Adding a search scope

Add content sources

1. On the Shared Services Administration page, in the Search section, click Search settings.
2. On the Configure Search Settings page, in the Crawl Settings section, click Content sources and crawl schedules.
3. On the Manage Content Sources page, click New Content Source.
4. On the Add Content Source page, in the Name section, in the Name box, type a name for the content source.
5. In the Content Source Type section, select the type of content you want to crawl by using this content source.
6. In the Start Addresses section, in the Type start addresses below (one per line) box, type the URLs from which the search system should start crawling.
7. In the Crawl Settings section, select the behavior for the type of content you selected.
8. In the Crawl Schedules section, you can specify when to start full and incremental crawls
9. Click OK.
10. Repeat steps 4 through 9 for any additional content sources you want to create.

 Create a new scope

1. On the View Scopes page, click New Scope.
2. On the Create Scope page, in the Title and Description section, in the Title box, type a title for the scope.
3. In the Description box, type a description for the search scope that informs administrators what the purpose of the scope is.
4. In the Target Results Page section, select one of the following:
   • Use the default Search Results Page Select this option if you want search results from this search scope to be presented by using the standard Search Results page.
   • Specify a different page for searching this scope Select this option if you want search results from this search scope to be presented on a custom page. If you select this option, type the URL for the custom search results page in the Target results page box.
5. Click OK.

Add Scope to Site

1. On the Site Collection Site Settings page select Search Scopes under Site Collection Administration
2. Click New Scope
3. Give the scope a Title and Description
4. Select which Display Groups the scope will be added to
5. Select the Target Results Page
6. Click OK
7. Back on the Scopes page, select Add Rules to add content to the scope
8. In Scope Rule Type, select Content Source
9. In Content Source, select the Content Source you created earlier
10. Select the Behaviour
11. Click OK

Good to Go!! Your new scope will start running within 15 minutes, as Search Scopes are updated every 15 minutes.
If you need the scope to run earlier you can run the update earlier by going to the SSP Admin page, clicking Search Settings and On the Configure Search Settings page, in the Scopes section, click Start update now.

Sources:
- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263230.aspx
- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261916.aspx
- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261860.aspx

Shared Services Provider creation failed

When attempting to create a new SSP I came accross this error:

Failure!

Shared Services Provider creation failed

Reason: User Cannot be found.

Check event log for details.

Note: SSP provisioning will be retried periodically.  If you correct the error that caused this failure, provisioning will subsequently succeed.  To stop provisioning from being retried, delete the SSP.

This is because when creating a new SSP, the owner of the Central Administration site(primary site collection administrator) is specified as the owner of the SSP admin site. The problem described occurs if the owner (primary site collection administrator) of the Central Administration site no longer exists or has been changed. Changing the primary site collection administrator of the Central Administration site to a valid Active Directory account or returning it to the account required will fix the problem.

1. Go to SharePoint Central Administration -  Application Management
2. Click Site Collection Administrators under the SharePoint Site Management group
3. Make sure you select the Central Administration Site Collection
4. Update the Primary and secondary Site Collection Administrator accounts

Alternatively, use stsadm siteowner to change the site owner to the correct one.

Moving Meta Data

To move the content of a document library along with it’s meta data try the following:

1. From the originating document library, use Export to spreadsheet to export content and meta data
2. Sort by name
3. Create a new view on the destination library that shows all metadata in the same column order as your spreadsheet – and order by Name!
4. Bulk upload the documents to the library root
5. In the new library open in Datasheet view and paste your metadata column data
6. Go back to standard view and check-in files.

Left (current) navigation missing when creating a basic or web part page

I had to create some new pages for a site I was working on and hit a bit of a problem when the left navigation was missing. Ok, no worries, lets consult t our trusty friend Google (Bing too sometimes). Well I didn’t immidiatly find any solutions, so my solution was to copy an existing page with navigation, and edit that. Solved the problem but why was it happening in the first place?

It would seem that the left side navigation is defined in the Master Page in the “PlaceHolderLeftNavBar” content place holder, and when creating a new basic page, or Web Part Page, they are overriding this content place holder and deleting its content.

If you dont want to copy an existing page like I did above, or you dont have one to copy, an easy solution is to change the page so it will not override the menu place holder, but inherit it from the Master Page. The two place holders we are looking for are: “PlaceHolderLeftNavBar” and “PlaceHolderNavSpacer”.

You can open the page in SPD and remove the following two lines.

<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId=”PlaceHolderLeftNavBar” runat=”server”></asp:Content>
<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId=”PlaceHolderNavSpacer” runat=”server”></asp:Content>

When you save the file you’ll get a warning saying you’re about to customize the page. That’s fine, go ahead.

Useful Tools

Here are some useful tools I have come across recently:

SharePoint SUSHI

SharePoint Manager 2007

SharePoint Content Deployment Wizard

 

Updating a fab40 helpdesk field – or – Updating a .resx

You have seen those lovely fab40 templaltes by Microsoft in use? Well I am currently dealing with their helpdesk solution, which isn’t too bad by the way, as it does its job nicely. Well I had to make a change to the Status field and found it a bit difficult to do as I had to follow two completely different instructions to achieve the result. Here are my notes:

1. Locate the required resource file (in this case hlpdsk.resx)

(C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\Resources)

2. Modify the SRStatus_Choice data as required

<data name="SRStatus_Choice1" xml:space="preserve"><value>Initiated</value></data>
<data name="SRStatus_Choice2" xml:space="preserve"><value>Engaged</value></data>
<data name="SRStatus_Choice3" xml:space="preserve"><value>Resolved</value></data>

3. Locate the feature and modify the schema.xml as required

(C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\HelpDeskServiceRequestsList\servicerequest)

<Field ID="{75AF1E7D-39F1-45db-908A-B7AD3F26531A}"
             Type="Choice"
             Name="Status"
             DisplayName="$Resources:hlpdsk,SRStatus;"
             StaticName="Status"
             Required="TRUE"
             Sealed="TRUE"
             Format="Dropdown"
             FillInChoice="FALSE"
             SourceID="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3"
            >
            <Default>$Resources:hlpdsk,SRStatus_Choice1;</Default>
            <CHOICES>
              <CHOICE>$Resources:hlpdsk,SRStatus_Choice1;</CHOICE>
              <CHOICE>$Resources:hlpdsk,SRStatus_Choice2;</CHOICE>
              <CHOICE>$Resources:hlpdsk,SRStatus_Choice3;</CHOICE>
              <CHOICE>$Resources:hlpdsk,SRStatus_Choice4;</CHOICE>
       <CHOICE>$Resources:hlpdsk,SRStatus_Choice5;</CHOICE>
            </CHOICES>
      </Field>

4. Stop and Start the corresponding IIS web application

Whats this waste of Space for?

I am a noob to SharePoint, and I am loving it. I have been involved with a number of SharePoint projects over the last two years, and have decided to switch from my usual day job to get involved with SharePoint. I am very excited to be working in this field, and look forward to blogging about my experience. And maybe at some stage I can get rid of the Noob part!

Anyways this blog is for me a place where I can just write about what I am up to, what I am learning, and just as a repository for my thoughts and experiences. I’ll also be posting some how-to’s depending on what is already out there, I know I have had some issues already that the blogosphere is pretty silent about.