Error Creating Site Collection

When trying to create a new top level site collection the following error occurs:

Error Text:

Event log message was: 'The site template was not provisioned successfully. Delete this site collection in Central Administration, and then create a new site collection.'. Exception was: 'Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPartPageUserException: This page has encountered a critical error. Contact your system administrator if this problem persists. at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequestInternalClass.ApplyWebTemplate(String bstrUrl, String& bstrWebTemplate, Int32& plWebTemplateId) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.ApplyWebTemplate(String bstrUrl, String& bstrWebTemplate, Int32& plWebTemplateId) at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb.ApplyWebTemplate(String strWebTemplate) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.PortalProvisioningProvider.CreatePortal(String xmlFile, SPWeb rootWeb)'
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


The site collection is created in the site collection list but cannot be accessed via the URL.

Related Links


http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointadmin/thread/99edc3f7-a789-4b44-b1d1-77ab29a22903/
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointadmin/thread/3c682e3f-3456-4138-a06e-e826ee21e763/

SharePoint Reported Error (0x8000FFFF)

We were experiencing the error below when trying to Connect to Outlook from SharePoint, via the drop down actions menu.
















In the case of contacts we were trying to sync, sometimes the 1st connection was successful, but subsequent attempts failed. Outlook seemed to recognise that the a sync was trying to be established as the pop up list box was appearring in Outlook. Syncs from Outlook to SharePoint always failed with the same error: SharePoint reported error (0x8000FFFF): An error occurred either in Outlook or SharePoint. Not much help!

After drawing blanks on searching the web for people with the same problem, we performed a packet capture using netmon (Microsoft utility) and performed a Connect to Outlook. From the packet capture we found that SharePoint was trying to sync to the wrong url. We checked in the Alternate Access Mappings in Central Admin and found that we had an old url (one found in packet capture) in there (amongst the correct urls). Once this was removed the sync worked fine. Hope this helps anyone else who has experienced this issue.

Connect to Outlook Action is Missing

Using Outlook 2007, IE7 and SharePoint 2007 (Exchange 2003 backend mail system). The option to Connect to Outlook is missing from the Actions Menu. I have seen numerous posts with similar issuesbut nobody seems to provide a solution that works for me.

I have have Client Integration enabled on the back end:

Central Administration > Application Management > Authentication Providers > Edit Authentication

Some posts discuss how 'Connect to Outlook' works for some users but not others, it seems to affect all our users.

The following ActiveX control that appears as an IE7 add-in - called SharePoint Stssync Handler:



















From Jose Barreto's Blog, I have found that stssync is what is used to display the Connect to Outlook option:

http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2007/03/26/searching-the-visible-moss-2007-code-for-activex-references.aspx

StssyncServer Files: TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033\BFORM.JS, TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033\INIT.JSClient File: OWSSUPP.DLL Also Known As: SharePoint Stssynch HandlerFunction: Connect to Outlook to synchronize listsReference: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms456225.aspxNon-IE behavior: Option to "Connect to Outlook" will not show. You should be able register a client application to handle the stssync:// protocol.

Properties of the version of owssupp.dll in use.




















I'm not sure at the moment where to go from here, I will check with the Active Directory guys that nothing in Group Policy is stoping this control from running. If anyone has any ideas please let me know.

Assign a task to multiple users

By default when you try and assign a task to multiple users, SharePoint won't let you. this can be rectified in 2 ways.

1. Go to the list in question and then access the list settings, then edit the 'Assigned To' Column, there is the option to 'Allow Multiple Selections', this needs to be set to 'Yes'.

2. At the Site Level: Site Actions > Site Settings > Modify All Site Settings > Galleries - Site Columns. Find the 'Assigned To' column and click on it amend the option to 'Allow Multiple Selections', to be set to 'Yes'.

Employee Training Scheduling and Materials - Change My Registrations Button Text

To change the Course Booking Button from ‘My Registration’ to ‘Book This Course’ or any other wording please follow the steps below.

Go to the page that contains the ‘My Registration’ button: Upcoming courses > Name of course.

From this page select: Site Actions > Edit Page.

Then modify the courses web part (default name is Courses_1):

Edit > Modify Shared Web Part

On the side panel select XSL Editor

In the Text Entry box that is displayed find the 2 occurrences (one for each button) of the line below (don't select the speech marks at either end of the code):

input class="ms-ButtonHeightWidth2" type="button" value="My Registration" name="btnFormAction1"



And replace the ‘My Registration’ text with text of your own:

input class="ms-ButtonHeightWidth2" type="button" value="Book This Course" name="btnFormAction1"



Then press Save.

Employee Training Scheduling and Materials Template

I have been looking at a way of recreating our existing Employee Training Course Booking system - .asp pages with a backend access database, to our SharePoint Environment. I have been investigating the Fantastic 40 template - Employee Training Scheduling and Materials.

Wss Demo do some great demos of the Fantastic 40 Templates:

http://www.wssdemo.com/application/default.aspx

The template is easy to install and initially looks promising, with some nice features - it sends email reminders and confirmations both to those attending and those running the courses, and allows for post course satisafaction surveys to be completed.

However a key limitation is that the template does not allow for a manager to book one of their team on a course. The booking has to be made by the end user.

Looking at the template I have made a couple of minor tweeks that I'll post about in more detail shortly. The tweeks are editing the course button name from 'My Reservation' to 'Book Course' which seemed to be more obvious. I also amended some of the auto emails that get sent out, to hyperlink to the Training Team Site rather than tell you to go there.

I have also seen a few other sites that detail a bug around a user cancelling a course and the number of course attendees not getting updated correctly:

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/dez/archive/2007/09/19/employee-training-and-scheduling-template-a-couple-fixes.aspx

The permissions as to who can do what task on the template also don't seem that straightforward. I would be interested to understand if anyone has the template running successfully in the corporate environment?

Tag Cloud, Most Searched

Looking into how to deploy a Tag Cloud to show most searched upon items:

http://www.codeplex.com/smartsearch - SmartSearch
http://www.wsssearch.com/tagging.html - Tag Cloud
http://www.kwizcom.com/ProductPage.asp?ProductId=517&ProductsubnodeId=518 -Tagging