Author Archives: Stefan Johansson

Update to Create Time Dimension App

I have published an update to the Create Time Dimension Application for Excel that includes a new Date Integer Id column (in the format 20130616 for June 16, 2013) and Dutch language support.

The update is made on the server so it is available for everyone right away, no update needed on the Excel/Client side.

Big thanks to Frederik Vandeputte (Web: http://www.vandeputte.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/frederikvdp) for suggesting the id column and helping with the Dutch translations.

Screenshot: Updated app UI with the Dutch language choice

Unable to open SharePoint Online document library in File Explorer

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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.

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

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:

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:

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

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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 5^th 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

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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.

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SharePoint 2013 and Office 2013 launch seminar at Microsoft

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On May 17^th (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.

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

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.

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

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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:

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

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.

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Moving the blog to Azure Web Sites

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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/

Lönar sig en investering i Business Intelligence?

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Den 17de maj pratar jag om och demonstrerar verksamhetsnyttan i en investering i Microsofts BI plattform under ett seminarie på Microsoft.

In English: On May 17th I will present and demonstrate the business value of an investment in the Microsoft BI platform.

Mer information på Solvers hemsida: http://sj.la/12JLaiH

Mer information på Microsofts CloudFacts-sida: http://sj.la/YTDYfG

Mer information:

Solver demonstrerar verksamhetsnyttig BI med Microsoft Office 2013 och Sharepoint 2013

Fråga: Hur får min personal tillgång till och möjlighet att förstå och analysera både företagets och sina personliga nyckeltal (KPI)
Svar: – Vi visar effektiva sätt att få tillgång till och analysera de viktigaste nyckeltalen genom intranätets BI-portal

Fråga: Som ansvarig för IT har jag tillstyrkt stora investeringar i avtal med Microsoft, hur drar jag nytta av dessa?
Svar: – Vi visar upp olika exempel hur dessa investeringar kan utvecklas till en verksamhetsanpassad informations- och BI-lösning med standardprodukter från Microsoft

Agenda:
– Kort om Solver
– Microsoft BI, en översikt
– Demonstrationer

Seminarieinformation
När? – Fredagen den 17 maj 8.00 – 10.00 (registrering och kaffe 08.00 – 08.30)
Var? – Microsoft, Finlandsgatan 36, Kista
Anmälan? – Maila din anmälan till bjorn.nylander@solver.se eller ring Björn Nylander på 08-24 88 00 för att boka ditt deltagande. O.S.A senast 10 maj. Seminariet är kostnadsfritt men begränsat till 40 deltagare.
Välkommen!

Migrating to TFS, Team Foundation Service

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As part of the Easter holiday time abundance I am migrating some projects to the TFS service at http://tfs.visualstudio.com/. This is part of the evaluation to see if it works for some of the more complex scenarios we face when developing BI solutions.

Once a project is created the following message greets the creator:

“Your project is created and your team is going to absolutely love this.”

So at least we are off to a good start.

Excel Services: Unable to process the request. Wait a few minutes and try performing this operation again.

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Error

This error message appeared in a SharePoint 2010 farm/environment when trying to use Excel Services to display a Excel spreadsheet in SharePoint 2010.

Screenshot in English: Excel. Unable to process the request. Wait a few minutes and try performing this operation again.

Screenshot in Swedish: Excel. Det går inte att behandla begäran. Vänta några minuter innan du försöker utföra den här åtgärden igen.

After reviewing the Events and log files and finding error messages such as theese:

Event Viewer: Event 5239, Excel Services Application. There was an error in communicating with Excel Calculation Service (server address on port 32843, standard port for web services address ending with /ExcelService*.asmx) exception: The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a receive.

Issue

The issue was that the web site used for the SharePoint Web Services had the ASP.NET Impersonation Authentication method enabled.

Solution

The solution is to disable the ASP.NET Impersonation again.

Go to IIS Manager (Start, Administrative Tools, Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager). Expand the Sites node on the server running the Excel Services Service Application. Choose the Authentication icon in the IIS area. Choose ASP.NET Impersonation in the list and disable it using the action link on the right hand side.

Screenshot: IIS Manager, Authentication settings for the SharePoint Web Services.

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