SharePoint / WSS 3.0 SQL Database not found error

While reading the newsgroups, I found a neat solution to share with my readers. If you have deleted content databases of a site collection but you are still getting an error similar to the following in error log

SQL Database ‘WSS_Content_345′ on SQL Server instance ‘DBS1′ not found.

It is because SharePoint config database still has a record of deleted database and trying to connect to it.

Solution:

Run the deletecontentdb stsadm command similar to the following :

stsadm -o deletecontentdb -url http://wss.company.com/sites/name1

-databasename WSS_Content_2

stsadm -o deletecontentdb -url http://wss.company.com/sites/name1

It will delete the old database entry from SharePoint Config database.

How to display Web Part Maintenance Page in SharePoint

Often your web part page starts behaving strangely or giving you errors due to some buggy script or web part. This sometimes even stops you to open page in edit mode because of Java Script errors.

Don’t worry, there is a very simple way to delete those web parts. Just append ?contents=1 at the end of the URL of respective page and SharePoint will open the Web Part Maintenance Page for it.

For example, if the URL of problematic page is

http://MOSServer/Test/default.aspx

then Web Part Maintenance Page url will be

http://MOSServer/Test/default.aspx?contents=1

How to fix Cannot run Windows SharePoint Services on this page?

If you are getting “Cannot run Windows SharePoint Services on this page…” error while trying to upload multiple files in Sharepoint and you are banging your head against the wall then don’t worry you are not alone It is the shared pain by many of us facing the legacy errors of FrontPage Server extensions in Sharepoint. This error occurs if you modify Upload.aspx located in layouts folder. First and foremost, do not modify the standard upload.aspx or any other standard file in Sharepoint as it is not supported by Microsoft and your change will be overwritten by any new service pack or hot fix.

So having said that, if you have made a copy of upload.aspx, customized it and trying to use it then you may certainly face this error. Following is the solution to fix it:

1. Open your copy of upload.aspx and search for 
   <input TYPE="hidden" NAME="_charset_" VALUE="utf-8"><!--webbot bot="FileUpload" endspan i-checksum="45034" -->
2. Update the following string as follows
   <input TYPE="hidden" NAME="Cmd" VALUE="Save"><!--webbot bot="FileUpload" endspan  -->
3. Save your file.
4. Reset IIS
5. Try to use the file in Sharepoint and Bingo!!!! no more error :):)

How to solve “Unable to connect publishing custom string handler for output caching”

If you are getting “Unable to connect publishing custom string handler for output caching“ error in your event log then it is because of a custom web service you have installed on your Sharepoint server. Reason for this error is that you have a web part on your portal page which use the custom web service. Now, since Sharepoint uses output caching for the web pages to optimize the rendering experience and fast delivery of unchanged pages therefore, publishing infrastructure of Sharepoint tries to access the web service through your web part and due to any issue in your service, it starts generating this error.

Anyway, cutting a long story short, here is the solution:

Edit the web.config of custom web service (Please do not edit your Sharepoint Web application web.config) and make sure you have following under httpModules node which is located under system.web node. 

            <remove name=“PublishingHttpModule“ />