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

List of all SharePoint Back-End databases

SharePoint stores end-user content and application configurations across multiple relational databases in the back-end database servers. At a high level, the following are the relational databases:

 Configuration database: Stores topology and configuration information for the complete deployment. Every farm has exactly one configuration database. For information about the configuration database protocols, see Configuration Database.

 Central Administration content database: Stores content associated with the Central Administration site.

 Shared Services Providers (SSP) database: Stores content and configuration for Shared Service Providers (SSPs), such as the user profile services. The capabilities of SSPs are described in [MS-SPFEPO], Section 2.2.2 (Shared Service Provider).

 Shared services administration content database: Stores content for the shared services administration site.

 Content database: Stores all end-user and site content. For information about content databases and protocols, see List and Library Storage.

 Search property store: The search metadata index that stores properties related to pieces of content that are indexed for full-text querying. For information, see section 7.4.1.1.2.

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[MS-SPBEPO] SharePoint Back-End Protocols Overview – v1.0

[MS-SPBEPO]: SharePoint Back-End Protocols Overview

Copyright © 2008 Microsoft Corporation.

Release: Friday, June 27, 2008

 Single sign-on database: Stores credentials for end-users to access information from external applications through SharePoint. For information about the protocols used to access the single sign-on (SSO) database, see Business Data Catalog Protocols.

As described by Microsoft in SharePoint Back-End Protocols Overview

SharePoint stores end-user content and application configurations across multiple relational databases in the back-end database servers. At a high level, the following are the relational databases:

1. Configuration database: Stores topology and configuration information for the complete deployment. Every farm has exactly one configuration database.
2. Central Administration content database: Stores content associated with the Central Administration site.
3. Shared Services Providers (SSP) database: Stores content and configuration for Shared Service Providers (SSPs), such as the user profile services.
4. Shared services administration content database: Stores content for the shared services administration site.
5. Content database: Stores all end-user and site content.
6. Search property store: The search metadata index that stores properties related to pieces of content that are indexed for full-text querying.
7. Single sign-on database: Stores credentials for end-users to access information from external applications through SharePoint.

Quickest way to copy files from GAC

Yes, I know how painful it is to realize that you can not copy an assembly out from Global Assembly Cache (GAC), at least not by usual way of copying a file from a windows folder. Don’t worry, there are some ways to do it and the quickest way to browse the GAC and copy files from it is to just map a drive on Windows\Assembly folder.

Here you go, 

1. From Start-Run type cmd to launch command prompt
2. Type subst Z: C:\windows\Assembly and press Enter
3. Thats it!

Now, you got a drive Z which is mapped to your GAC folder and you can easily open it in Windows Explorer and copy files from it.

Isn’t it easy?

How to hide user name in Sharepoint Survey?

If you want to hide the identity of the user who responded your survey, just perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to your survey page
2. Click Settings and then click Survey Settings



3. Under General Settings click Title, description and navigation link



4. Under Survey Options, select No for the question Show user names in survey results?



5. Click Save

Now, check your survey and you will see that all user identity fields like Created By and Last Modified By will just show *** instead of the original user name.

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“ />

How to remove or Extend New! Item tag for Sharepoint List Items

Whenever you add a new item in any Sharepoint list “New!” item tag displays against that item for a time being. The time to display this tag depends on a property called “Days to Show New Icon”. The value of this property determines the number of days to display the New! tag against an item.

If you set this property to zero then newly added items will not have this tag. On the other hand if you want to display this tag to be displayed longer then usual then you can set its property in number of days as per your requirement.

Following is the step-by-step procedure to do that:

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt. 
2. Type the following commands, and then press ENTER after each command:
   - cd /d %programfiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\BIN
   -  stsadm.exe -o setproperty -pn days-to-show-new-icon -pv 0 -url [Your Virtual Server's URL]

Moving Sharepoint Portal from one server to another server

I found following article quite informative to move Sharepoint Portal from one server to another server.

http://www.sharepointforum.com/en-US/Wiki/Forms/DispForm.aspx?ID=7

It describes step-by-step procedure to move databases from one machine to another machine and how to attach them.

How to disable My Site functionality?

If you want to disable My Site or My Links functionality, here are the steps to follow:

1. Open Central Administration site
2. Under Shared Services Administration click your Shared Services Provider (SSP) which is running your  My Site functionality
3. Under User Profiles and My Sites, click Personalization  Services Permissions
4. Here you can assign different permission set for different users and groups for Personalization functionality.  For example
   1. To disable My Site functionality for all users click NT Authority\Authenticated Users group and uncheck Create personal site
   2. To disable My Links uncheck User personal features
5. Click Save
6. Repeat above steps to individually manage Personalization for different users and groups

Cannot start service SPAdmin on computer

It is really frustrating if you see the error “Cannot start service SPAdmin on computer” after running Sharepoint Product and Technologies Wizard when you know that there is nothing wrong from your side. After researching on internet I found an article here which describes four possible solutions. In my opinion, the fourth solution is the best and works 90% of the time. Following is the solution (All credit goes to original author):

Step 1

On the machine where psconfig failed to start the SPAdmin service run:

%commonprogramfiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\BIN\psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait -force

Step 2

Modify the service timeout values in the Registry:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control add/modify DWORD value ServicesPipeTimeout to 60000 (60 seconds)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control add/modify STRING value WaitToKillServiceTimeout to 120000 (120 seconds)

Step 3

Restart the server machine.