Using external list to building screens for users to CRUD and adding search filters

When the external content type is created, the filters can be added in the read list operation. If you create a site page and add the Business Data List web part, the filters will be shown automatically for users to be able to search. However, the search functions created are really hard to use. The below article show a step by step guide to build a custom filter screen on top of the list web part, which can be customized and easier to use.

http://arsalkhatri.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/external-list-with-bcs-search-filters-finders/

Also many times users will want to be able to just press enter to be able to search, so I added the key press event for the button as well,

  var body = document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0];
  body.onkeydown = function (e) {
        if (window.event.keyCode === 13) { 
ApplySearchFilters();
        }
  }

And when I tried to add the wild search for a field which is not null in database, do not use Ignore filter if Value is Null. Instead, just check the Custom value radio button, it will work.

For all other fields with nullable fields, Null is fine.

Add user as term store administrators from powershell

To be able to import the data into the term store, the user has to have the permission to do it, which is set in the "Managed metadata web service" service application.

Also it can be easily done in power shell as such,

$taxonomySession = Get-SPTaxonomySession -Site "http://localhost"
$termStore = $taxonomySession.TermStores["Managed Metadata Web Service Proxy"]
$termStore.AddTermStoreAdministrator("administrator")
$termStore.CommitAll()

SharePoint View BCD List get the error "Login failed for user "NT AUTHORITY\ANONYMOUS LOGON"

The reason is the BDC is created from SharePoint designer and the authentication mode is set to "Connect with user's identity"

If enable the BDC with RevertToSelf to true, then the authentication mode can be set to "BDC identity"

Run the following PS command to set the BDC RevertToSelfAllowed to true.

$bdc = Get-SPServiceApplication | where { $_ -match "Business Data Connectivity Service" }
$bdc.RevertToSelfAllowed =$true
$bdc.Update()

Sharepoint show detailed error message

To show a detailed error message, the site web.config needs to be modified with the following things,
1. CustomErrors = Off
2. CallStack = true
3. Debug=true

However, it is still possible to hit the following screen,

 

There is another web.config in _layouts folder need to be modified as well,

 

 

SharePoint customization content types reference links

During customization in SharePoint solution development, it is always be nice to have a reference in hand to know all the field types and re

SharePoint 2010 field types reference
http://koenvosters.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/available-field-types-in-sharepoint-2010/

Many small things that nice to know in SharePoint 2010

Variation Label - used for language locale.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/about-variation-labels-HA010120731.aspx

For List columns performance, need to create indexed list column. This article discusses the database behind the indexed column.
http://blog.dynatrace.com/2009/01/28/sharepoint-list-performance-how-list-column-indices-really-work-under-the-hood/

Feature stapling is a good way to associate the feature to a site definition which is in use, such as Team Site. It has stapler and staplee.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kunal_mukherjee/archive/2011/01/11/feature-stapling-in-sharepoint-2010.aspx

SharePoint 2013/2010 claims encoding

Just a wiki document clearly explains the sharepoint user ID meaning, such as
i:0#.w|contoso\chris as my reference.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/13921.sharepoint-2013-and-sharepoint-2010-claims-encoding.aspx

SharePoint branding 2010 - reference links

http://bniaulin.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/my-sharepoint-branding-series-on-nothingbutsharepoint/

https://www.nothingbutsharepoint.com/sites/eusp/Pages/Brand-SharePoint-SharePoint-Home-Page-CSS-Reference.aspx

https://www.nothingbutsharepoint.com/sites/eusp/Pages/SharePoint-Farmer-Joes-Team-Site-Put-that-in-your-Content-Editor.aspx

http://sharepointexperience.com/csschart/csschart.html

User Profile Service in SharePoint 2010

Just tried the user profile service in SharePoint 2010, this is the basic to build the my site as community site. Here is the complete guide to setup all the farm account and permissions. In my dev environment, everything is installed in the same virtual machine, basically the first and the most important step is to start the User Profile Synchronization Service, which is in stopped state by default installation.

Go to Central Admin -> system settings -> Managed Service on Server,

The User Profile synchronizaiton service should be disabled, click on start to start the service. And it will provision FIM services and after a long time wait (5-10mins),  you will be able to use configure synchronization connections to configure AD connection and start importing user profiles.

Hopefully later on we can continue to see how the UPS and the new community site in SharePoint 2013.
In 2013, there is another ADImport mode which only imports from active directory. You can switch between Adimport mode and UPS synchronization mode. Also you don't need the User profile synchronization service to manage the synchronization. It is moved to user profile service.

Disable Loop back if getting the "access denied, verify either the default content access" error

Disable Loopback

Issue: File share Crawl on file:\\localhost\document has ab error with "access is denied, verify either the default content access ...."

Solution: Set DisableLoopbackCheck to "1" in Registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa

Update: Disable loopback is also needed for creating apps in sharepoint hosted, when tried to register its own domain.

When the sharepoint web service is called, you may get the access is denied error.

Also after this is done, need to restart the server for it to be effective.