World @ Work

SPFeatureReceiver Guidance

2009-07-21T14:21:00.002+12:00

CAUTION! This is starting to become a PET PEEVE of mine!

Features can be managed from stsadm.exe, Site collection features web ui, Site features web ui, console apps, powershell scripts, feature staplers and the list goes on and on.
To make sure your feature receivers work no matter where the feature is being activated from do yourself a favour and keep on reading.

SPFeatureReceiverProperties.Feature.Parent can be many things depending on the scope of your feature and where it's being activated from so please make sure you check before using it. So many times have I found great features in CodePlex that I would like to staple to site definitions or deploy/activate using powershell or other mediums and find I get this.

Value does not fall within the expected range. at ###.###.FeatureReceiver.FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)

For Site Scoped Features

public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) {
SPSite site = properties.Feature.Parent as SPSite;
if (site == null)
{
SPWeb web = properties.Feature.Parent as SPWeb;
if (web != null)
site = web.Site;
}
if(site == null)
return new ArgumentNullException("Can't find a refrence to a site!");
//Or check for parent being a Web app or log it

// Do Stuff
}

For Web Scoped Features
public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) {
SPWeb web = properties.Feature.Parent as SPWeb;
if (web == null)
{
SPSite site = properties.Feature.Parent as SPSite;
if (site != null)
web = site.OpenWeb();
}
if(web == null)
return new ArgumentNullException("Can't find a reference to a web!");
//Or check for parent being a Web app or log it

// Do Stuff
}

You get the idea! (I'll format the code as soon as I'm back on my normal PC)

HRESULT: 0x80040E2F the Why and How

2009-03-26T17:50:00.001+13:00

Just a quick update an why I was getting this error and how we fixed it. By WE I mean my bestest buddy ol' pal Angela Knight. Will post a link to her blog as soon as she starts one!

What it was is a custom Contentype that was based off the OOB Event ContentType with a bunch of custom SiteColumns where the offending SiteColumn was of type lookup. Problem was the custom ContenType was deployed to the SiteCollection level however the look up list was only provisioned at the web level.

So how did Ange fix it?
She removed the offending SiteColumn, Created a Web level ContetType thats based off our custom ContentType that's provisioned after the look up list is. Thus we no longer get the error. See the juicy bits below.

..oops.. out of time will update tomorrow <<such a tease>>

Error Message of the day

2009-03-26T12:05:00.001+13:00

List does not exist

The page you selected contains a list that does not exist. It may have been deleted by another user.

Check out my OOXML Crawler

2009-02-27T18:15:00.001+13:00

All the goodies are right here.

C# PriorityQueue Implementation

2009-02-17T15:58:00.002+13:00

Before I get any more abusive comments. This post is targeted at the 2.0 version of the Framework.

Guess I could of just used a SortedList<T1, T2> implementation in System.Collections.Generic, but I want a PriorityQueue<T>. So here goes.

public class PriorityQueue<T> : SortedList<T, T>
{
    public PriorityQueue()
        : base()
    {
    }

    public PriorityQueue(IComparer<T> comparer)
        : base(comparer)
    {
    }

    //
    // Summary:
    //     Returns the object at the beginning of the System.Collections.Generic.Queue<T>
    //     without removing it.
    //
    // Returns:
    //     The object at the beginning of the System.Collections.Generic.Queue<T>.
    //
    // Exceptions:
    //   System.InvalidOperationException:
    //     The System.Collections.Generic.Queue<T> is empty.
    public T Peek()
    {
        return this.Last().Key;
    }

    //
    // Summary:
    //     Removes and returns the object at the beginning of the System.Collections.Generic.Queue<T>.
    //
    // Returns:
    //     The object that is removed from the beginning of the System.Collections.Generic.Queue<T>.
    //
    // Exceptions:
    //   System.InvalidOperationException:
    //     The System.Collections.Generic.Queue<T> is empty.
    public T Dequeue()
    {
        T item = this.Last().Key;
        this.RemoveAt(this.Count - 1);
        return item;
    }

    //
    // Summary:
    //     Adds an object to the end of the System.Collections.Generic.Queue<T>.
    //
    // Parameters:
    //   item:
    //     The object to add to the System.Collections.Generic.Queue<T>. The value can
    //     be null for reference types.
    public void Enqueue(T item)
    {
        this.Add(item, item);
    }
}

SharePoint and me

2009-01-26T13:19:00.003+13:00

This about sums it up for me,

Peter Jone's "What Is Wrong With SharePoint"

Thank you Peter for an excellent analogy.

HRESULT: 0x80040E2F Why Me?

2009-01-15T15:42:00.002+13:00

How did it happen?

I tried to edit an existing SPListItem through the Web UI.

What now?
I reach for my search bar and find blah blah Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint blah Backup blah Restore.

Shouldn't the API gracefully handle such an error?
Time to dig through the logs.
Event logs say nada but I found the following in SharePoint logs.

     01/13/2009 14:09:52.60     w3wp.exe (0x1670)                           0x1458    Windows SharePoint Services       General                           0    Verbose     Releasing SPRequest with allocation Id {87F373C4-DE0E-4294-8012-85AF991E4A7F}     

   01/13/2009 14:09:52.65     w3wp.exe (0x1670)                           0x1458    Windows SharePoint Services       Database                          6f8g    Unexpected    Unexpected query execution failure, error code 3621. Additional error information from SQL Server is included below. "The statement has been terminated." Query text (if available): "BEGIN TRAN;DECLARE @@iRet INT,@DN nvarchar(256),@LN nvarchar(128),@@S uniqueidentifier,@@Level tinyint,@@DocUIVersion int,@ExtraItemSize bigint;SET @@iRet = 0;SET @@S='73897537-074B-404A-B7FF-814BEF2D21C8';SET @@Level=1;SET @@DocUIVersion = 512;SELECT @ExtraItemSize = 0  EXEC @@iRet = proc_UpdateListItem @SiteId='73897537-074B-404A-B7FF-814BEF2D21C8',@WebId='71DC2E37-8A9D-4FDC-A504-6AA845885ABC', @ListID = '2446D5BB-34F8-4366-8839-B13CB55D24D0', @ItemID=2, @RowOrdinal = 0,@ReturnRowset = 1,@ItemDirName=@DN OUTPUT,@ItemLeafName=@LN OUTPUT,@UserId=2,@TimeNow = '20090113 01:09:52',@MajorVersionsLimit=0,@MajorMinor...     

   tabase                          6f8g    Unexpected    Unexpected query execution failure, error code 3621. Additional error information from SQL Server is included below. "The statement has been terminated." Query text (if available): "BEGIN TRAN;DECLARE @@iRet INT,@DN nvarchar(256),@LN nvarchar(128),@@S uniqueidentifier,@@Level tinyint,@@DocUIVersion int,@ExtraItemSize bigint;SET @@iRet = 0;SET @@S='73897537-074B-404A-B7FF-814BEF2D21C8';SET @@Level=1;SET @@DocUIVersion = 512;SELECT @ExtraItemSize = 0  EXEC @@iRet = proc_UpdateListItem @SiteId='73897537-074B-404A-B7FF-814BEF2D21C8',@WebId='71DC2E37-8A9D-4FDC-A504-6AA845885ABC', @ListID = '2446D5BB-34F8-4366-8839-B13CB55D24D0', @ItemID=2, @RowOrdinal = 0,@ReturnRowset = 1,@ItemDirName=@DN OUTPUT,@ItemLeafName=@LN OUTPUT,@UserId=2,@TimeNow = '20090113 01:09:52',@MajorVersionsLimit=0,@MajorMinor...     

   01/13/2009 14:09:52.65*    w3wp.exe (0x1670)                           0x1458    Windows SharePoint Services       Database                          6f8g    Unexpected    ...VersionsLimit=0, @NewUIVersion = @@DocUIVersion OUTPUT,@Level=@@Level OUTPUT,@IsDocLib=0, @tp_Version = 4, @tp_ContentTypeId = ?, @nvarchar1 = ?, @uniqueidentifier1 = ?, @ntext2 = ?, @nvarchar3 = ?, @nvarchar4 = ?, @nvarchar5 = ?, @datetime1 = ?, @datetime2 = ?, @bit1 = ?, @nvarchar6 = ?, @ntext3 = ?, @nvarchar7 = ?, @nvarchar9 = ?, @bit3 = ?, @nvarchar10 = ?, @ntext4 = ?, @bit4 = ?, @nvarchar11 = ?, @int2 = ?, @int3 = ?, @ntext5 = ?, @int4 = ?, @ntext7 = ?, @nvarchar14 = ?, @ntext8 = ?, @nvarchar15 = ?, @nvarchar16 = ?, @nvarchar17 = ?, @nvarchar18 = ?, @ntext9 = ?, @nvarchar19 = ?, @nvarchar20 = ?, @nvarchar21 = ?, @tp_ContentType = ?, @tp_Modified = ?, @tp_ModerationStatus = ?, @tp_ItemOrder = 200.000000000000, @Size = 720, @ExtraItemSize = @ExtraItemSize ,@CreateItemVersion=1,@ItemName...     

   01/13/2009 14:09:52.65*    w3wp.exe (0x1670)                           0x1458    Windows SharePoint Services       Database                          6f8g    Unexpected    ...=N'2 ,jnkj hgh jk',@acl=0xF3FE000001000000000000000500000002000000FFFFFFFFFFFFFF7F190000006110030C000000001A0000007713830CB00100001B0000007713830CB00100001C0000007713830CB0010000; IF @@iRet <> 0 BEGIN ROLLBACK TRAN; GOTO DONE; END   EXEC @@iRet = proc_RemoveJunctions  @SiteId = '73897537-074B-404A-B7FF-814BEF2D21C8', @DirName = @DN, @LeafName = @LN, @FieldId = '6D58D11E-56A7-48B6-94CC-4F4509383ABA', @Level = @@Level; IF @@iRet <> 0 BEGIN ROLLBACK TRAN; GOTO DONE; END   EXEC @@iRet = proc_InsertJunction  @SiteId = '73897537-074B-404A-B7FF-814BEF2D21C8', @DirName = @DN, @LeafName = @LN, @FieldId = '6D58D11E-56A7-48B6-94CC-4F4509383ABA', @Id = 1, @Ordinal = 0, @Level = @@Level, @UIVersion = @@DocUIVersion; IF @@iRet <> 0 BEGIN ROLLBACK TRAN; GOTO DONE; END  EXEC proc_ClearLinks @@S,@DN,@LN,@@...     

   01/13/2009 14:09:52.65*    w3wp.exe (0x1670)                           0x1458    Windows SharePoint Services       Database                          6f8g    Unexpected    ...Level,'9DA97A8A-1DA5-4A77-98D3-4BC10456E700'; EXEC proc_ClearLinks @@S,@DN,@LN,@@Level,'D48838AB-DFC6-466C-9CA1-24D035222458'; EXEC proc_ClearLinks @@S,@DN,@LN,@@Level,'53EFC938-7A3C-4189-BE2B-DC0A170F3CF4'; EXEC proc_ClearLinks @@S,@DN,@LN,@@Level,'D12572D0-0A1E-4438-89B5-4D0430BE7603'; EXEC proc_ClearLinks @@S,@DN,@LN,@@Level,'1D15282F-976B-44C7-B2F5-614AFBA80CCF'; EXEC proc_ClearLinks @@S,@DN,@LN,@@Level,'33FB1043-4DE8-483F-A6C6-42E02EDB42ED'; EXEC proc_ClearLinks @@S,@DN,@LN,@@Level,'4A7EDDD9-8639-4734-B3A7-2A5446605547'; COMMIT TRAN; DONE: RETURN;"

In here I saw the SQL Error Code 3621 which pretty much says "The statement has been terminated."

Normally I wouldn't be so worried but in this case it now happens a lot with separate items in this list.

Thinking maybe something has become corrupted I've tried a stsadm -o backup and restore into a fresh site collection in a fresh web application using a fresh content database, but hey the issue has been restored into the new site collection.

Any help and or suggestion would be greatly appreciated, what a way to start the new year at work.

On a great note my holiday was "O" for awesome! Chur Chur.

Working with Exchange Web Services

2008-12-04T08:30:00.003+13:00

Before you even start working with any of the EWS make sure you get your hands on a copy of Inside Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 Web Services by David Sterling; Benjamin Spain; Michael Mainer; Mark Taylor; Huw Upshall.
Or at least get the sample code for it from here.
This book has explained many things especially around working with the UpdateItem call and Exchange Impersonation and the double hop problem with Kerberos Authentication.

My ExchangeServiceBinding.UpdateItem Method Wrapper for Calendar Items

2008-12-02T16:06:00.005+13:00

Anyone who's tried to update an item in Exchange using Exchange Web Service (EWS) has felt the pain of the update method. Here is my wrapper as it is today. Will update this as I get more properties I need to update.

/// <summary>
/// Updates the calendar item.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="binding">The binding.</param>
/// <param name="appointment">The appointment.</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public static ItemIdType UpdateCalendarItem(
    ExchangeServiceBinding binding,
    CalendarItemType appointment)
{
    //Category
    SetItemFieldType categoryUpdate = new SetItemFieldType();
    categoryUpdate.Item = new PathToUnindexedFieldType();
    ((PathToUnindexedFieldType)categoryUpdate.Item).FieldURI = UnindexedFieldURIType.itemCategories;
    categoryUpdate.Item1 = new CalendarItemType();
    ((CalendarItemType)categoryUpdate.Item1).Categories = appointment.Categories;

    //Sensitivity
    SetItemFieldType sensitivityUpdate = new SetItemFieldType();
    sensitivityUpdate.Item = new PathToUnindexedFieldType();
    ((PathToUnindexedFieldType)sensitivityUpdate.Item).FieldURI = UnindexedFieldURIType.itemSensitivity;
    sensitivityUpdate.Item1 = new CalendarItemType();
    ((CalendarItemType)sensitivityUpdate.Item1).Sensitivity = appointment.Sensitivity;
    ((CalendarItemType)sensitivityUpdate.Item1).SensitivitySpecified = appointment.SensitivitySpecified;

    //Subject
    SetItemFieldType subjectUpdate = new SetItemFieldType();
    subjectUpdate.Item = new PathToUnindexedFieldType();
    ((PathToUnindexedFieldType)subjectUpdate.Item).FieldURI = UnindexedFieldURIType.itemSubject;
    subjectUpdate.Item1 = new CalendarItemType();
    ((CalendarItemType)subjectUpdate.Item1).Subject = appointment.Subject;

    //Location
    SetItemFieldType locationUpdate = new SetItemFieldType();
    locationUpdate.Item = new PathToUnindexedFieldType();
    ((PathToUnindexedFieldType)locationUpdate.Item).FieldURI = UnindexedFieldURIType.calendarLocation;
    locationUpdate.Item1 = new CalendarItemType();
    ((CalendarItemType)locationUpdate.Item1).Location = appointment.Location;

    //Start
    SetItemFieldType startUpdate = new SetItemFieldType();
    startUpdate.Item = new PathToUnindexedFieldType();
    ((PathToUnindexedFieldType)startUpdate.Item).FieldURI = UnindexedFieldURIType.calendarStart;
    startUpdate.Item1 = new CalendarItemType();
    ((CalendarItemType)startUpdate.Item1).Start = appointment.Start;
    ((CalendarItemType)startUpdate.Item1).StartSpecified = appointment.StartSpecified;

    //End
    SetItemFieldType endUpdate = new SetItemFieldType();
    endUpdate.Item = new PathToUnindexedFieldType();
    ((PathToUnindexedFieldType)endUpdate.Item).FieldURI = UnindexedFieldURIType.calendarEnd;
    endUpdate.Item1 = new CalendarItemType();
    ((CalendarItemType)endUpdate.Item1).End = appointment.End;
    ((CalendarItemType)endUpdate.Item1).EndSpecified = appointment.EndSpecified;

    //IsAllDayEvent
    SetItemFieldType isAllDayEventUpdate = new SetItemFieldType();
    isAllDayEventUpdate.Item = new PathToUnindexedFieldType();
    ((PathToUnindexedFieldType)isAllDayEventUpdate.Item).FieldURI = UnindexedFieldURIType.calendarIsAllDayEvent;
    isAllDayEventUpdate.Item1 = new CalendarItemType();
    ((CalendarItemType)isAllDayEventUpdate.Item1).IsAllDayEvent = appointment.IsAllDayEvent;
    ((CalendarItemType)isAllDayEventUpdate.Item1).IsAllDayEventSpecified = appointment.IsAllDayEventSpecified;

    //Body
    SetItemFieldType bodyUpdate = new SetItemFieldType();
    bodyUpdate.Item = new PathToUnindexedFieldType();
    ((PathToUnindexedFieldType)bodyUpdate.Item).FieldURI = UnindexedFieldURIType.itemBody;
    bodyUpdate.Item1 = new CalendarItemType();
    ((CalendarItemType)bodyUpdate.Item1).Body = appointment.Body;

    ItemChangeType changes = new ItemChangeType();
    changes.Item = appointment.ItemId;

    if (appointment.Recurrence != null)
    {
        //Recurrence
        SetItemFieldType recurrenceUpdate = new SetItemFieldType();
        recurrenceUpdate.Item = new PathToUnindexedFieldType();
        ((PathToUnindexedFieldType)recurrenceUpdate.Item).FieldURI = UnindexedFieldURIType.calendarRecurrence;
        recurrenceUpdate.Item1 = new CalendarItemType();
        ((CalendarItemType)recurrenceUpdate.Item1).Recurrence = appointment.Recurrence;

        changes.Updates = new ItemChangeDescriptionType[] { 
    categoryUpdate, 
    sensitivityUpdate, 
    subjectUpdate, 
    locationUpdate, 
    startUpdate, 
    endUpdate, 
    isAllDayEventUpdate, 
    bodyUpdate, 
    recurrenceUpdate };
    }
    else
    {
        changes.Updates = new ItemChangeDescriptionType[] { 
    categoryUpdate, 
    sensitivityUpdate, 
    subjectUpdate, 
    locationUpdate, 
    startUpdate, 
    endUpdate, 
    isAllDayEventUpdate, 
    bodyUpdate };
    }

    UpdateItemType request = new UpdateItemType();
    request.ConflictResolution = ConflictResolutionType.AlwaysOverwrite;
    request.MessageDisposition = MessageDispositionType.SaveOnly;
    request.SendMeetingInvitationsOrCancellations = CalendarItemUpdateOperationType.SendToNone;
    request.SendMeetingInvitationsOrCancellationsSpecified = true;
    request.ConflictResolution = ConflictResolutionType.AutoResolve;

    request.ItemChanges = new ItemChangeType[] { changes };

    UpdateItemResponseType response = binding.UpdateItem(request);

    // Verify that the UpdateItem request was successful
    if (response.ResponseMessages.Items[0].ResponseClass !=
        ResponseClassType.Success)
    {
        // Indicate that we have a problem
        throw new SyncFailedException(String.Format(
            "Unable to update occurence\r\n{0}\r\n{1}\r\n{2}",
            response.ResponseMessages.Items[0].ResponseCode,
            response.ResponseMessages.Items[0].MessageText,
            Serializer.SerializeObject<UpdateItemType>(request)));
    }

    // Success, get the new id of the recurring master
    ItemInfoResponseMessageType itemInfoResponseMessage =
        (ItemInfoResponseMessageType)response.ResponseMessages.Items[0];

    return itemInfoResponseMessage.Items.Items[0].ItemId;
}

CAML Queries in SharePoint

2008-12-01T20:32:00.006+13:00

There we go. ot even one day into it and I have my first blunder to talk about. I've been using CAML Queries in SharePoint or a while now, they are fast and really easy t use ........ well if you using something like CAML Query Builder.
No idea how many times I've used this now but today it had me stumped. I used it to build me a querry, which I tested and everything worked great ..... until I put it in my code. The it suddenly just returned everything in the list I was running the query on. This took me almost 30 minutes to and another set of eyes to solve.
Huge FYI everyone, when ya copy the query string out of CAML Query Builder DO NOT copy the <query> <\query> tags and the start and end.

Ok you can laugh at me now :D

What I come across at work!

2008-12-01T12:29:00.000+13:00

Hi all,
Ever since I've started working at Intergen, I've been learning a tonne. But on my current project I've been coming across some issues that have been so frustrating I'm starting to question my career as a developer.
Don't get me wrong, I love a challenge but I wouldn't wish this sorta frustration on anyone so in an effort to make this a better world I will share with you everything I find out. From now on anyways :)