_regiis -ga IIS_WPG” was executed after SharePoint install and initial configuration).

The following procedure removes the errors from the event log without compromising the entire security setup (yes, assign administrative rights for the service users would do the trick too) and has been verified by Microsoft consulting services.

On each SharePoint server do the following:

1. Click Start, Click Run, type “dcomcnfg” and click ok
2. Expand Component Services / Computers / My Computer / DCOM Config
3. Right click IIS WAMREG admin Service and choose Properties
4. Click the Security tag
5. Click Edit under Launch and Activation Permissions
6. Click Add
7. In the Select Users, Computers or Groups type computername\WSS_WPG and
   computername\WSS_ADMIN_WPG
8. Click ok
9. In the Permissions for UserName list, click to select the Allow check box
10. Click Ok twice.
11. Go back to the main Component Services window, right click the “netman” node and select Properties
12. Click the security tab
13. Click Edit under Activation Permissions
14. Click Add on the Launch Permissons Dialog
15. Enter “NETWORK SERVICE” in the edit box
16. Click Ok
17. Enable all the checkboxes for the NETWORK SERVICE
18. Click Ok twice
19. Finally, run “IISReset”

That should be it!

A little less event log errors to worry about – there are plenty left on a reasonable complex SharePoint farm…

As a side note: The above error also shows up in other applications as well – I’ve heard about it for exchange servers as well and more applications are probably affected. In that case you’ll need to search the registry for the actual DCOM application and assign the rights to another local group (or username as a last resort).

How annoying is that???

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926370

Ever had a problem with sysfader.exe popping up errors?

Try this : http://beyondteck.blogspot.com/2006/05/how-to-stop-sysfaderexe-error.html

What is sysfader.exe? Is it Spyware? How much memory does it take up? Why does it give error?
Well, no first of all, it is not spyware. In fact it is a part of Windows XP that provides all the so called “cool animation effects”. These include fading menus in and out. Animating windows and so on. Nothing to worry about, unless it is giving you errors. But as a person who uses computers (and yes, I mean computers running Windows) a lot, I recommend that you disable all these extra effects. This in turn is going to make your computer faster and rid of the sysfader.exe problem.

Today I read a couple of e-mail from people telling me that they had an error regarding sysfader.exe. I’m guessing that this might be a common problem for a lot of people, besides the tips mentioned in this post are good for any computer running Windows. Be it Windows XP or Windows Vista (although the instructions for disabling unnecessary effects are different for Vista).

To get rid of this problem all you need to do is this:

1. Press Windows Flag (Windows Key) + Pause break key. If you don’t have the Windows key (most keyboards should have this - right beside the Alt key) just right click on My Computer and click Properties.
2. Go to the ‘Advanced‘ tab
3. Under ‘Performance‘ click on ‘Settings‘
4. Under the ‘Visual Effects‘ tab uncheck the first four check boxes
5. These 4 boxes are “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing“, “Fade or slide menus into view“, “Fade of slide ToolTips into view” and “Fade out menu items after clicking“. Please note that if you are running other localizations of Windows XP (for example Windows XP Portugese) you have to find the options that somewhat describe the options mentioned above, since they might not be the first 4 options.
6. To make your computer even more faster, uncheck other checkboxes for the effects that you feel you can live without, for example “Slide taskbar buttons” etc…
7. Click on ‘OK‘

After doing this the problem with sysfader should instantly go away. And your computer is going to become much more faster without those annoying (at least I find it annoying) effects slowing it down.

After restoring a site to a new URL, its search center wasnt functioning. Its links were all pointing to the old url. I just deleted and recreated it to fix the problem.

Annoying.