Monthly Archives: May 2013

Unable to open SharePoint Online document library in File Explorer

Introduction

SharePoint features a very useful function that enables users to open a document library as if it is a normal folder inside File Explorer. This would give the user access to normal file operations such as copy, move etc.

fileexplorer-english

Look and feel of Open with Explorer in SharePoint 2013 in English

fileexplorer-swedish

Look and feel of Öppna med Utforskaren in SharePoint 2010 in Swedish

Issue

When using Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 10 to open a document library the following error message appears and the library does not open in File Explorer:

fileexplorer-errormsg-english

We’re having a problem opening this location in File Explorer. Add this web site to your Trusted Sites list and try again.

A similar error message in Swedish:

fileexplorer-errormsg-swedish

Klienten har inte stöd för att öppna den här listan med Utforskaren.

Solution

Update: There is now a hotfix available at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2846960 that should solve the issue for Windows 7 and IE10.

Not really…

At the moment this is a known issue with Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 7. The suggestion from Microsoft is to de-install IE10 and use an earlier version. Another option would be to upgrade to Windows 8.

Unfortunately my current PC (HP EliteBook 8540w) does not support Windows 8, and Internet Explorer 9 isn’t really an option anymore.

Read more at the Microsoft support site: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2835527

More supporting information here: How to use the “Open with Explorer” command and how to troubleshoot issues with this option in SharePoint Online – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2629108

This is posted as a follow up to my post on how to get explorer view to work in SharePoint 2010: https://www.stefanjohansson.org/2012/01/how-to-get-explorer-view-to-work-in-sharepoint-2010/ – obviously this won’t cut it in the above scenario.

Recertified as MCT for 2013

According to Microsoft, the Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCT’s) are the premier technical and instructional experts on Microsoft technologies, and are the only individuals authorized to deliver training with Microsoft Official Courses.

I have been certified as MCT and delivered Microsoft Official Courses since 2009.

Since the requirements are getting more and more stringent for every year and the MCT certification requires both the technical certifications to be current and the student feedback to be above bar I am very happy to announce that this is the 5th year I am certified as a MCT.

The 2013 certification also brings a nifty new look to the logo and certificates.

While I’m still in Sweden I deliver my training through Addskills, the leading training provider in Sweden. Contact me if you are interested in participating in a session or would like to discuss custom training sessions.

I am also available for mentoring and custom training for both BI and SharePoint and for certification preparation work.

Workarounds for problems using Jetpack and https on Azure Websites

This is a follow up post on: Moving the blog to azure web sites: https://www.stefanjohansson.org/2013/05/moving-the-blog-to-azure-websites/

2013-07-09: Update 2 – As of Version 2.3.1 the Jetpack plugin and the WordPress cloud have  been updated to support more SSL scenarios. Jetpack should now work without issues and configuration changes. The post below is still valid for other connected systems that doesn’t like mismatched SSL certificates.

Introduction

One key feature missing from Azure Web Sites is the possibility to run your own SSL certificate for encrypted https traffic.

2013-06-03: Update 1 – https, SSL and certificates for custom domain names are now launched and available (for sites running in “reserved mode”) – read more here: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/common-tasks/enable-ssl-web-site/ The information below still applies in case you don’t want to use a reserved mode site.

This pretty much disables it for any real business use whatsoever.

Every single professional I have spoken with regarding this have chosen alternate solutions for their projects and tests. As usual a key problem here is no official words on availability and firm delivery dates to relate to. Finding a blog post or discussion thread where someone says it might be available as a feature in the future just doesn’t enable project budgets to be spent on Azure Web Sites even for tests and explorations.

Continue reading

SharePoint 2013 and Office 2013 launch seminar at Microsoft

On May 17th (2013) we held a very successful seminar as part of the launch and roll out of the SharePoint 2013 and Office 2013 family. The event took place at Microsoft Sweden’s newly renovated office just north of Stockholm.

StefanAtMicrosoftSeminar17thMay2013

Photo by Björn Nylander

The event focused on the new capabilities for BI in SharePoint 2013, SQL Server 2012 and Office 2013 and looked at the possibilities of the platform from a strategic ROI point of view.

geoflow_demo

 

GeoFlow demo

The main part of the seminar was my presentation and demonstration of the Solver BI Framework that enables BI in SharePoint 2013 to live in a structured platform with plenty of information about report and system status, integrated news and much more. We also showcased the new GeoFlow 3D data visualization (download here) features of Excel 2013 that was very well received.

powerview_demo

 

Power View demo

More information on the Microsoft Business Intelligence start page here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bi/default.aspx

If you are interested in the materials from the seminar or if you would like to see the seminar contents or demonstration, please contact me.

Unable to create folder in SharePoint 2013 library

1-aspx_debug_error

This error, “Sorry, something went wrong. The aspx_debug attribute on the page directive is not allowed in this page” occurs when trying to create a folder in some types of document libraries, such as the Report Document Library used for SQL Server Reporting Services report documents in SharePoint 2013.

The error comes from some bad /Upload.aspx files that are used by SharePoint 2013.

identifying the upload file for a Report Document Library gives us this standard file path:

C:Program FilesCommon Filesmicrosoft sharedWeb Server Extensions15TEMPLATEFEATURESReportsAndDataListTemplatesReportDocumentLibraryUpload.aspx

The standard contents:

3-upload_aspxfile

By updating the contents with something that makes more sense we can get the folder creation feature to work again:

workingfilecontents

Do note that all page directives needs to go, and we need to update the UIVersion property from 15 to 4 otherwise we just get new exciting errors.

Continue reading

Moving the blog to Azure Web Sites

This weekend an issue with another website running in the same tenant as this blog made the whole system go down. This episode made me finally spend some time moving the blog to Azure Websites. It should be running fine and exactly as before, but if you find anything out of the ordinary or not working, please let me know.

The earlier host was LAMP-based so I had to do some changes to get everything working as before:

1, I had to upload a web.config file to support pretty links and remove the need for index.php in the url. More information here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9965124/how-to-rewrite-the-index-php-of-codeigniter-on-windows-azure

and here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks#Permalinks_without_mod_rewrite

2, I had to trick Jetpack into working properly since there was an error message about a self signed certificate that made the whole thing go overboard: http://www.tpateman.co.uk/reboot/error-activating-jetpack-plugin/

Apart from that there was just the usual parts, update the dns configuration to support the new dns name in Azure (https://www.stefanjohansson.org/2012/12/how-to-configure-custom-dns-names-for-multiple-subdomain-based-azure-web-sites/), update the dns to point to the new host, migrate the content from the old host to the new and make sure everything was still configured as before.

While doing all of that I also managed to learn about the Core Control plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/core-control/),

I also updated a few posts with manual Excerpts so that the posts displayed on the front page are truncated and a sticky post about migrating to Australia…

Update 2013-05-20: I have explored the JetPack issues some more and describe it here:  https://www.stefanjohansson.org/2013/05/workarounds-for-problems-using-jetpack-and-https-on-azure-websites/