Anyway, I get lots of requests from people asking if this web part will work in MOSS 2007/wss 3.0, so I thought I would answer that question. The answer is: yes, with some manual work on your part. I have not had the time to create a new setup program for the web part, so you will have to do the steps manually to get it working on your Sharepoint server. I plan to update the setup soon, like within the next couple of months, but for those of you who do not want to wait, here are the manual steps. 

1. Download the zip file here
2. Unzip the file to a directory on your sharepoint server, doesn’t matter where, just remember where you unzip it
3. Once unzipped, browse to SqlQueryWebPart -> SqlQueryGridSetup -> Release and you will see a file called SqlQueryGridSetup.CAB
4. Right click on the SqlQueryGridSetup.cab file and choose open. We need two files from this cab, SqlQueryGrid.dll and SqlQueryWP.dwp. Copy them to the root of the directory you created in step 2.
5. Bring up a separate windows explorer window on the server and browse to c:\windows\assembly. Drag the file SqlQueryGrid.dll into the assembly folder. This makes the dll available to all websites
6. In Windows Explorer, browse to the folder where your sharepoint site is located, for example c:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\virtualdirectories\<sitename> and open the web.config file
7. Find the tag SafeControls tag and you should see several SafeControl Entries. After the last one (right before the closing SafeControls tag) add this line:

   <SafeControl Assembly="SqlQueryGrid, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=ad5cb0df57c0fdff" Namespace="SqlQueryGrid" TypeName="*" Safe="True" />

8. Save the web.config file
9. The last step is to upload the SqlQueryWP.dwp file to your web part gallery. Open Internet Explorer, and go to http:///_catalogs/wp/Forms/AllItems.aspx. Click the upload button and upload the dwp file. You should now be able to browse to this web part and add it to a page.

Please let me know if you have any issues, I am going to try to update the installer to work with wss 3, but I think these steps should be fine as a workaround for now.

Upgrade Plugin
Downloading update from http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/download-monitor.2.2.3.zip
Unpacking the update
Removing the old version of the plugin
Could not remove the old plugin
Plugin upgrade Failed

With some help from Patrick Burch, I found out this can be fixed by providing Physical Path Credentials in IIS. In previous versions of IIS, you could only use this feature when using UNC paths. It mainly existed as a way to connect to a virtual directory on a remote machine using a fixed set of credentials. In IIS 7, this feature was expanded so that it could also be used with local directories. I have searched for a good security guide on IIS 7 with WordPress, but most of what I have seen is geared towards WordPress on Apache. So, I have played around with a couple of settings to try to enable one click plugin upgrades while at the same time keeping a secure configuration. 

DISCLAIMER: I have to admit that I have not read the security guide for WordPress, and I am only mildly familiar with the new security settings in IIS 7. So there is a possibility that what I have done to fix this problem may open some kind of security hole. You must make your own determination when changing security settings on your servers. I am only reporting what worked for me to fix a specific issue. I will not be held responsible for security changes you make to your own systems.

1. Make sure your Application Pool identity is a user account (not Network Service)
2. In IIS Manager, right-click on your website –> Manage Web –> Advanced Settings
3. Click the … button in the Physical Path Credentials box.
4. Specify the account you are using for the Application Pool Identity
5. Find the wp-content folder under your web site, right click and choose Edit Permissions…
6. Go to the Security Tab, then click Add and enter the Application Pool Identity account. Give the account modify rights
7. Click OK until you have closed out of the security dialog
8. Reset IIS
9. Test plugin update

We could have given rights to just the plugins directory, but you will still need the ability to do uploads as well, so I just went with wp-content

Please feel free to comment if you are an expert on this subject and see problems with this post.

A web part title bar with scripted rounded corners that can be displayed with or without a border.

Background

I wanted to create Sharepoint web part title bars with curved corners, and my search of the web led me to a couple of really good articles that got me started. Heather Solomon’s Post on Branding Sharepoint discusses how you can use gif files of the rounded corners to do this. I knew I did not want to use images since there are plenty of scripting solutions out there for creating rounded corners on the fly, but Heather’s post was invaluable in knowing which styles I would need to modify. As I am sure you have heard, Sharepoint is a horrible mix of tables, css styles, and inline styles, so it was great that someone had already waded through this problem and documented it.

I had been following Paul Grenier’s series about JQuery for Sharepoint at the EndUserSharepoint site, so I started searching for a way to do rounded corners with JQuery. I found a JQuery Plugin for Corner’s that is documented here.

I did not want to get into editing master pages, or creating custom style sheets for my solution, I wanted to keep it a simple solution that could be added on a page in a content editor web part, and would only affect the rendering of that page. Obviously, if you are interested in having curved web part corners on every page of your site, then you could adapt this solution for that. But for demo purposes, my solution has the following guidelines:

1. The jquery script libraries are stored as two files in a document library on the site.
2. A content editor web part contains a reference to the two script libraries.
3. The content editor web part also has a couple of styles defined that override the styles inherited by the site
4. The content editor web part has all of the scripts.

So, while this is not the best solution for a site wide change, it is perfect for testing and getting a feel for what you can do.

Solution

1. Pick a document library on your site to store the two jquery library files. Upload these two files to the document library
   1. jquery-1.3.1.js – This is version 1.3.1 of the jquery.js library
   2. jquery.corner.js – This is a rounded corner plug-in for jquery.
2. Edit the page you want the rounded corner’s to appear on, and add a Content Editor Webpart. Edit the web part, choose Source Editor, and paste the following code into the web part, without the line numbers. Be sure to adjust the line where the script libraries are referenced to point to the document library you used for step 1.

<style type="text/css">

.ms-WPHeader TD h3 {
margin: 0;
padding: 3px 0px 2px 5px;
height:24px;
}

.ms-HoverCellInActive {
margin: 0;
padding: 3px 0px 3px 0px;
height: 10px;
//}

.ms-WPBorder {
border-color: #85B2ED;
border-width: 1px;
}

</style>

<script type="text/javascript" src="<a href="http://site/Documents/jquery-1.3.1.js%22%3E%3C/script">http://site/Documents/jquery-1.3.1.js"></script</a>>
<script type="text/javascript" src="<a href="http://site/Documents/jquery.corner.js%22%3E%3C/script">http://site/Documents/jquery.corner.js"></script</a>>

<script type="text/javascript">
//Change these variables
var backColor = "#85B2ED"
var textColor = "white"

AddWebPartCorners();

function AddWebPartCorners(){
    $(".ms-WPHeader TD h3").css("color",textColor);
    $(".ms-WPHeader TD h3 a:link, .ms-WPHeader TD h3 a:visited").css("color",textColor);
    $(".ms-WPHeader TD h3").css("background-color",backColor).corner("tl 7px");
    $(".ms-WPHeader td").css("padding-right","0px");
    $(".ms-WPHeader td").css("border-bottom","0px");
    $(".ms-HoverCellInActive").css("background-color",backColor).corner("tr 7px");
}
</script>

How Does it Work?

Lines 1-20 provide overrides for a couple of styles that are set by Sharepoint in the Core.css file. There are 3 classes we are concerned with here, .ms-WPHeader TD h3, .ms-HoverCellInActive, and .ms-WPBorder.

Above is a sample of the table that is used for the Web Part Header. It consists of one row and two columns. Here is an overview of each style.

1. .ms-WPHeader TD h3 – This is the style for the the web part title column. I is  I use it to hard code a height and control the padding. I tried finding a way around this, but, the problem is that the .ms-HoverCellInActive tag is a div, and from what I have researched, you can’t set the height of a div to fully fill a table cell unless that table cell has a height.
2. .ms-HoverCellInActive – This is the style for the second column in the header. It is the portion of the web part where the menu selector is placed. It is also the place where we need to have the second rounded corner. Again, I am hard coding a height here, and setting the padding so that this div lines up with the first column.
3. .ms-WPBorder – This is the style that controls the border of the content portion of the web part. I wanted to be able to match the border with the color I use for the web part title bar, so I just copied the style for it into here. You need to set this color manually to match whatever color you choose for the web part title bar.
4. .ms-WPHeader td – This style is not labeled above, but it controls the style for each column in addition to the styles above. I am handling the styling of the .ms-WPHeader td with script, so it is not defined in the style section. But basically it is used to remove the bottom border of the web part title bar and more importantly to remove the right padding for the HoverCell. If this right padding is not removed, the web part title bar does not cleanly line up with the border on the right side.

Lines 22-23 add a reference to our two script libraries. Remember to point these to the location where you downloaded them. It could be a relevant site link, but for my purposes I didn’t want to have to change the line based on which level of the site it was placed at.

Lines 25-40 are where the actual rounding work is done. This is a script block.

Line 27 and 28 are variables used to hold the background color of the Webpart title bar and the text color. If you are using a dark background color you will most likely want to change the text color to a light color.

Line 30 is just a call to the function defined in Lines 32-38

As for the function, most of the code should be self-explanatory. Lines 33 and 34 just set the color of the text.

Line 35 sets the background color of the first column, and then calls the actual corner function of our library. Because this is the first column, I am only rounding the top-left corner (tl) with a radius of 7px.

In lines 36 and 37, I am changing the style for .ms-WPHeader td. This is used to remove the padding for the HoverCell column, and to remove the bottom border of both columns.

And finally, line 38 sets the background of the HoverCell column and rounds the top right corner of it

What I have and have not Tested

Working with stylesheets requires that you take into account different browsers that might access your site. In my case, this is an internal intranet site where the browser is controlled. So, I have only verified this with IE 7. I did test in Firefox, and it did not work, but Sharepoint has other problems with Firefox anyway. I have tested on both a MOSS site and a WSS team site. On a WSS team site, the Links web part does not appear to be styled the same as others, so I will have to research that further. There may be other web parts that do not use the same styles. If you run across others, let me know. I tested using the default theme, and also with a theme we had customized internally.

Where to go from here?

I’m not sure how much more work I will put into this, as it accomplishes the goal I set out to achieve. But others may want to build on this or may have a better way to handle the css. Jan Tielens has written a Feature for Sharepoint that will include the JQuery library for you (though I’m not sure that it will include the jquery.corner plugin), and I plan to investigate that. As stated above, Paul Grenier has a huge collection of cool things you can do with JQuery and Sharepoint. If you want to round the corners of the quick launch bar, there is an article at Share The Learning for that. I had a few problems getting it to work, but it was a great resource for this project. And finally, if you want to include any of this site wide, Heather Solomon is the place to go for customization tips.

And I love the mention of Compute magazine. Code samples you couldn’t download. Thanks Scott!

Symptom 1

A web part page with a dataview web part that connected to a SQL Server datasource was giving the following error message and stack trace:

Server Error in ‘/’ Application

The type is not registered as safe

Stack Trace:

 

[UnsafeControlException: The type is not registered as safe.]

   Microsoft.SharePoint.EditingPageParser.VerifyControlOnSafeList(String dscXml, RegisterDirectiveManager registerDirectiveManager, SPWeb web) +948

   Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.DataFormWebPart.get_DataSources() +186

   Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.DataFormWebPart.AddDataSourceControls() +69

   Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.DataFormWebPart.CreateChildControls() +1583

   System.Web.UI.Control.EnsureChildControls() +87

   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +44

   System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +42

   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +171

   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +171

   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +171

   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +171

   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +171

   System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +842

The Sharepoint site had many pages with similar dataview web parts, and most of these were still working. The only clear difference with this one was that it was connected to a form web part on the page.

Symptom 2

After opening the Sharepoint site, or any of its subsites, I was unable to view data for either existing database connections or new database connections. For example, when clicking Manage Data Sources, I could see the database connection that had been defined. If I clicked the drop down box and chose ‘Show Data’, I received the following error:

“The server returned a non-specific error when trying to get data from the data source. Check the format and content of your query and try again. If the problem persists, contact the server administrator.”

If I tried to define a new database connection, I could connect to the database, and I could see the schema because a list of tables was being returned. However, as soon as I clicked ‘Show Data’ I got the same error above.

Root Cause

The problem was a missing section of XML in the web.config file that defines the SQL Data Sources. The web.config file was the first place I looked, since the ‘Type is not registered as safe’ usually means there is not a safe control entry in the file. However, in this case, the control was not a custom web part, it was a default Sharepoint web part, and it looked like all of the defaults were listed in Safe Controls.

After doing some file comparisons with some older web.config files, we discovered that the following code was missing from the current web.config file.

<pages enableSessionState="false" enableViewState="true" enableViewStateMac="true" validateRequest="false" pageParserFilterType="Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationRuntime.SPPageParserFilter, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" asyncTimeout="30">
 <namespaces>
 <remove namespace="System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts" />
 </namespaces>
 <tagMapping>
  <add tagType="System.Web.UI.WebControls.SqlDataSource, System.Web,  Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"
mappedTagType="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.SPSqlDataSource, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" />
 </tagMapping>
</pages>

We were able to trace the problem back to a web part installation of Lightning Tools Forum that happened a couple of weeks ago. The Lightning Tools Forum web part consisted of two features. One of them was a .Net Framework 3.5 Feature that added all of the entries needed for .Net 3.5 into the web.config file. We had some problems with this feature, and during troubleshooting, it was activated and deactivated several times. So either the deactivation removed the section, or it was accidentally removed by me in the process. (On a side note, We got the Lightning Tools Forum web part to work without the .net 3.5 feature)

Maybe later I will write an introduction to that title, but for now, just know that
I am in charge of a corporate network that has been using My Documents redirection
in combination with Offline Caching for many, many years. I am convinced the cost
overhead involved with this technology far outweighs and productivity gains that we
get. Don’t get me wrong, I believe offline caching has its place, just not as an all
encompassing corporate policy. Also, this is not meant to bash Microsoft. I just want
them to realize the real world frustrations that come from using a technology they
promote so heavily.

Reason Number 1

File caching is done on a per-system basis, so files cached by users other
than the primary user who log onto the computer will have their files permanently
added to the offline cache, even if they never plan to login to the system again.
The only way to override this is to manually enter the primary user name in a registry
key, and remember to change it whenever the primary user of the computer changes.

One thing many people don’t realize is that offline file caching is not per-user,
but per system. Take this scenario:

You are redirecting documents administratively by using My Documents redirection
in group policy and choosing to make the files available offline. The primary user
of the computer logs in and logs off, synchronizing his My Documents folder. Now a
local cached copy exists for all of the files in his My Documents folder.

Now an administrator comes along, and he logs into the computer. Because he has
the same group policy, his My Documents folder is redirected and made available offline.
Now the offline file has files that appear like this:

File Name	File Path
text1.txt	\\server\share\home\user1
text2.txt	\\server\share\home\user1
text1.txt	\\server\share\home\admin 1>
text2.txt	\\server\share\home\admin 1>

 

User 1 now logs back into the computer, and when he goes to log off, his files
and the administrators files are synchronized. Supposedly, offline caching tries to
deal with this by looking at network security and making sure user1 only tries to
synchronize files he has permissions to. But the admin files are still there.

On top of that, lets say you decide \\server\share is
a bad design for home shares because it is tied to a server. So you decide to change
the path for all home shares to \\domain\dfs\home.
Even if you get this working correctly for user1, you may still have problems because
admin1 is still pointing to the old removed share in the cache. This means you need
to run csccmd and move shares so that all the shares are moved.

Anyway, one way to deal with all of this was added in a hotfix that was included in
Windows XP SP2. As the article explains, you are given the option to set registry
keys and designate the primary user of the computer. In the future, all other user
files cached are discarded at logoff.

Below is the KB Article (KB 811660) that references the registry changes that need
to be made.

Files that you add to the Offline
Files folder on a Windows XP-based computer are synchronized when another person uses
the computer

I created the notebook on the My Site page in the Personal Documents library. But
I occassionally get sync errors when moving between locations like this:

This section contains changes that cannot be synced because access to the
section file is denied. correct the file permissions or save your copy of this section
elsewhere.

I have seen this error before, and I have seen it resolve itself, but tonight I decided
to try to find an explanation when it popped up at home. It appeared only one section
was causing the problem. This section appeared to be pointing to a valid sharepoint
location if i hovered over it in OneNote. So I decided to clear out any reference
to it on my laptop and just pull down the web copy. To do this, I closed OneNote and
then browsed to C:UsersusernameAppDataLocalMicrosoftOneNote12.0 and deleted
the file called OneNoteOfflineCache.onecache. I also moved the folder for the notebook
that existed in the backup folder. When I started OneNote again, I showed my notebook
with no sections, but as I synced every section appeared.

Obviously the danger here is that I could have made changes on the notebook at home
that had never synced with sharepoint. Deleting the offline cache in this scenario
would probably cause me to lose data, so if you follow my instructions, make sure
you have a backup of the notes.

I will continue to watch for the problem and post if I find any other answers.

In Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 the system registry resides in the following files:

NTUSER.DAT. – this file contains the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive

SAM. – this file contains the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHIVE\SAM hive

SOFTWARE.  this file contains the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHIVE\SOFTWARE hive

SECURITY. this file contains the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHIVE\SECURITY hive

SYSTEM. this file contains all other subhives of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHIVE such as SYSTEM

NTUSER.DAT is located in the Documents and Settings\<username> folder. The other
four files are located in the Windows\system32\config folder. Sometimes, you can also
find copies of registry files in the Windows\repair folder

Make sure to choose load hive from regedit (not import).