Sharepointserver.com

Frequently Asked Questions

Originally FAQ by Gary A. Bushey <gbushey@mindspring.com>

Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to Microsoft's SharePoint Portal Server program. It should be read by anyone who wishes to post questions to the microsoft.public.sharepointportalserver.* newsgroups to see if the question has already been answered.

Last-modified: May 8th, 2002

Version: 1.4

Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server - Frequently Asked Questions List

Most Recent Update: April 24th, 2003

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This posting contains a list of frequently asked questions for Microsoft's SharePoint Portal Server program. You should read this list before posting a question to the newsgroups to see if the question has already been answered.

The information in this document is assumed to be accurate but in no way does the author guarantee this information. In other words, use at your own risk. We have made every effort to provide technically correct information but mistakes can be made.

Note: since this is the first edition of this FAQ I am very interested in comments about layout and arrangement of information.

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Maintainer: Martin Tuip

ajax@sharepointserver.com

What’s New:

Added Determine SP1 installation

Added Errors

Modified Book section

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Index:

1) General

1.1) What is SharePoint Portal Server

1.2) How is this different than SharePoint Team Services

1.3) What resources are available

1.4) What is the licensing scheme?

1.5) How does SharePoint Portal Server compare against xxx

1.6) Are there any books about SharePoint Portal Server?

1.7) What newsgroups are available?

2) Installation and setup

2.1) What are these DCOM errors that I am getting?

2.2) How to determine SP1 is installed

3) General Use

3.1) Can I store yyy document type

3.2) Can I search yyy documents

3.3) Office 2000 or Office XP

3.4) Emails not sending

3.5) What role does an Approver need?

3.6) What is the "M" drive and how do I map it?

3.7) How do I Backup and Restore SharePoint?

3.8) How do I use Personal dashboards?

3.9) How do I reclaim unused disk space?

3.10) The icon for document type X does not show in the Document Library, can I add it?

4) Programming

4.1) Can users minimize/maximize/remove web parts

4.2) Sorting of News/Announcements/Quick Links

4.3) Modifying SharePoint's programs

4.4) What is the “applications” folder

4.5) Office 2000 developer versus Office XP developer

4.6) Are there any resources for programming SharePoint Portal Server?

4.7) Are there any books for SharePoint Portal Server?

4.8) What are subdashboards and how do I create them?

4.9) Does there exist a webpart where users can have threaded discussions and post messages to?

5) Errors

5.1) Why do I get the error 80150804, "The start address \\.\backofficestorage\localhost\... cannot be accessed"?

Acknowledgements

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1.1) What is SharePoint Portal Server?

“SharePoint combines the ability to quickly create corporate web portals with search functions, document management features and collaboration options. SharePoint is tightly integrated with the tools most widely used. Microsoft Windows Explorer, Microsoft Office Applications, and browsers to help you create, manage and share content throughout your organization” (Microsoft SharePoint Evaluation Guide)

1.2) How is this different than SharePoint Team Services

The best discussion of this topic is located at:

http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/evaluation/overview/technologies.asp

1.3) What resources are available?

The best place to start is the SharePoint Portal Server home page, located at:

http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/

others are http://www.sharepointserver.com and http://www.sharepointcode.com

1.4) What is the licensing scheme?

Currently SharePoint Portal Server (SPS) uses a Client Access License (CAL) scheme. This means that each and every user needs to have a CAL in order to use SPS. It does not matter if the user uses the Web Folder or the Portal interface, they still need a CAL.

The Server License is listed at $3,999 per server (not per processor) and $72/CAL. The actual cost for the Server License and CAL varies depending on your licensing agreement with Microsoft. Contact your Microsoft representative for your actual cost.

1.5) How does SharePoint Portal Server compare against xxx?

I have not found any good comparisons between SharePoint and other systems in the market. Please Email me if there are any.

1.6) Are there any books about SharePoint Portal Server?

Yes there are. Check the book section on this site. Also various book publishing web sites have some listed that should be published soon.

1.7) What newsgroups are available?

Well, of course, this one. Microsoft has setup a news server (msnews.microsoft.com) that has a wide selection. Currently the ones that exist and are actively monitored by MVPs are:

microsoft.public.sharepoint.portalserver

microsoft.public.sharepoint.portalserver.development

In addition, these other newsgroups may have useful information:

microsoft.public.digitaldashboard

microsoft.public.webstoragesystem.development

microsoft.public.webstoragesystem.sdk.eng

There is also a SharePoint Portal Server maillist at Yahoogroups.com. To subscribe to this list send a blank email to:

sharepoint-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

As a third option there are forums dedicated to Sharepoint for those who feel more comfortable posting in forums. Check http://www.sharepointserver.com/forum

2) Installation and setup

See “Setup Issues FAQ” by Rich Woods

2.1) What are these DCOM errors I am getting?

At times you may see this error when starting SharePoint Portal Server: “Access denied attempting to launch a DCOM Server.” This is a benign error and can be ignored.

2.2) How to determine SP1 is installed

There are two ways to determine this:

1. Open up Control Panel. Open Add/Remove Programs, select Sharepoint Portal Server, and click on the hyperlink that says "Support Information". If the version number is 10.145.4629 then SP1 HAS been applied.

If your version number is lower than this then Sharepoint has not been Service Packed.

2. The other way to identify if a system is running RTM vs SP1 is to look at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SharePoint Portal Server\CurrentVersion. If the version is 10.145.3914 then you have RTM. If the version is 10.145.4629 you have SP1.

3.1) Can I store yyy document type

You can store any document type that you want to in SharePoint Portal Server. However, out of the box, only Microsoft Office Documents, Text Files, and HTML files can have their internal information indexed. There is also a filter for Tagged Information Files (tif) that will index only the associated file properties. See section 3.2 for more information.

There is an Optical Character Recognition program that is turned off by default that will allow you to translate the file into a readable format. However this is resource intensive.

3.2) Can I search yyy documents

Out of the box, only Microsoft Office Documents, Text Files, and HTML files can have their internal information indexed. However, any metadata associated with any document type is always searchable. In addition, programs called "IFilters" can be written by third party vendors to allow the indexing of other file types. Some known "IFilters" are for Adobe PDF files, WordPerfect files, XML files, and RTF files. More are being written all the time and this is by no means a complete list. Contact the vendor of the particular file type in question to see if there is an "IFilter" written for that file type.

3.3) How does Office 2000 or Office XP come into play?

If you use Office 2000, you can install the SharePoint Portal Server client program so that your Office programs can work more closely with SharePoint Portal Server. In addition to being able to access your data through the web folders, you can check-in, check-out, and publish directly from your Office program. If you are using OfficeXP, this software is automatically loaded.

3.4) Emails not sending

The first thing to check is to make sure that you have the SMTP server filled in correctly. In order to do that, start the "SharePoint Portal Server Administration" program (from the start button, select "Programs" and "Administrative Tools". Right click on the server and select "Properties". On the "General" tab is a place for the SMTP server. Make sure it is filled in correctly.

If it is, double check that the SMTP service is running on the server. If not start it.

If the service is running, try using a different server. If you are using Exchange, try using that computer.

3.5) What role do Approvers need?

An Approver does not need any other role (i.e. Reader, Author, or Coordinator) in order to approve or reject a document. SharePoint Portal Server will automatically give the Approver the needed access. If they do not have any other access, then they will not be able to do anything else with the document.

3.6) What is the "M" drive and how do I get map it?

The "M" drive is a way to access the SharePoint Portal Server's Web Storage System via the Window's Explorer. In contrast, the Web Folder only allows you to access individual workspaces.

To map the "M" drive, run the following command from the Command Prompt "subst m: \\.\backofficestorage". If you already have a "M" drive mapped, use a different letter.

If you wish to always have this drive mapped, you will need to make the following change to the registry.

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\EXIFS\Parameters

set the "DriveLetter" to "M" or whatever drive letter you wish.

DO NOT set security of anything under the workspaces folder using the M drive, or attempt to use the M drive to access anything inside the workspaces folder. The only use for this drive is to access the Applications folder for development, or as specified in documentation or instructions from MS. Using M drive to set security on workspace contents or access workspace contents (except read-only), is likely to break your server.

It is HIGHLY recommend the answer to any question about the M drive is to see
http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/techinfo/deployment, open the document titled “ Installing SharePoint Portal Server” and refer to appendix B.

3.7) How do I Backup and Restore SharePoint?

To backup you ENTIRE SharePoint Portal Server (currently there is no way to backup a single workspace), start a Command Prompt and go to "C:\Program Files\SharePoint Portal Server\bin" (if you installed SharePoint Portal Server in drive other than "C", replace the drive letter accordingly). From that directory run:

cscript msdmback.vbs -b <filename>

Where <filename> is the location and name of the file (i.e. "C:\backupdir\SPSBack.bak")

To restore the file, open a command prompt and go to the same directory as above. Run the following command:

cscript msdbmback.vbs -r <filename>

NOTE: The restore process will overwrite any existing workspaces on your system with those that are stored in the file. When the process is complete, you will have an exact duplicate of server you ran the backup from.

3.8) How do I use Personal dashboards (security of "Dashboard" folder)

Out of the box, personal dashboards must be setup by a Coordinator. To create a new one, go to the “Management” tab and click the link labeled “Create a new personal dashboard”.

There you can enter the name of the dashboard, a caption, and a description. If this dashboard is for a user, you must then give them Coordinator rights to the folder which is created under the “Dashboards” folder.

3.9) How do I reclaim unused disk space?

If you have deleted some workspaces from your server, you may notice that the backup files are still the same size. In order to reduce the size you need to reclaim the unused disk space. Here are the steps as taken from the “Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server Administrator’s Help” file.

On the taskbar, click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
Type net stop MSExchangeIS
Navigate to \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Storage System\BIN.
Type eseutil /d “path\wss.mdb”
where path points to the location of wss.mdb. For example, if you installed the data files for SharePoint Portal Server on C:\Program Files\SharePoint Portal Server\Data, type eseutil /d “C:\Program Files\SharePoint Portal Server\Data\Web Storage System\wss.mdb”
Type net start MSExchangeIS

3.10) The icon for document type X does not show in the Document Library, can I add it?

Yes. All you need is a 16x16 picture of the icon saved as a gif file. Copy the file into the “Portal\resources\docTypeIcons” folder and rename the file “zzz16.gif” where “zzz” represents the document extension. For example, if I have a document that gets stored with the extension “gab” then the filename for the icon would be “gab16.gif”

4.1) Can users minimize/maximize/remove web parts?

No. Only Coordinators have this ability. Since there is no personalization of the dashboards under SharePoint Portal Server a change that one person makes is seen by all the other users. If one person were to remove a web part, it would disappear for everyone.

4.2) How do I change the sort order in News/Announcements/Quick Links?

If you click on the "Content" tab of the dashboard where the web part is located, and then on the web part name, you are presented with the web part's properties. Click on the link labeled "Show Advanced Settings". Near the bottom of the page is a list box labeled "Store the following data for this Web Part:". The second line defaults to '"DAV:getlastmodified" DESC' which means that this web part will be sorted by the last modified date and in descending order.

You can change the "DAV:getlastmodified" to "DAV:href" to sort by the URL, "DAV:displayname" to sort by the filename, "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Description" to sort by the description, or "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Title" to sort by the title.

You can also change the DESC to be ASC to sort in ascending order.

4.3) How do I modify SharePoint's programs?

First, if you change any file located under the "Portal/resources" folder other than “catalogs.xml” or “DashboardExtensions.vbs” Microsoft will no longer support your installation.

With that said, in order to fully understand the files that make up SharePoint Portal Server you will need to know VBScript, XML, XSLT, JavaScript, ASP, and HTML.

All the files are located under the “Portal/resources” directory.

4.4) What is the “applications” folder?

SharePoint Portal Server’s Web Storage System is separated into two parts, the “workspaces” folder and the “applications” folder. The “workspaces” folder contains all the information that make up each of the workspaces including one folder for each workspace created on the server.

The “applications” folder also has one folder for each workspace and this is where you would place your code for the event sinks and workflows.

4.5) Should I use Office 2000 developer or Office XP developer?

My personal preference is to use Office XP developer if you can. Office 2000 developer allows you to create workflows for SharePoint Portal Server while Office XP developer allows you to create both workflows and digital dashboards.

4.6) Are there any resources for programming SharePoint Portal Server?

There is a software development kit that can be download from the SharePoint Portal Server’s homepage. In addition, a newsgroup titled “Microsoft.public.sharepointserver.sdk.eng” has been created to answer questions about this SDK.

4.7) Are there any books for SharePoint Portal Server?

Yes there are. Check the book section on this site. Also various book publishing web sites have some listed that should be published soon.

4.8) What are subdashboards and how do I create them?

Subdashboards allow you to create your own dashboards in addition to the ones provided by Microsoft (Home, Search, Categories, etc…). This is a way to provide web parts in a more logical grouping. You could create subdashboards for different departments or groups.

To create a subdashboard you need to have Coordinator rights. First go to the dashboard where you want the subdashboard to be created. Note that if you create a subdashboard under the “Home” tab, it will show up along with the other dashboards (, Search, Categories, etc…), but if you create a subdashboard under any other dashboard (or subdashboard) it will only show when the parent dashboard has been selected and it will show up as a listing under the parent’s dashboard.

There is no limit to the number of subdashboards that you create but keep in mind that only the parent dashboard and its subdashboards will show at any time. Therefore if you have a subdashboard named “A” created under the “Search” dashboard and subdashboard “A” has a child subdashboard named “B” then you will either see the “Search” dashboard and its child “A” or the subdashboard “A” and its child “B”.

Once you have selected the dashboard (or subdashboard) where you want the child subdashboard to be created, select the “Content” link and then at the bottom of the page select “Create a SubDashboard”. From there you can fill in the information you would normally see under settings and save your subdashboard.

4.8) Does there exist a webpart where users can have threaded discussions and post messages to?

SharePoint Portal Server does not offer general discussions out of the box. Discussions are centered around documents. For more information about document based discussions in SharePoint, please refer to the SPS User Guide. Several free ASP based forum solutions are available from the Internet. The easiest (and probably best) forum available is available from http://forum.snitz.com. It offers threaded discussions, integrated Windows security and quick setup. A web part can be created to point to the forum and integrated onto a dashboard.

5.1) Why do I get the error 80150804, "The start address \\.\backofficestorage\localhost\... cannot be accessed"?

This is a known problem related to the startup of IIS and Sharepoint Portal Server at boot time. IIS starts before SPPS and therefore cannot access this path. It is a benign error and can be ignored. Restarting IIS will make the error go away.

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