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Frequently Asked Questions about SharePointâ„¢ Team Services (brought to you by Mike Walsh, Helsinki, Finland).
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I
What is SharePoint Team Services?
SharePoint Team Services (STS) is a quick way to provide a web site to enable a project team / department to store and categorize its documents and links in one physical location and to find them easily. It also provides limited announcement, contact and discussions possibilities for the team / department.http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/sharepoint/fastfacts.htm
1
I
What is the difference between STS and SharePoint Portal Server (SPS)?
For each company you are likely to have one SPS site for several (maybe hundreds) STS sites.

The documents available via an STS site have been saved into the site by the users of that site. The documents available via SPS have been stored into any number of different places (network resources; Exchange Public Folders; Lotus Notes databases; etc.) and SPS goes out and searches for them before providing links to them for its users.

SPS is customized by the use of WebParts. STS is customized with the STS user interface; FrontPage and by editing XML and HTML etc code.
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?id=kb;en-us;Q288272
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II
What is the best way to install STS?
II.1 What is the best way to install STS ?

STS is available in three forms. There is a separate STS CDROM; STS is included with FrontPage 2002 and STS is included with all Office XP versions that include FrontPage which will probably mean the Developer Edition; the version of Office XP Professional that is included with an MSDN subscription and possibly your company's Microsoft subscription copy.

The best way seems to be to install SPTS from the Office XP (as above) CDROM. The Service Pack 1 for Office XP includes at least one vital amendment to STS (a working Migration). There is no Service Pack for the stand-alone version.

It is possible to install STS from the Office XP CDROM without the need to install Office XP or FrontPage.

(Note: Some people have had problems when Service Pack 1 is run on a machine with only STS)

(I have however with success installed a standard Office SP1 over a Finnish language STS where no Office apps have been installed.The only problem was that the pop-up saying it was complete/Press OK was almost entirely under a similar pop-up showing that the update was only half-way through. Watch out for this !)

Note: You still need - for licensing reasons - to assign one of the above products solely to the server even if you only install STS and not FP or Office XP. See below.

Note: KnowledgeBase Q312543 lists the STS bits amended by the Office XP SP1.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q312543
1
III
I have installed STS. What next?
The first thing to do is to learn how to use the "Microsoft SharePoint Administrator" and the STS User Interface.

Note: People who come from a FrontPage background seem to want to use FrontPage for everything. They shouldn't.
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1
IV
What are the main skills I need to customize an STS web site?
When you first start customizing you should use the User Interface provided by STS. With this you can change the document libraries visible on the home page; add document libraries; add fields (columns) to document libraries; provide views of document libraries etc.

For the next level of customizing you will need to amend the html files used in the site itself. For this you can use Notepad; HTML editors etc. and also FrontPage. For some amendments FrontPage is advantageous (and perhaps necessary).

Similar tools are needed to amend the files in the template section. Amendments here will affect all sites created later and therefore amendments to the template files need to be done with great care (with copies made etc.). Be 100% sure you know what you are doing before amending these files !

Finally, the template section also includes XML files. When amending these it is useful to use an XML Editor. This is even more dangerous than amending normal template (html) files, so amend these only when really necessary. Note that the use of FP and Notepad is not recommended for XML files - Notepad has been reported as adding code at the beginning of the .xml file that can cause problems.

Probably the best (if you can get hold of a cheap back version; or afford the latest version) editor for XML files is "XML Spy" but people have also reported using Textpad successfully.
1
IV
How do I customize using Front Page?
It is very important that if you use FrontPage to amend a web page (for instance the start page default.thm) that you do it the correct way.

The correct way is to start Front Page and then "Open Web". This will take you to "My Network Places" where you either have; or can set up a link to your web site. Open this web site then navigate through this until you get to default.htm. (You'll Open the Web Site then click on Folders).

Then make amendments to default.htm and save.

The incorrect way is to access the default.htm page via File Open. Changes made to default.htm will often mean that the page is not opened correctly on your Web site (usually corrected by using the User Interface to amend the default.htm file (II.5.1.). Trying to amend the file this way is no easier than the right way and causes you grief. Don't do it !
2
IV
What can I sensibly customize using Front Page?
You can move the SharePoint logo file from the links section to the heading section (leaves more room in the Links column); add your own graphics; change the name from "Home" to something else; amend the width of the columns; sort the quick links; change the fields visible on the default page for the document libraries. Most of these are easy to do there follow a couple of the more difficult changes.
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IV
How do I change the fields visible in a document library?
Open the web and then the default.htm in FrontPage.

Select the document library you want to change and then right-click Choose 'Layout Customization View'

Select the field you want to replace (note that the first row is the title (description) row; the second the data row. I.e. to change the field and change its heading you need to replace both)

Select the field name and then right-click. Select list field and choose a new field. Click OK.

When you've finished your changes Save and Exit. DO NOT choose "Live Data View" as this will remove all your changes.
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1
V
Microsoft papers
The Help file delivered with the product is over simplistic and useful for about five minutes.
 
The SDK is by contrast very detailed and will be useful for a long time. The examples are good but there are not enough of them. (The items the examples cover are listed in FAQ2 as"III.10.1 What questions are answered by the Examples in the SDK ?")
 
 (one line)
 
Microsoft has other useful documents on their web site (mostly in TechNet).
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/sharepnt/default.asp
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1
II
What are the main parts of STS?
STS consists of three main sets of files.

a) template files

b) web site files

c) database files
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II
Where is STS installed by default?
Template files are always installed on the same drive as the operating system (typically C:\ Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web
Server Extensions\50\Templates).

Web Site Files are by default installed on the same drive as the operating system (typically C:\Inetpub\wwwroot).

Database files for a default installation (see II.4) are installed in C:\MSSQL7.
http://www.collutions.com/Lists/FAQ/DispForm.htm?ID=16
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II
What are my database alternatives?
You can choose between three alternatives.

a) MSDE is default and is a cut-down version of SQL Server

b) SQL Server version 7

c) SQL Server 2000
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II
How do I select the database to be used?
If you already have a database system (i.e. SQL Server 7 or 2000) installed, an STS installation will use that.

If you don't have a database system already installed, SPTS will install by default MSDE.

If you don't want to use MSDE, you can either first install SQL Server 7 or 2000 before installing STS, OR you can install STS using the /nd parameter (no database) i.e. setupse.exe /nd and then later install SQL Server 7 or 2000.
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1
II
Why shouldn't I simply use the default MSDE ?
Microsoft have (in this newsgroup) stated that you should use MSDE for up to ca. 5 users. This comes from the MS STS Performance paper (II.18.1) which states that "MSDE is throttled for about five concurrent users".

Brian Moran said in a recent SQL Server newsletter that "A query governer limits database performance when MSDE executes more than 5 batches concurrently, database size is limited to 2GB and the engine lacks GUI administration tools" (so you have to use SQL Server tools (or similar) which is probably against the licensing rules for them).

MS also says in the Performance paper that MSDE is "fine for small workgroups" which seems to be in conflict with the previous 5 limit. The answer is that the 5 figure is concurrent users and the small workgroup presumably consists of more users that do not all access the site at the same time.

If you are going to be serious about using STS company-wide you should probably be looking at SQL Server.

For a new installation I would go for SQL Server 2000 simply because it is newer and will be supported by Microsoft for longer.
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II
How do I install STS into different locations than the default?
It doesn't seem to be possible to install the templates into anything but the default drive (usually C:) in the standard folders.

If you want to install the web site into anything but the default drive (usually C:), you should before installing STS create a default (empty) Web site on the drive you want (using IIS Administrator). Then when you install STS it will use the existing default location for its home page
and all the document libraries will be stored in folders below that.

In order to have the database files stored in a location other than C:\MSSQL7, you should - before installing STS - install either SQL Server 7 or SQL Server 2000 into a drive and folder of your choice. STS will then use that database and that location for its files.
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How do I create a non-English language version of the site?
Install STS from a non-English language version of the Office XP CDROM.

Note: There might be problems later, for instance service packs may arrive later or not at all.
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II
What non-English languages are available in this way?
The Microsoft Office site has the details of different language versions. There is a Finnish language version of Office XP (Finland has a population of ca 5 Million) so therefore most Western European languages (and derivitives such as Brazilian Portuguese) are covered.
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II
What do I do if there is no version for my language?
Try to persuade your users that the English version is easy to use. Alternatively try by hand to convert part of the texts within the template files. I wouldn't recommend this though I suspect that at best you would get a mixed-language site.

You will also lose most if not all of your changes when Microsoft brings out a Service Pack or new release.
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II
How do I transfer an existing STS site to another server?
You should use the Migration Tool that comes with the Office XP SP1.

For migration to work correctly you will need to have installed Ofice XP Service Pack 1 on the server you will be publishing to AND the Office XP Service Pack 1 on the workstation you are using as a client to your existing STS server. You DO NOT need to install the Office XP server Pack 1 on your present server (though this might be a good idea anyway).

Open any STS Web in FrontPage 2002. Select "Publish web" from the file menu and publish it to your destination server".

Microsoft have now (June 2002) come up with an Assistance Center article on Publishing a Web at:

http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/2002/articles/fpCopyLists.aspx

In most cases this is the method that will be most suitable to you. It does however seem that people who have made many changes to the original templates may need to consider the manual method of migration instead.

Consider the following warning about using "Publish Web" that Dustin Miller made in the newsgroup.

"It is VERY important to note that when migrating using Publish you'll lose some important data.

All lists become custom lists with generic icons. You'll have to go into the database to fix this. If you've created any custom templates and linked them to your ONET.XML, the existing lists are moved but the additional templates used to create them are not.

If you're using your own code to interact with the database, be aware that ALL the list types (except doclibs and discussions) will revert to sp_servertemplate=100 (custom list). Because of these shortcomings, if you've changed ANYTHING in the root XML files, I recommend Microsoft's manual migration approach."

This manual migration approach is at

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/TechNet/prodtechnol/sharepnt/deploy/spmigrat.asp
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/2002/articles/fpCopyLists.aspx
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How do I transfer my STS MSDE database from one location to another?
The following complicated method was carried out successfully by one newsgroup member.

"Basically the process is:

1. Stop SQL server
2. Reinstall MSDE to point to the new drive location.
3. Verify/modify registry for SQL data file locations.
4. Copy old DB files to new location.
5. Start SQL server
6. Use SQL admin utility to connect to the master db
(since MSDE does not come with one, I found a freebie called SQLExecMS; see link below)
7. Create new DB for each site and point to new file location.
8. Use MSDE import/export utility to copy SQL data and objects from
old db to new db.
9. Use SPTS admin page to change DB name to new DB created in step 7.
10. Detach old DB from master db using the SQL admin utility.
11. Repeat steps 7-10 as needed for each site.

I successfully moved 5 sites using this process. Be sure to only COPY
the original DB files as mentioned in step 4. It may be necessary to attach to them at some later time if some data is corrupted or not available by other means."

(FAQ writer) I have not tried this myself

-----------

Another alternative approach mentioned in the newsgroup was as follows

1. Follow the technote

(http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/sharepnt/deploy/upgrdmigrate/spmigrat.asp)

until you get to the section "Migrating Data Stored in the SQL Server Databases". Skip the first two sections on backing up and restoring the SQL database. The backup step is being completed nightly on our server to "c:\mssql7\backup\nightly_backup.bak" and is being captured to tape. Copy the most recent backup file to the destination server. Don't attempt to restore yet.

2. Complete the steps in the section "Assigning the Database". Rename the database to match the server's database such as "server_LM_W3SVC_1_Collab"

3. Restart web services or reboot the server.

4. Open SharePoint's Administration web page and do a Restore pointing
to the BAK file from the server.

5. Complete the last section in the technote "Upgrading the Site".

6. Open SharePoint on the new server!!

(FAQ writer) I have not tried this either.

http://www.geocities.com/laplassoft/
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2
II
How do I get my site to Index .pdf files ?
Adobe provide a file called IFilter50.exe. The present location for this is http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=1276

(Further information on the IFilter interface can be found in part 4 of the "Index Server SDK TechNet Documentation". This section is called "Using Custom Filters with Indexing Service")

STS is not specified on this web page, but the program does work with STS.

The best way to use this seems to be to install it and go away for the weekend after which with luck you will be able to find .pdf files from your STS site.

Remember to Stop Indexing Service before you add the filter and to Start Indexing Services again afterwards ! Read too the Read me file that comes with the Adobe filter before you install it !

Note: It might be necessary to install and re-install this product several times as it doesn't seem to always work first time around.

Note: If the above link to get IFilter no longer works, go to Google; use Advanced Search; Search Word IFilter and restrict your search to www.adobe.com. The link you need should be one of the first few.
http://www.aspheute.com/artikel/20010914.htm
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1
II
How do I get my site to Index Visio files ?
You don't. We all have to wait until Microsoft provides a filter. (see II.12)

Note: MS has a 4.2002 KnowledgeBase paper saying that a limited filter
is provided when Visio 2002 or Office XP are installed on a Sharepoint *PortalServer* site.

We are investigating if this filter is also available to STS.

Stop Press: Microsoft made available in Jan 2003 an IFilter for Visio to TechNet customers. I have not yet tested this in STS.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q320922
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2
II
How do I get my site to Index Microsoft Project Files ?
You don't. This is another strange omission. We all have to wait until Microsoft provides a filter. (see II.12.1)
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3
II
Do you know of good sources for information on searching STS sites ?
Microsoft have a short article "Searching SharePoint Team Web Sites and FrontPage-based Web Sites" and a very detailed 'Index Server SDK TechNet Documentation".

The best article I have seen on this is the German-language "Arbeiten mit Index Server Catalogs" (Working with Index server Catalogs) that you can find at http://www.aspheute.com/artikel/20000524.htm.
http://www.aspheute.com/artikel/20000524.htm
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II
How do I move my database from MSDE to SQL Server ?
This answer assumes that you have already installed SQL Server on another server.

a) Go to the server with SQL Server and open Enterprise Manager
b) Navigate to the server with MSDE (or add a server registration for that)
c) Navigate to the MSDE database folder and select the Sharepoint database
d) Select this and do "Backup DB"
e) Select the SQL Server DB folder; right-click on it. Restore the DB.

Then you need to tell the Sharepoint site where the Database now is.

f) Got to the Sharepoint site and change Database Connection by accessing the "Microsoft SharePoint Administrator" in Administrative Tools and selecting "Administration" for the site and then "Change database connection"

---------------

Another correspondent said that the DB restore within Enterprise Manager didn't work for him and he had to write a RESTORE DATABASE WITH MOVE query to get the job done.

This (exactly) is what he said he used.

RESTORE DATABASE ws03930_LM_W3SCV_1_Collab
FROM DISK = 'F:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\BACKUP\appcompat'
WITH
MOVE 'WS03930_LM_W3SCV_1_Collab' TO 'F:\Program
Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data\appcompat.mdf',
MOVE 'WS03930_LM_W3SCV_1_Collab_log' TO 'F:\Program
Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data\appcompat.ldf'

This script was used by someone else with success.
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3
II
Is it possible to have different home pages for each user ?
1. It's not basic (and I no longer think it's worth the effort).

2. Microsoft say it's impossible.

3. The fix requires hand-coding and for people to leave the home page alone.

4. Here's how.

a. Create a default.htm with all the possible Doc Libraries; Announcements etc. etc. in the middle and all the possible Links groups
on the right.

You can do this doing the standard UI for amending the homepage.

b. Copy default.htm and rename it PersLink1.htm

c. Amend PersLink1.htm so that instead of the generated middle and right
column xml code (and bots) you have only the xml code (no bots) for the few doc libraries / links etc. that you want. This code you copy from
default.htm so that you get the right (long) codes for each Library/Link.
You have to use the things you had in the middle column in the middle column of your new .htm and similar for the right column otherwise the code doesn't work.

d. Repeat for PersLink2.htm; PersLink3.htm

Restrictions

Regenerating the default.htm page using the UI will probably change all the codes so you'll need to amend them in all PersLinkx.htm files. I.e. don't
regenerate this page using the UI !!

Any document links you add later with Quick Launch will not appear
automatically in the Quick Launch section for PersLink2, PersLink3 etc. For some reason I can't understand they do occur in PerLink1.htm (as well as in default.htm) on my machine.

These document libraries can be added in the same way to both the Quick Launch section and the middle or right sections for your individual pages using the code method above.

Note: Although possible this needs manual work. My present site has subwebs (with different-looking default pages) for each small group of users, but with all users able to access all parts of the site. (Add hard links forward and back to all default.htm pages above the Quick Launch section) This seems to provide the necessary different home pages without the manual work and restrictions above.
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II
Can I install STS on a server running SharePoint Portal Server (SPS) ?
Yes if you have SPS SP1 installed.

However it has been reported that there are known problems with document discussions if both are installed on the same server.

Also since SPS SP1, SPS has the ability to index STS sites.

So given these two factors the recommendation would be not to
have these two products installed on the same server - even if it is theoretically possible.
15
1
II
Can I install SharePoint Portal Server on a server running STS ?
This is still unclear. If it still (after STS SP1) still refuses to install; uninstall STS; install SPS and then re-install STS.

See however the comments in the previous section as to the wisdom (Not !) of having these two products on the same server.
15
2
II
I want to access STS via ISA. Are there any special issues involved ?
Assuming that your STS site is working correctly when accessing it directly, then there is one known possible problem with accessing the site via ISA.

In order for the site to be rendered correctly you need to check a box on the Web Publishing rule Properties page. This tells ISA to forward the original header of the Web page. If you don't do this the web page will be available in its "naked" state - i.e. unprocessed.
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II
I have a production site that uses Default Site and I want to create a new STS site on the same machine that stores its files in a different location and which uses a different database. How do I do this ?
The first step is to amend IIS but there are (usually) a few pre-requisites.

a. Acquire a free TCP-IP address and have it assigned to your STS server in addition to the existing one.

b. Open 'Network and Dial-Up Connections'; right-click the local area connection; click 'Properties'. On the General Tab select 'Internet
Protocol(TCP/IP)' and then 'Properties'; Click 'Advanced' and 'Add' the new TCP-IP address and mask.

Through using a. and b. you will be able later to access your site via Port 80. The alternative (which probably your firewall people won't like) is to use the existing TCP-IP address and specify a new port.

Then Open the Internet Services Manager and by right-clicking on 'default site' followed by New / Site create a new site and site location for your new TCP-IP number (or old TCP-IP number plus different port). Naturally it's good to have already created a directory where you want the site's data to go ...

The final step is to create an STS site in your new web site location. This is surprisingly easy.

c. Open SharePoint Administrator

You'll find a list of sites containing probably your existing SPTS site marked 'Administrator' and the new site marked 'Extend'. Click Extend; specify the name and password you use to access the already installed SQL Server system and wait.

You'll find you have a ready-made STS basic site that is accessed via the new TCP-IP address (or TCP-IP + port). You'll also find a new database when you go to databases within SQL Server / Enterprise Manager.

Tip: "Internet Information Services Administration" (New Riders $29.95) is a book I found very useful in improving my IIS knowledge.
17
II
How do I improve the performance of my STS site ?
Microsoft have a white paper on this at

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/sharepnt/maintain/stsperf.asp

(URL changed by MS by May 2002 )

(one line)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/sharepnt/maintain/optimize/stsperf.asp
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1
II
Which give better performance - SubWebs or Virtual Servers ?
MS say in the performance paper (see II.20.1) that STS performs better when the sites are spread over Virtual Servers rather than SubWebs.

See II.17 for details of how to create a Virtual Server.
18
2
III
Where can I find the SharePoint Administrator ?
Under Control Panel / Administrator Tools. (W2K)
1
2
III
What do I use the SharePoint Administrator for ?
Depending on how you installed STS, you may need to access SharePoint Administrator to Extend your site.

(Basically if it works immediately out-of-the-box you don't need to do this).

Otherwise you'll find that you need SharePoint Administrator very seldom until later.
1
3
III
How do I use the STS User Interface for administration ?
You access "Site Settings" on the Menu Line (on the right before Help)
1
4
III
What do I do using Site Settings ?
In this section I'll try to take you through a basic site creation with one document library.http://www.collutions.com/Lists/FAQ/DispForm.htm?ID=38
2
III
Web Site Settings
Your Web Site's home page has a two line title. By default this is (line 1) "Team Web Site" and (line 2) "Home".

The first of these two lines can be amended in the first section of "Web Site Settings" (i.e. 'Change Site Name and Description'). In order to change the second of these two lines you need to amend the code of the default.htm file for the site.

The second section of "Web Site settings" 'Customize Home Page Layout' is used to amend the document libaries listed on the default page. This works by drag-and-drop to-and-from the left hand column. Only the centre and right columns are visible on the home page. The contents of the left column is *not* the contents of the left column of
the home page; nor does the order of the columns in the left-hand-column have any relevance to the appearance of the home page.

Note that if your default.htm does not display correctly (possibly following an incorrect amendment with FrontPage - see later) then moving columns in 'Customize Home Page Layout'; Saving then moving back and Saving again; will often clear the problem.
http://www.collutions.com/Lists/FAQ/DispForm.htm?ID=39
2
1
III
Web Administration
Initially you will probably only use the "Manage Users" part of this section.

The following are suggestions only on how to use this part of the site.

A new site will contain Adminstrators with Administrator rights.

I would then add myself (network id) as Adminstrator; and the initial users (network id) as Author.

I would then check the wwwroot section to see that the Author group has rights to update files on the server.

Note: The rights of each of the five different catagories are defined in detail (and can be amended) in "Microsoft SharePoint Administrator". You should find that the default settings are sufficient.
http://www.collutions.com/Lists/FAQ/DispForm.htm?ID=40
2
2
III
User Information
Not used in the initial stageshttp://www.collutions.com/Lists/FAQ/DispForm.htm?ID=41
2
3
III
Modify Site Content
You will use this section to amend existing Document Libraries and create Views. This will be dealt with in III.3.2.

First we need a document library to work with ... see III.3.1
2
4
III
Creating a document library
Sub-sections III.3.1 and III.3.2 are my guidelines for creating new document libraries. These are guidelines and suggestions for getting a site started. Once you have done this a few times you will start creating your own standards.

The rest of this section covers mainly problems encountered when uploading documents.
3
III
How do I create a new document library ?
On the site menu line (on the home page), you select Create; then Document Library.
3
1
III
Do you have any tips when creating early document libraries ?
You should already have thought about how you are going to group documents. Will you have Manuals in a different document library to White Papers ? Will you have document libraries per vendor or per type of document ?

My personal choice is to have the same kind of information in the same document library and to use additional fields and Views to distinguish between the sources of the documents.

My own standard document library has the following.

a) In Columns - Title made compulsory

b) In Columns - New field 'Category'; type Choice (plus list of alternative); compulsory

c) In Columns - New field 'Source'; type Choice (plus list of alternatives); compulsory

d) In Views - one View for each 'Category' named the same as the category in the list of Choices.

Fields selected in this order 'Document Icon'; 'Edit (link to Edit Item); Title; Source

Sort Ascending by Title / Source

Select on Category = Name of View

Note: Try to work out all the views you will need before you start adding views and add them in Alphabetical Order. This is one section where you can't seem to change the order in which items appear in a list. (See however III.18.2 for a workaround for this)
3
2
III
How do I bulk transfer documents into an STS document library ?
The documents you want to transfer are on a network or local drive. Select the ones you want to transfer into STS and do Ctrl-C.

Then access the web site's document library *via My Network Places*. Open the document library folder and Ctrl-V.

(Or open both folders and just do drag-and-drop which works too. The key is the use of My Network Places)

This method means that the web site is aware of the documents; it gives them either no title or tries to work out a suitable title if possible; it also assigns the current default value to any fields.

Tip: Suppose you have 100 documents that will go into five different Categories. Assign Category1 as the default value for Category and then copy across (using the above method) the sub-group of documents that will belong to that category; then assign Category2 as the default value for Category and copy across that sub-group of documents etc. (This is usually much faster than copying all 100 and then having to edit the Category field for all of them)

Jim Duncan has an alternative method -

a. Add the server to your 'Trusted Sites' security zone (Tools Menu>Internet Options>Security>Sites...uncheck https requirement if needed).

b. Type in the url of your server (include the http://).

c. Then use drag and drop in Folder View.

As far as we know *both* methods should always work.
3
3
III
Is it possible to upload a document with multiple supporting files to a Document Library, such as an HTTP document with *.gif files?
The previous answer (III.3.3) is suitable for the bulk uploading of documents by an administrator rather than by an end-user.

This question provides a solution (or the germs of a solution) for the uploading of one document which includes supporting files. The solution requires the creation of an html page (if a suitable one is not available).

First design a suitable html page.

Then save it in I.E. (maybe 5.0 upwards - 6.0 works) as an 'MHT single file archive'.

Then upload this single file to STS using the normal upload method.

(When you later open this within STS, an instance of IE is opened and the .html file you saved appears with all links still available.)

Note that there appear to be problems with links to the local site but external links in the mht file seem to work OK. Hence the statement above that this is the "germ of a solution".

Meanwhile I am uploading one zip file if I want to "bulk upload" a set of .gif/.jpg files.

Note: See also III.3.7 and III.3.8
3
4
III
What is the STS database called and how can it be accessed?
If you are running SQL Server 2000, the database is called
<server_name>_LM_W3SVC_1_Collab or similar.

You can access it via Start/Programs/Microsoft SQL Server/Enterprise Manager.
4
III
I've set user analysis, how do I access the data it produces ?
This is something that isn't readily apparent. You can look everywhere in STS and not find it.

In fact this is a function of FrontPage 2002. You open your web site in Front Page 2002 and then select "Reports" from the (left-hand) Views column.

Note: This is a very basic function. If you want more detail, copy your logs to your own PC and apply a specialist program to produce your reports.
5
III
I'm using URLScan with STS but I can't upload documents, is there a solution ?
(URLScan is a Microsoft ISAPI filter to secure a webserver and allow
administrators to control the types of requests a webserver should ignore.)

The following two amendments to the URLSCAN.INI file were suggested.

In the Options section change AllowDotInPath=0 to AllowDotInPath=1

In the AllowVerbs section add PROPFIND

The second amendment solved the problem for this user.
3
6
III
What sources can I study to help me with Workflow in STS ?
Workflow Samples that Extend SharePoint Team Services (April 2001) at

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en- us/dnoxpta/html/workflowsamples.asp (one line with en-us)

and Extending SharePoint Team Services with Workflow (April 2001) at

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/
en-us/dnoxpta/html/extendingsharepoint.asp (one line)

In addition it was suggested that you look at the following two newsgroups

- news://microsoft.public.officedev

and

- news://microsoft.public.office.developer.officedev.other

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnoxpta/html/workflowsamples.asp (one line with en-us)
6
III
How do I write code to extract data from the STS database ?
The following example is ASP code (filename must be xxx.asp) that extracts data from the STS database stored in SQL Server 2000.

The example takes all the rows from a table called "New_MEC" and lists several fields in (html) table form.

The code is written to work not to look nice - I started writing ASP code when the first betas came out and before there were any programming standards. I still prefer working code to beautiful-looking code that doesn't work ...

Thanks to Michael Greth for his help. His code doesn't look like this (!)

Note: that in order to get the lines in a sensible sorted order, you'll need to create a (sorted) view and use that instead of the table name.

Take the following code and copy it to a file SQLTest.asp (or similar); place it in the same directory as the top-level default.htm and access it by http://<server-name>/SQLTest.asp. Amend <server-name>; userid; password; (both to access SQL Server); and table name. Also amend or
remove the code for Category and Exch filter,

*********

<%

' lines beginning with a single apostrophe are comments

Set OBJdbConnection =
Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")

' You can do without the next statement if you want.

OBJDBConnection.ConnectionTimeout = 60

' <server_name> is (surprise) the name of your server. Get
' CollabDB right and you'll get CollabDBServer right
' You do need both.

CollabDBServer = "<server_name>"

CollabDB = "<server_name>_LM_W3SVC_1_Collab"

' you can put the userid (uid) and password (pwd) as
' strings as well and use the strings in the next statement.
' I'm lazy.

strConnection = "driver={SQL Server};SERVER=" &
CollabDBServer &"; uid=sa;pwd=xxxxx;database=" & CollabDB &
";"

' The three lines above should be one line

OBJdBConnection.Open strConnection

' New_MEC is the name within SPTS of this document library
' - ows_Project1_u_New_MEC the name of the table in the
' database.

SQLQuery = "SELECT * FROM ows_Project1_u_New_MEC"

' Level1List was the name I had in my old sample code,
' there it meant something - any non-reserved name will do

Set Level1List = OBJdbConnection.Execute(SQLQuery)

%>

' This is how you mix html and vbscript code. Note that
' the names beginning with tp_ are the names used in the
' database. Title and CreatedBy are standard fields, but
' my field names are Category and Exch_Filter NOT
' Category0 and Exch_x0020_Filter. So be sure to get the
' correct field names *from the database*
' not just by adding tp_ before your SPTS name.

<HTML>

<table width=100% border=3 CELLPADDING=5>

<% Do While Not Level1List.EOF %>

<tr>
<td>
<%= Level1List("tp_Title") %>
</td>
<td>
<%= Level1List("tp_Category0") %>
</td>
<td>
<%= Level1List("tp_Exch_x0020_Filter") %>
</td>
<td>
<%= Level1List("tp_CreatedBy") %>
</td>
</tr>
<%
Level1List.MoveNext
Loop
%>
</table>
</HTML>

<%
Level1List.Close
OBJdbConnection.Close

Set Level1List = Nothing
Set OBJdbConnection = Nothing

%>

' End of code
7
III
When I try to do a search all I get is the search.idq file displayed. What's my problem ?
The key in the above sentence is that search.idq is *displayed* - i.e. listed.

This occurs when - usually for security reasons - .idq files have been associated with .txt display.

The solution is to go into the table used by Index Server and amend it.

To do this. Open Internet Services Manager (Start/Programs/Administrative Tools)

Then right click on your site. Select web site properties / home directory / configuration

This (under App Mappings) will give you a list of Extensions and Executable Path etc.

Find the entry for (Extensions=) .idq and change the Executable Path to C:\WINNT\System32\idq.dll (or whatever is your equivalent)

In my case when you do Edit to change the Executable Path I can see that "Verbs" are limited to 'GET,HEAD,POST' and Script Engine is ticked.

Thanks to Tony McNair for his help on this. (Tony says Verbs should be OTHERS. My site is working as it is so I'm not going to change it !)

(Later: Microsoft came out with a Knowledge Base article on this on 4th April 2002. Q317384 "Search Box on the Default Page Works Incorrectly After You Install SharePoint Team Services". Despite the title this *only* covers the III.8.1 case.)
8
1
III
When I try to do a search I get a 404 error. What's my problem ?
This is usually caused by an IISLockup which has been run in default mode. This causes the executable path for .idq files (and others) to be
changed to 404.dll leading to the automatic 404 error when the system tries to search.

Look at III.8.1 for the details as to where you have to change this parameter to idq.dll.

Another possible explanation is that you have run Microsoft's URLScan with default settings. These default settings block requests to .idq files.

X:\winnt\system32\inetsrv\urlscan\urlscan.log (X is system drive) will tell you if URLScan is running and what rules it's using.

The urlscan.ini file in the same directory can be edited to amend the behaviour of URLScan.

Thanks to "Paul" (Murray?) for the URLScan information.
8
2
III
I only want a maximum of 10 links to be displayed on the default page for a library. How do I achieve this ?
III.9 I only want a maximum of 10 links to be displayed on the default page for a library. How do I achieve
this ?

The default number of links visible on the default page per library is 20 and presumably this value can be amended *for all libraries* somewhere in a template.

However here I've restricted this question to a single library.

This is a case where the easiest method is the use of FrontPage (2002).

Open the site in FP and then open default.htm.

Right-click on the particular Library and choose "View Properties".

Select "Options" and change the 20 in "...limit the total number to" to 10.

OK. Save in FP and refresh your Web Page to see the result.
9
III
I get "Cannot run the FrontPage Server Extensions on this page" when I try to upload a document. What's my problem ?
This problem is possibly caused by you modifying the upload.htm especially if you did this in FrontPage. If you must modify this file do it in Notepad or another plain text editor.

The problem is possibly resolved by reversing the changes that FrontPage made to the file.

FrontPage makes the following changes.

1. It sets the META Generator tage to "Microsoft FrontPage 5.0" instead of "Microsoft SharePoint"

2. It removes the 'EncType="multipart/form-data' attribute from the form OWSForm.

3. It changes the bot attributes of the <!--webbot startspan--> and <!--webbot endspan--> tag from bot="FileUpload" to bot="SaveResults".

Thanks to a now unknown poster to the group for this. Thanks to another for pointing out that this "solution" doesn't always work (!)

** Later ** This problem is now the subject of a KnowledgeBase article at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q305059.

"SPTS: Error Message: Cannot Run the FrontPage Server Extensions on This Page (Q305059)"

The solution in Q305059 is clearer than the above (because longer) but is similar.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q305059
3
5
III
What questions are answered by the Examples in the SDK ?
This section has been added here because questions continue to be asked in the newsgroup that are solved directly by Examples from the SDK. Perhaps if they don't read the SDK they will read this much shorter FAQ. (In the SDK these Examples are at ca pages 55-62)
 
Example 1: Adding a new field for Flash Movies (not exactly the first requirement that comes to my mind for an STS business site)
Example 2: Customizing the logo on your team Web sites (Trivial)
Example 3: Customizing the top link bar (Asked quite often)
Example 4: Adding a new document type and file type icon (Asked quite often)
Example 5. Adding a field to a list in a custom document library
(Something I use quite often together with a list of possible values)
Example 6: Adding a title link to an item in a document list (Interesting code but not strictly necessary as you can link via the Icon)
Example 7: Adding an in-line, highly customized view (Not yet seen the need)
Example 8: Creating a new template for custom lists (Combine this with Example 5 !)
Example 9: Using Screen Tips to show list data (Not yet seen the need)
 
Above all, go to look at the SDK and if you look at no other section, DO look at and try the examples !
 
 (one line)
 
 
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=67ef03e8-e368-4aa3-a6ab-7d26896ffb48&displaylang=en
10
1
III
My default.htm does not display correctly - what should I do ?
If your default.htm does not display correctly (possibly following an incorrect amendment with FrontPage - i.e. by opening the file rather than the correct opening the web site and then the file) - then moving columns in 'Customize Home Page Layout'; Saving then moving back and Saving again; will often clear the problem.

Explanation: The database contains a long code for each document library and this is referenced within default.htm. If for some reason the code has changed since default.htm has been created then default.htm will no longer find the correct record in the database hence leading to a problem (especially that listed in III.11.2). Do the above steps forces the system to re-calculate default.htm based on the present database code values.
11
1
III
I get "The list or view of a list that is referenced here no longer exists" - what do I do ?
This is one specific result of a problem with default.htm.

Use the solution described there (III.11.1) to correct.
11
2
III
I don't like the US date format MM/DD/YY and want to have the European/Australian (DD/MM/YY) or Swedish (YY/MM/DD) etc. format. How do I do this ?
To set the default locale for your STS to show the appropriate date format, go to Regional Options (within the Control Panel).

Click on the "Set default..." button in the General tab to set the default settings, not anywhere else. Then restart the system, everything will work fine.

There's no need to change any XML or ASP codes...

Note: Make sure you have the "language settings for the system" set and not just the "settings for the current user".
(To change 'language settings for the system' you click anywhere in the lower half of the Regional Options/General tab before clicking the 'Set Default' button.)
12
III
When I upload a document to a document library it is not listed under the "All Documents" view but is present on the disk drive (and can be listed under Folder View). What's the problem ?
The solution to this problem is listed in the MSKB article Q318975 (Apr 14 2002)

In brief you need to clear the "No Count" check box in SQL Server.

(SQL S Enterprise manager/ right-click DB/Properties/in Attribute clear
the 'No Count' check box)

3
10
III
How do I rename the name of a SubWeb ?
The instructions for this are included in a MS paper that also rather oddly includes the basic task of changing the name within default.htm of the web site (by using the STS normal User Interface).

The MS paper is at http://www.microsoft.com/TechNet/prodtechnol/sharepnt/maintain/urlnamch.asp?frame=true

The solution in brief is to use FrontPage 2002 (!)

Open the subweb.
Go to Tools
Web Settings
Change the name in the General Settings.
Hit ok.
http://www.microsoft.com/TechNet/prodtechnol/sharepnt/maintain/urlnamch.asp?frame=true
14
III
I can publish using the FP extensions but when I try to create a SharePoint web, I get a message
In the one case we've had in the newsgroup where this came up the problem was caused by the installation of what the writer described as "a select version of FP extensions that I never knew existed" which lacked SP support.

Removing these cleared the problem.

Yet another example of the complex relationship between FP and STS.
15
III
How do I make the Folder View the default view for a Document Library ?
This is covered (along with III.16.2; III.16.3 and III.16.4) in "Troubleshooting Default Views" from TechNet at

www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sharepnt/support/trblshoot/defview.asp?frame=true

I feel justifying in including it here because at least this one (Folder View) has been a question in the newsgroup.

The answer if you are feeling lazy and daring is to use Open Web within FP 2002. then in Folders (right-click folder/Properties/Supporting Files/Default view page and select the view you want).
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sharepnt/support/trblshoot/defview.asp?frame=true
16
1
III
Why can't my users with Netscape access my site ?
The most likely reason is that you are using "Integrated Windows Aunthentication". This works fine with IE but not with Netscape. Change to "Basic Authentication" and Netscape users can access your site.

Note: Basic Authentication is less secure than Windows Authentication because the passwords are transmitted in clear.
17
III
I have changed my default view for a document library to show Title instead of FileName. How can I change the top-level page (Team Site = default.htm) to also show Title instead of FileName ?
a. Open the Web in FrontPage and then the default.htm file.

b. Once there right-click on this document library and you will see that one option is to "Layout Customization View".

c. Open this and then right-click on the field you want to change (Note there is both the text - use Title - and the Field - use "Title (Linked to Document)").

d.Use ListField to change these names.

e.Change them; (don't do anything else !) and Save your revised default.htm.

f.Check your "Team Page" not forgetting to refresh.

*********

An alternative but similar approach is slightly simpler.

a. is identical.
b. instead of "Layout Customization View" use "View Properties".
c. Amend "Fields" by moving 'File Name' to the left and replacing it with Title. 'Move up' Title if necessary.
d. OK. OK.
e. Save your revised default.htm
f. Check your Team Page.

This is faster (especially if you are changing more than one field) and easier to do correctly.
16
5
IV
How do I remove the time (but keep the date) from the Modified (or Created) field listed on the default page?
For that document library create a new field called Modified_Date and define it as being 'Date and Time'; then "Date Only" and finally define it as having a default value 'today's date'.

Every document added to the library will now include this field with the date already completed.

Follow IV.3.1 to change the field visible from Modified to Modified_Date (you don't need to amend the title).
3
2
IV
How can I add a Quick Launch link to a Sub Web ?
The easiest way that I have found to do this is to amend the main default.htm by the replacement of the words "Quick Launch" by a normal html link to the Sub Web's default.htm followed by a line to split this off from the Quick Launch links.

I then add in the same place on the default.htm of the SubWeb a link to the home default.htm.

Note that adding a Link with FrontPage's "Add a Link" does not work.

See the Microsoft article

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;us;Q275295

for more on this FrontPage problem.

(Thanks to Tom Williams for supplying the address to the KB article.)
4
IV
What can I sensibly customize in the Template section ?
You can create a new ready-made form for creation of a Document Library where Title is already the default and where there already are two existing fields called Category and Source which are filled with possible names.

Most of this is covered in a couple of the Examples in the STS SDK all of which you are recommended to look at.

Note: The SDK is over 300 pages long and most of it is full of detail that is hard to follow. The examples are however easy and can also be used as ideas for similar amendments.
5
IV
How can I add in my existing .asp (.php) code ?
The only way to do this is to use an IFRAME clause.

This is because the code on your web site can not be processed by two conflicting methods (the front page processor or the asp (or php etc.) processor.

Within the IFRAME clause the code is processed by the correct processor (i.e. .asp or .php etc.)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/workshop/author/dhtml/reference/objects/IFRAME.asp
6
IV
How do I change the styles used by the STS site ?
The style sheet template is the Ows.css file.

Microsoft have in the Knowledge Base a detailed explanation of how to do this - both on a site-by-site basis and on a template (i.e. affects all future sites) basis.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q293332
7
IV
How do I make Title a compulsory field for all new document libraries ?
Title is a field that is present in the delivered version of STS. As standard it is non-compulsory. If you, like me, think this is madness, here's how to set up your site so that Title is always be default compulsory.

Find the template file ONET.XML (follow the usual precautions - i.e. make a copy).

In the BaseType Title="Document Library" section, amend the Field with ColName="tp_Title" so that ShowInNewForm="TRUE" (was FALSE) and by adding Required="TRUE".

All future document libraries based on that template will have Title as a compulsory and visible field when you upload a document.
8
IV
How do I create a new Document Library type which includes Source and a list of possible values for Source ?
(If you have fields like Category and Source that you add to every library with almost the same list of values every time, it is much simpler to create a ready-made Document Library that already has these fields and values assigned)

Work your way down in the template part of your site to X:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\50\Templates\1033\Layouts
Copy the standard document library and re-name it.

Amend the SCHEMA.XML file in your new library by adding code similar to the following in the Metadata Fields part of the file (at the top).

<Field Type="Choice" BaseType="Text" Name="Source" DisplayName="Source" Required="TRUE" Description="Specify the Source">
<CHOICES>
<CHOICE>Compaq</CHOICE>
<CHOICE>IBM</CHOICE>
<CHOICE>Microsoft</CHOICE>
</CHOICES>
</Field>

The CHOICES/CHOICE clause (must be capitals !) is the list of values.
The Field Clause specifies the field name Source and makes it compulsory.

Then go to X:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server
extensions\50\Templates\1033\xml and amend ONET.XML by adding another entry to the ListTemplates Section with your new name and a new type number.

For more details of this look at Example 5 in the STS SDK (if printed ca. page 57/58 of 368).

The above solution is based on Example 5 but goes further by making the field a "Choice" field and by adding the list of possible values. Note that the SDK (elsewhere) incorrectly says that the code for a Choice
field is "<Choice>" which does not work.
9
1
IV
How do I give my PDF files a different icon ?
a) Go to X:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\50\Templates\1033\xml

Amend DOCICON.XML by adding a new <Mapping Key="pdf" Value="icpdf.gif"/> clause where icpdf.gif is the icon you want to use for PDF files (standard is icgen.gif"/>

b) Go to X:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\50\Templates\1033\Images and add an icon called icpdf.gif.

d) Restart IIS.

If you stop at this, this change applies to all sites and sub-webs created *after* this change has been made.

However you can add a step c) (!) to apply the change to old document libraries. (Thanks to Tom Williams for this)

c.1) Go to the _layouts\images folder typically at wwwroot (i.e. at the web site itself NOT the template section) and add the gifs there.

c.2) Repeat for all subwebs and other sites on this server (and their subwebs)

Note that if you don't do c.2 you will get an unsightly "icon is missing" in a little box which does not look good. So do all your sites/subwebs at the same time.

Finally in order to get the new icon to also appear in the listing produced by the search engine you need to do the following (Thanks to the sharepointtips site for this one)

1. Open the search.htx file under \..\wwwroot\_layout\search.htx with notepad

2. Scroll to the following lines:

function showGif(url, fName)
{
var L_DocImageAlt_Text = "Icon";
sExtension = fName.substring(fName.length-4,fName.length);
switch (sExtension.toLowerCase()) {

3. Create a new entry just below those lines like in the following example:

case ".<file extension eg. .pdf>":
gifPath="<Filename>.gif";
break;

4. Save the search.htx file "
10
1
IV
How do I remove Site settings from the menu bar ?
In order to do this for one site or one sub-web, go into the default.htm and amend the html code.

In order to do this for all future sites and sub-webs do the following (make a copy of ONET.XML first !)

Modify the file ONET.XML in the folder C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\50\Templates\1033\xml.

Remove the TopMenuItem corresponding to Site Settings from
it.

<TopMenuItem Name="SiteSettings" DisplayName="Site Settings" Url="_layouts/settings.htm">

<!-- _locID@DisplayName="camlionet7" _locComment=" " -->

</TopMenuItem>

See IV.1 for suitable editors for XML files.
11
1
IV
How do I create a different template for Word documents ?
This is how to do this for a single document library.

a) Access the document library

b) Modify Settings and Columns

c) Change General Settings

d) Amend the Template URL

At this point you'll discover you don't have an
alternative template ready ...

e) Access via My Network Places the Document Library's
Forms folder and open the present template

f) Amend it and Save As <new_template_name.htm> to the
same location

and repeat d).

As usual this only applies to future documents and only to document libraries where this change has been made.
12
IV
How do I get my documents to open by default in a new window ?
In the template section (see FAQ1 II.3 for where this is) change the onet.xml.

1. Search for LinkFilename

2 Under the DisplayPattern tag
change ...A HREF= TO ...A target="_blank" HREF=

or

3. Under the DisplayPattern tag
change ...A HREF= TO ...A target="<any-name>" HREF=

Using the code in 2. will open a new window every time you click on a document.
Using the code in 3. will open a new window the first time you click on a document but will then use this same window for each (different) document you open.

In other words if you don't close any documents, after having opened n documents, using the 2. code you will have 1+n windows open and using the 3. code you will have 2 windows open.

Dustin suggests that you use _newDoc as your <any-name> for ease of understanding.

As always whichever of these changes you make will only be valid for future webs and subwebs that use this template.
13
1
IV
How do I remove the top level navigation across all pages ?
Rather than manually removing them from every page, just hide them...

Open _layouts/styles/ows.css in notepad.
Scroll down to the entry for .ms-bannerframe and add the line
display: none;
before the closing }

The nav bar will still be there (in the HTML), and you will still see it in
FrontPage, but the browser will not display it and will reclaim the space it
occupies.

(Thanks to 'Joe Admin' i.e Jim for this text).

It was confirmed that this works in both IE and Netscape.
11
2
IV
How do I create an additional view that automatically gets created as part of a new document library type ?
Warning: This is rocket science supplied by Dave Siracusa.

1. First identify all the views in schema.xml, they are organized like this:
<views>
<view ...></view ...>
<view ...></view ...>
...
</views>

2. Copy one of the views associated with a htm file and change some of
the attributes in the view tag
<View BaseViewID="5"
Type="HTML"
Name="{2BD91CB4-0842-4803-B147-B3096CF7566B}"

<== generate a unique guid - use MS guidgen.exe (comes with
<== Developer Studio)

DisplayName="Navigation"
<== A new name
Url="Forms/Navigation.htm"
<== associate with a htm which you have to put in the template directory.
Hidden="False"
ModifyVversion="5.0.0.2309">

3. Copy allitems.htm to Navigation.htm in the template directory.

Note: This new view will appear in the left bar automatically when the
Views are enumerated.

4. If you need to add fields to your schema do it between the <Fields> tags:
<MetaData>
<Fields>
<Field Type="Lookup" List="UserInfo" Name="Reviewer"
<== a new field
DisplayName="Reviewer">
<!-- _locID@DisplayName="camlidT4" _locComment=" " -->
</Field>
</Fields>

You can also define global hidden fields at the onet.xml level, and then modify the field attribute to make them visible, and required if need be (for an example look at schema.xml in the favorites teamples).

5. If you want to show/hide fields within your view, find the
<ViewFields> tag, add or remove from this section.
<ViewFields>
<FieldRef Name="DocIcon"></FieldRef>
<FieldRef Name="LinkFilename"></FieldRef>
<FieldRef Name="Last_x0020_Modified"></FieldRef>
<FieldRef Name="Editor"></FieldRef>
<FieldRef Name="Reviewer"></FieldRef>
<== now show the new field we added
</ViewFields>

Dave wishes you all luck !
9
2
I
Does Microsoft have an official table comparing STS and SPS ?
Yes. This is at the bottom of an MS FAQ.
http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/sharepoint/faq.htm#_GENERAL_Q&A
3
V
Microsoft Web Sites
Sharepoint top-level site - http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/

STS Samples - http://www.sharepointsample.com/index2.html

MSDN - http://msdn.microsoft.com/ and search on SharePoint Team Services (includes link to SDK)

Microsoft Web Casts - http://support.microsoft.com/WebCasts

The archive in the WebCasts section includes two archived STS Web Casts

Microsoft SharePoint Team Services: What Happens on the Server Side at http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/webcasts/wc052201/WC052201.asp?fr=1 (June 6th 2001)

and

Webcast: An Overview of SharePoint Team Services at http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/webcasts/wc051501/WC051501.asp?fr=1 (June 12th 2001)
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Other Web Sites
STS FAQs - http://www.collutions.com/Lists/FAQ/

STS Tips - http://www.sharepointtips.com/

The Sharepoint Code Repository - http://www.sharepointexperts.com/code/index.cfm

STS Revel - http://sharepoint.ebuscollab.com/

Berghell Associates - http://community.digidocsolutions.com/

STS via Google -

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&group=microsoft.public.sharepoint.teamservices

MSD2D Sharepoint -

http://www.msd2d.com/Default.aspx?section=Sharepoint

in German

(Joint SharePoint Portal Server and SharePoint Team Services site)

http://www.mysharepoint.de
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I
What do I need to pay for if I install STS ?
There are two (possibly three) components

i) Operating System (today, typically Windows 2K Server)

ii) FrontPage 2002 (a version that contains STS) or an Office XP (in a version that contains STS). NOTE that the purchase of one of these is required for licensing purposes; you do not in fact need to actually install FrontPage 2002 or Office XP.

iii) SQL Server 7.0 or SQL Server 2000.

The above assumes you are installing SQL Server on the same machine otherwise you'll of course need two copies of the Operating System.

Costs:

i) OS - standard costs

ii) Front Page - no CALs required (see this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/sharepoint/faq.htm#_GENERAL_Q&A

iii) SQL Server choice of CALs or more expensive SQL Server version

"1. SQLServer + CALs
2. Purchase a SQLServer server license. The SQLServer server license
is $4.9k per CPU and allows you to have an unlimited number of clients."

This entire information is provided without any guarantee as to its accuracy ! (With MS pricing nothing is that clear)
http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/sharepoint/faq.htm#_GENERAL_Q&A
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III
How do I create a sub-folder to a document library folder ?
Warning: So far I have noticed no side effects of this procedure.

You can not do this *within* STS as within STS you can only add a file to a document library not a folder.

However you can create a sub-folder to a document library folder in the file system and then by the use of 'My Network Places' copy files to the sub-folder.

These files will then appear (with the default values applicable at the time they were transfered) in the STS All Items list even though they are located one level below the document library itself.

You can not add documents to this Sub-Folder from within STS as it - despite listing these documents - does not know that this sub-folder is present in STS.

Note: I have not yet tried to delete such a file.
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III
When would having a sub-folder to a document library folder be useful ?
Suppose you have the right to make an .htm page containing various gifs etc. available on your network. If you were to copy the htm file to your document library none of those .gifs would be available. On the other hand linking to the .htm file stored elsewhere would make the text contents of that .htm page unavailable to the STS indexing process.

What you could do is to follow the procedure in III.3.7; and copy all except the main .htm to a suitably named sub-folder. You'd then amend the .htm file so that all the internal links now point to the correct directory *within your web site*.

Finally to avoid the problem that all the gifs etc. appear in the AllItems list, create a new field called Visible and give this field the value of YES for your htm file. Then filter so that only Visible=YES records are visible in AllItems.htm.

(The other - and better - way to avoid this problem is to transfer the gifs etc. to the server NOT via MY Network Places but via a network drive. I.e. copy the gif files etc. to a drive that is available from both your workstation and the STS server. *On the server* copy the files from the network drive to the local drive. In this way the gif files are not known to the system; don't appear in the database and thus aren't listed on the STS site. You will still have to copy the main .htm files via My Network Places as these need to be in the database and thus listed on the STS site. Running any STS utility that recalculates the site will mess up this solution, however.)
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III
I get "Service not running" when I try to search. What's my problem ?
You need to start the Indexing service on your STS server and set it to Auto start.

Here for fans of detail ARE the details.

1. Go to your Sharepoint Server
2. Start --> Settings --> Control Panel
3. WINNT --> Services --- Win2k --> Administrative tools --> Services-->
look for Indexing Service
4.Right click properties startup type (Drop down list) = Automatic Start
then under service status: click START to enable the Service.
5.Give it sometime for results to appear.

Thanks to Martin Tully for spelling these out.
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III
How do I get my Views sorted in alphabetical order ?
While you can use Front Page (see above III.18.1) to get the Quick Links in alphabetical order, you can't do this with Views.

Instead Views come in the order in which they have been entered (to some point at which they seem to start at the top again - or even in the middle !).

Here's how to put the Views in Alphabetical order *without* having to delete them and then re-create them (by which I mean specify all the parameters all over again).

Let's suppose you have (in this order) the following views

Outlook
Exchange
SPTS
MOM

and you want to end up with

Exchange
MOM
Outlook
SPTS

1. Go via "My Network Places" to the directory.

2. Copy Exchange.htm to the same directory (giving Exchange (2).htm). Rename this O_Exchange.htm. Delete Exchange.htm. Rename O_Exchange.htm to Exchange.htm.

3. Repeat for MOM.htm
4. Repeat for Outlook.htm
5. Repeat for SPTS.htm

Now go to your Web Page. You'll see the following Views

Copy of Exchange
Copy of MOM
Copy of Outlook
Copy of SPTS

Go to 'Modify Settings and Columns' and Rename each of these in turn (delete the "Copy Of " in each View Name).

That's it.

You save a lot of time with this method over the alternative 'Delete Views'; 'Re-create Views' because you don't need to spend time on setting any parameters for each view except the quick Title change.
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II
I don't want my users to see the Folder View. How can I remove this View ?
Background: Many administrators feel that users should not be allowed to access the folder created within a document library as this just confuses them (and is pointless). However in the default version of STS a visible Folder View is created that is listed along with all the views a user *should* be using. The following amendment removes this
View from sight.

a. Go to Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\50\Templates\1033\Layouts\Doclib\SCHEMA.XML.

b. Make a copy of SCHEMA.XML and rename the copy.

c. In line 466 if using XML Spy otherwise the line after <View Base ViewID="3" .. include Hidden="TRUE" after ReadOnly="TRUE" and before Modify Version etc.

d. Save.

e. Test by creating a new document library and seeing that Folder View is no longer listed.

------------

Another solution is to remove the WebFldr.htm file from the document library.

This solution works for existing document libraries too.

(No guarantees, but the word has it that this solution is safe)

------------

I suggest a combination of the two solutions as the best way to solve this problem.
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III
How do I save an STS page as a file and retain all the variable data ?
Problem:

If you save an STS page from the browser you get the top and left-hand borders with contents if you save it as an .mht file but none of the variable data from the centre and right-hand columns.

Solution:

Save the page as a .pdf file.

Comments:

One way of doing this is to print to a .pdf file. One company that supplies such a print driver is Broadgun Software whose PDFMachine can be ordered at http://broadgun.com/pdfmachine/purchase.php.

I think they also have a restricted use free version available too.
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IV
How do I create a field where the Title is linked to the document ?
This is covered in Example 6 of the STS SDK. The code there is fine and it works, however if you don't want to lose the little .gif marked "New" that appears in the default version until midnight on the top-level page (default.htm), then you'll need to add the following (or similar) code.

<IfNew>
<HTML><![CDATA[<IMG SRC="]]></HTML>
<ImagesPath/><HTML><![CDATA[newlink.gif" alt="]]></HTML>
<HTML>New</HTML><HTML><![CDATA[">]]></HTML>
</IfNew>

before the final

</DisplayPattern>
</Field>
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IV
How do I use the 'Hyperlink or Picture' field type to make a thumbnail gallery?
This involves changes to the site templates and the pages used when creating and editing a column definition, but it IS possible.

Add a new 'ImageLink' choice in the 'Format URL as' dropdown box on the new/edit column definition pages, and modify the FLDTYPES.XML file to display the new format.

Full Details follow -

Upon completion, when defining/editing a column of type 'Hyperlink or Picture', a new option is given in the 'Format URL as' dropdown. The new format is ImageLink and if selected, the field will be rendered as an image typed in the description box linking to a URL (using the Web Address specified).

In the files _layouts/FLDNEW.HTM and layouts/FLDEDIT.HTM, scroll down and find the <Case> entry for URL:

<Case ExpandXML="TRUE" Value="URL">

<HTML><![CDATA[

<!-- URL -->

Here is where the 'Format URL as' dropdown is created and the format is (somehow) set. You will see two webbots that make the entries in the dropdown. Add a third webbot by copying the second one and changing every instance of the word Image to ImageLink and the word Picture to ImageLink. Listing 1 is the complete webbot (my formatting, it's one line in the file).

Remember to make these changes to BOTH _layouts/FLDNEW.HTM and _layouts/FLDEDIT.HTM. Make these changes in any (sub) web to make this format available in existing webs. If you make these changes to the SharePoint Templates, any new webs will have this new format option.

The next step is to modify the DisplayPattern for the URL field type to check for the ImageLink Format. In the SharePoint Templates XML folder, open FLDTYPES.XML in NotePad and scroll down to the field definition for the URL data type:

<Row>
<Field Name="TypeName" DisplayName="TypeName">URL</Field>

Listing 2 shows the complete code for the <Switch> tag that checks for the "Format"

Be sure to restart IIS after making these changes so the cache is cleared and it uses your new FLDTYPES.XML.

Instructions for use and a sample list using this customization are available at http://www.collutions.com/Lists/ImageGallery/

As usual, be sure to make back-up copies of any files before you modify them.

<!-- Listing 1 -->
<!--webbot bot="ListMiscXML"
ID="webbot10" clientside PREVIEW="List XML - Do not remove"
tag="TBODY" startspan -->

<OPTION value="ImageLink" id="onetidImageLink">
<LocID value="ImageLink" id="onetidImageLink">ImageLink</LocID>
</OPTION><!--webbot bot="ListMiscXML" endspan -->

<!-- Listing 2 -->
<Switch>
<Expr><Property Select="Format"/></Expr>
<Case Value="Image">
<HTML><![CDATA[ <IMG SRC="]]>
</HTML>
<Column HTMLEncode="TRUE"/>
<HTML> " ALT="</HTML>
<Column2 HTMLEncode="TRUE"/>
<HTML><![CDATA[">]]></HTML>
</Case>
<Case Value="ImageLink">
<HTML><![CDATA[<A HREF=" ]]></HTML>
<Column HTMLEncode="TRUE"/>
<HTML><![CDATA[ ">]]></HTML>
<HTML><![CDATA[<IMG SRC="]]></HTML>
<Column2 HTMLEncode="TRUE"/>
<HTML>" ALT="Click here to goto </HTML>
<Column HTMLEncode="TRUE"/>
<HTML><![CDATA[">]]></HTML>
</Case>
<Default>
<HTML><![CDATA[<A HREF="]]></HTML>
<Column HTMLEncode="TRUE"/>
<HTML><![CDATA[">]]></HTML>
<Switch>
<Expr><Column2/></Expr>
<Case Value="">
<Column HTMLEncode="TRUE"/>
</Case>
<Default>
<Column2 HTMLEncode="TRUE"/>
</Default>
</Switch>
<HTML><![CDATA[</A>]]></HTML>
</Default>
</Switch>
http://www.collutions.com/Lists/ImageGallery/
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III
I get "Could not provision SharePoint based website on 'Root Web' site." when I try to provision STS on my server. How do I correct this?
SharePoint Team Services (STS) is sensitive about the security settings made by IIS. More often than not, this error occurs when STS discovers that executables in its directories actually have execute permissions. The solution that works for most people experiencing this error is as follows:

1) Open the Internet Services MMC panel.
2) Expand the tree until you find the web site you are running STS on
3) Select the [Home Directory] tab
4) Change the "Execute Permissions" to "Scripts Only"
5) Hit Okay, close the MMC panel.
6) Open a command prompt and type "iisreset" (not required, but sometimes can make a difference)
7) Try to create your site again.

Thanks to Dustin Miller of FuseWerx LTD for this text.
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I can't create a SubWeb and get "Could not provision SharePoint Based Site on "XXXXX" Site. What's my problem and how can I delete the subweb that is then listed but isn't?
You probably have an incorrect ONET.XML file. The simple answer is to replace it with the original file and try again.

You will still have entries listed for your failed attempts at creating subwebs and you will be unable to delete these "subwebs". So the final step is to get rid of these.

Use SharePoint Administrator for the top-level site and set the following parameters in Server Health - Synchronize Database; Verify Existence of Webs; Check Roles Confirmation.

This should remove the entry. Check too that the sub-folder on your server with this name has also been deleted. If not delete it yourself.
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Where can I buy some FrontPage themes I could use in STS ?
At http://www.frontlook.com/

According to Dustin Miller "their templates and theme packs are pretty darn nice, and they work well with SharePoint Team Services".
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I want to keep the "New!" icon when I add a document for longer than the STS standard. How do I do this ?
When you add a document the default value is that a "New!" icon appears alongside the file name in the listing of documents. This icon then disappears at midnight.

A MS KB article (Q287523) at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q287523 explains how to turn off this feature (i.e. how to ensure that the "New!" icon never appears).

In the article there are two values - 0 (= never appears) and 1 (appears but vanishes at midnight).

However you can also use (for instance) a value of 5 which would mean that the "New!" icon would be visible on the site for 5 days (i.e. would vanish at midnight on the fifth day).
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q287523
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When I open a .chm file via STS I have an almost total loss in functionality. What is causing this and how do I resolve it ? (May apply to .hlp files too)
A .chm file with spaces in the name (e.g. "CMS Test.chm") will open completely correctly from the file system. When however the same file is opened from within STS, most of the functionality vanishes (you have to specify a search name to get anything).

The solution is to re-name the file to a name without spaces ("CMSTest.chm") and only then upload it to STS.

(Thanks to Dustin for finding this solution)
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Web Hosting
This section covers web hosting sites that specialize in or have qualified support for STS

- www.sharepointtips.com

- www.collutions.com

- www.webhost4life.com
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III
Is it possible for me to restrict access to certain lists and especially document libraries depending on who the users are?
The best and easiest way to solve this is to use the subweb function.

One method is to have an introductory main web with no authorization - i.e. everyone can access it. Then create subwebs that have different authorization to the main web and for these subwebs remove the ability of people to browse. Then assign the users in your group (one by one) to their subweb.

Documents that need to become available to just one set of users go to libraries (and list) in the correct subweb and documents that are available to all go to libraries and lists in the main web.

Note that in STS you can not assign a user group to a subweb and must assign users one-by-one. This has potentially the advantage that you can assign certain users to several subwebs and less powerful users to only one sub web.

If this method (within STS) of restricting access to documents is not enough for you, then you have to go to the file system and restrict access there - which takes us away from this STS FAQ.
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III
I can't upload any documents when the browser is configured for proxy server. How do I solve this problem ?
You need to add an Exception to the part of Internet Explorer where you have specified that you are using a proxy server.

In Internet Explorer:

1. Click Internet Options on the Tools Menu
2. Go to the Connections tab
3. Click the LAN Settings button
4. Click the Advanced button
5. Add the server name to the Exceptions box, excluding the http://
(i.e. yourserver.yourdomain.com)

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III
What is the SharePoint Timer Service and how do I use it to schedule jobs ?
The following MS article has all you need on the SP Timer Service and how to schedule such things as usage analysis and backing up the STS database.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/sharepnt/proddocs/admindoc/owsi05.asp
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II
Can I use the same STS site both stand-alone and as a part of Project Server ?
The MS STS Integration Architecture and Extensibility paper at

www.msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnproj2002/html/shptarch.asp?frame=true

which, despite the title, is a paper on Project Server, says very clearly that using the same site, both in its usual STS form and as part of Project Server, is not recommended.

The key phrase is that "if STS is already installed with another program ... MS Project Server Setup automatically configures STS *exclusively* (my stress) for MS Project Server." It goes on "It is recommended that you dedicate a physical server with STS to MS Project Server".
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Do I need separate servers for Project Server and STS ?
The paper refered to in II.20.1 includes three categories of deployment.

10-20 people - use the same server for Project Server; STS and MSDE

100 people - One server each for Project Server; STS; SQL Server

500 people (many projects) - One or more Project Server servers; several STS servers; one SQL Server server.
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