Loopback Check configuration Tool released – free download

Hi All.

It is here! Free for all! DOWNLOAD

I am happy to announce that the Loopback Check Tool has finally been made available at Codeplex – https://loopbackchecktool.codeplex.com
No more last minute t-shooting the loopback check and ending up disabling it, trying to find the KB or a decent blog post on how to do it.

This Tool takes care of it all for you. Download the exe, put it on your servers, run it to configure the Loopback Check feature simple and easy.

Its simple.
Its small (21kb zipped)
Only click and make it happen
No installation, one single exe that works on most Windows Servers (and clients)
Disable the Loopback check completely (Not recommended)
Enable or Disable the Loopback Check function
Enable it and add excluded URLs (Recommended, now easy to do)

This is a preview image of what the tool looks like

The tool works fine on:

Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2008
Windows 7
Windows 8
Windows 8.1
And probably a few more…

References:

You receive error 401.1 when you browse a Web site that uses Integrated Authentication and is hosted on IIS 5.1 or a later version
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861/en-us

A quick guide to configuring the Loopback check
https://blog.blksthl.com/2013/05/07/a-quick-guide-to-configuring-the-loopback-check/

DisableLoopbackCheck & SharePoint: What every admin and developer should know.
http://www.harbar.net/archive/2009/07/02/disableloopbackcheck-amp-sharepoint-what-every-admin-and-developer-should-know.aspx

Thanks to:

Herakles and Gutke!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Enjoy!

Regards

Twitter | Technet Profile | LinkedIn

What’s New for SharePoint 2010 Development in Visual Studio 2012 RC

I previously added some info references to the new and coming Visual Studio, that has some new really nice features for us SharePoint fans. This time I have installed the smokin hot new RC of Visual Studio 2012 and I’ll here give you a taste of whats to come, in pictures….

As you can see, the GUI is all Metro now, the logo and all parts of Visual Studio have been Metrofied. Not bad…

Not bad at all….

We have the following project types to select from in the RC. I suspect that there will be change here come release time.
(in 2012 we have 12 templates default in 2010 for SharePoint 2010)

New items list…

And the really nice remote publishing possibility.

For a more complete list of news in VS 2012, see: What’s New for SharePoint 2010 Development in Visual Studio 11

Enjoy!

Regards

Comment out – any way you can

Always, when you want to comment out something, I notice what language I’m in and can never remember what the comment out is for a perticular language…so, I have compiled what I usually work with withing the boundaries of SharePoint.

Hope they can help you as well.

Trasact SQL
Comment out a single line:
— Comment out this row

Comment out a paragraph:
/* Comment out this
entire paragraph spanning
over several rows */

DOS
Comment out a line:
: Comment out this row
(Yes, the starting ‘:’ is what does it…)

HTML/Java/Asp
Comment out a row or paragraph:
<!– Comment out this row or an entire paragraph/section from start to stop –>

PowerShell
Comment out a single row:
# Comment out this row

CSS/Stylesheet
Comment out a row or paragraph:
/* Comment out this row or an entire paragraph/section from start to stop */

C#
Comment out a single row:
// Comment out this row

C#
Comment out a row or paragraph:
/* Comment out this row or an entire paragraph/section from start to stop */

VBScript
Comment out a single row:
’ Comment out this row

XML
Comment out a row or paragraph:
<!– Comment out this row or an entire paragraph/section from start to stop –>

Enjoy!

Regards

What’s New for SharePoint 2010 Development in Visual Studio 11

The Visual Studio team has released some info on what’s coming in Visual Studio 11, or rather Visual Studio 2012 as it will be released as.

You will find the Beta list here:
What’s New for SharePoint Development in Visual Studio 11 Beta
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee290856(v=vs.110).aspx

I think that we can assume that the list will be updated with a SharePoint 15 list later on as it gets closer to release. That is a list that will be really interesting to read.

There are quite a few goodies here for 2010, for instance:
Publish SharePoint Solutions to Remote SharePoint Servers
more on this is available here:
Deploying, Publishing, and Upgrading SharePoint Solution Packages

You can now publish a solution directly from Visual Studio to a remote server.

If you want more, read more on the respective links.
Enjoy!

Regards

A guide to Branding and SharePoint Foundation part 2

A guide to Branding and SharePoint Foundation
Part 2

Part 1 | Part 2 |

This is the part two of the series trying to cover the tweaks needed to get a starter branding going on a SharePoint Foundation installation.

In part 1 I tried to explain why the most common method of using the $PUrl to get the relative path does not work and also how to customize the masterpage in order to insert a custom favicon without the use of $SPUrl. Now I will cover how to add a custom CSS to your master without the use of $SPUrl.

The most common method on a SharePoint server is to add this line:

<SharePoint:CssRegistration name=”<% $SPUrl:~sitecollection/Style Library/My Branding/MyStyles.css %>”After=”corev4.css” runat=”server” />

After the default CSS loader:

<SharePoint:CssLink runat=”server” Version=”4″/>

But since the use of $SPUrl is unavailable to us, we need to find something else. If we use a hardcoded path it will work as long as the master is deployed only in the site collection root, but if we want to use the same master in all subsites(spwebs) as well, then we need a way to get the relative path from the sitecollection root. In my SharePoint Branding Project Foundation adaptation I solved it like this:

<asp:literal runat=”server” Text=”<link href='”/>
<SharePoint:ProjectProperty Property=”SiteUrl” runat=”server” />
<asp:literal runat=”server” Text=”/Style Library/My Branding/MyStyles.css’ rel=’stylesheet’ type=’text/css’/>”/>

What the code does is that it builds a new href link that point to the custom css deployed to the site collection style library, same as the <SharePoint:CssRegistration would, it renders a link and loads the css. If we want the custom css to be applied after the default, then we also need to add these lines before the default css line.
The trick to this is the use of the webcontrol SharePoint:ProjectProperty that is available for use in Foundation as well as Server. This will give you the URL to the Site Collection root, for example:

http://www.mycompany.com/sites/finance

Putting two literal contols before and after the webcontrol to fill in the text needed for a complete link tag is all that is needed.

This solution works very well for me, I hope that you will also find some help in my suggestion.

See also part 1, on how to add a custom favicon to your Foundation master

Stay tuned!

Regards

A guide to Branding and SharePoint Foundation part 1

A guide to Branding and SharePoint Foundation
Part 1

Part 1 | Part 2 |

SharePoint branding is something that most everyone wants to do, the default design is pretty good and stylish but it get dull and it does not fit in with any organizations brand book or design policy. A lot of posts have been written on the subject of SharePoint branding, many books have been published and most of what can be covered has been covered. What I found though during my work with the SharePoint Branding Project, is that there is a lack of information about branding and Foundation. Lots of organizations run Foundation, the reasons for doing so are many but the facts remains, SharePoint Foundation 2010 has a very large installed base. So, can’t we just buy the book on SharePoint branding and implement it in our Foundation farm? The answer to that question is most of the time no, or rather, not very likely. SharePoint Server has one vital component that Foundation lacks, it has a publishing infrastructure feature. In most cases the publishing components are used for some vital parts of a branding package, the most common one that you will see in almost every post is the

<% $SPUrl:~sitecollection/pathtosomething/%>

The SPUrl token is very handy when storing files in a centralized location in SharePoint, like for example the ‘sites/mycompany/style library/’. Lets use the FavIcon as an example in the first part.

This tag would in Server farm pick the FavIcon image out from the site collection root. In Foundation you would see an error similar to this:

‘The expression prefix ‘SPUrl’ was not recognized. Please correct the prefix or register the prefix in the <expressionBuilders> section of configuration.’

Accessing CSS or Image files in the Style Library is easy using the $SPUrl expression builder to get the relative Site Collection Root URL(/sites/mycompany) or even the current Web Root URL. In Foundation the SPUrl token can’t be used so we need something else. One solution is pretty easy, just enter the relative path:

For the Site Collection Root the path would resolve to:

http://webapplication/sites/mycompany/Style Library/My Branding/Images/favicon.ico

Perfectly allright, the favicon would be loaded. This is a great solution, with one huge flaw. If you have the branding implemented in all of your subsites then the path will be correct only in the root. Since the path is relative, it would in an example subsite look like this in the master:

For my SubDivision subsite the path would resolve to:

http://webapplication/sites/mycompany/subdivision/Style Library/My Branding/Images/favicon.ico

Not ok! The load would fail since the favicon.ico is not located there. So, the permanent relative is only good for a site collection root with no subsites. You could obviously add the file to every subsite so that the path would work, but that is not really an option in most cases. So, how do we do it then…? In my own SharePoint branding project I use this workaround to replace the <link rel=’shortcut icon’ token:

<asp:literal runat=”server” Text=”<link rel=’shortcut icon’ href='”/>
<SharePoint:ProjectProperty Property=”SiteUrl” runat=”server” />
<asp:literal runat=”server” Text=”/style library/my branding/images/favicon.ico’/>”/>

It is a workaround, but it works. This will in reality build a relative path to the Site Collection Root even in the subsites and it will build up the <link> token by using 2 literal asp controls and the SharePoint:ProjectProperty control that is available in Foundation. The result in runtime will be the same as for a URL built on the $SPUrl expression builder.

Add this to your Masterpage and you will have a functional FavIcon that uses a relative path.

Stay tuned!

Best regards

SharePoint Branding Project

SharePoint Branding Project

Download: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/7237a2e1-a7b5-4b12-bc56-c62c805c01e7

– Please review the project if you download and use it, use the above link! –

This template is used to create a new SharePoint branding solution wsp package, the package includes custom masterpage, stylesheet, logo and favicon. The wsp includes an activation and deactivation feature as well as a childweb eventreciever to apply branding on all subsites when created.

The SharePoint Branding Project is created by
Thomas Balkeståhl
Technical Specialist SharePoint
Enfo Zipper
BLKSTHL – Blog

Version 1.15 (NEW! Now also with minimal master and search styles. Added in 1.15 full support for SharePoint Foundation added)
Revision 1.0

Facts:
This project is built for SharePoint Server 2010, SharePoint Foundation 2010 and Visual Studio 2010. It is a Site Collection Feature and activation will replace the master and the site logo, it will also add a favicon and a custom css.

Version:

1.1. Included is a minimal masterpage and basic Search classes. The minimal masterpage are used in a search center instead of the normal master. The MyBrandingMinimal.master will be deployed to the masterpage library and will be available to select in the site settings/Masterpage settings for a search site. Added to the MyStyles.css are also classes to support basic Search and Search Results styles. The included styling can easily be edited to suit your own needs. Deploy the solution as normal and then manually change the masterpage for the search site to the mybrandingminimal.master.

1.15 Now included support for Foundation. Because of the limitation in SharePoint Foundation that makes $SPUrl unavailable when getting a relative URL to the current sitecollection, code for foundation that replaces $SPUrl has been added. Instructions on how to configure this in included in the project inline and in the readme file. The SharePoint component affected are the custom CSS, the Favicon and the site logo. These can now be placed in the site collection root and still be accessable in the subsites that uses the same masterpage.

Usage:
After installing the vsix template to your Visual Studio 2010, Start a new project, select a new SharePoint 2010 Branding project, give it a name and create the project. Then enter a URL to your SharePoint 2010 sitecollection in the Project Properties, under Site URL.

(remember, the template will only be installed to the user that executed the vsix file.)

Farm vs. Sandboxed
The project is by default configured as a sandboxed code, so If your farm is running in Sandboxed mode or if your site is an Office365 then you can deploy it as is. If your farm does not have the sandboxed code service running, then you need to configure this project to be deployed as a farm solution. This setting is available in the project properties. To deploy as a farm solution – Set the value ‘Sandboxed solution’ to False. (requires the user to have SharePoint administrator privileges to deploy the solution)

SharePoint Foundation 2010
The project support usage on SharePoint Foundation with slight modifications, the $SPUrl has to be replaced with a relative or absolute link, or a different approach that uses a similar method to the $SPUrl that is available on Foundation.
The reason for this is that the $SPUrl in a publishing function and as such it is only available on SharePoint Server 2010.
See Version 1.15 above.

Deployment
To deploy the project to the designated site, Build menu – Deploy Solution (requires Visual Studio to run with elevated privileges, ‘Run as Administrator’).
To deploy in production, build the project in Build menu – Deploy Package. The wsp package will be located under <Your Projects folder>\ProjectName\ProjectName\Bin\Debug\ProjectName.wsp
Deploy the wsp to your farm using PowerShell(Requires Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.Powershell):

Add-SPSolution -LiteralPath <SolutionPath>
(Add-SPSolution -LiteralPath c:\solutions\ ProjectName.wsp)

Install-SPSolution -Identity <SolutionName> -WebApplication <URLname>
(Install-SPSolution -Identity ProjectName.wsp -WebApplication http://www.company.com)

Redeploy:

Update-SPSolution -Identity ProjectName.wsp -LiteralPath c:\solutions\ProjectName.wsp -GACDeployment

A deployed solution will show as a Site Collection feature, this will have the same name as you r Visual Studio Project, activating it enabled all of the branding, deactivating it will replace the master with v4.master and remove the logo.

Customizing:
Modify the existing components to get the design and branding that is required. The components that can easily be edited and/or replaced are:

Logo
favicon
StyleSheet
Master Page

Logo : The logo is in this version placed as a URL property in the ‘Title, Description, and Icon’ section of Site settings. This can be changed to have the logo in the masterpage, look up the SharePoint:SIteLogoImage> section in the master and follow the instructions inline. Remember to comment out the logo adding in the featureactivated section in the main.EventReceiver.cs

<SharePoint:SPLinkButton runat=”server” NavigateUrl=”/” id=”onetidProjectPropertyTitleGraphic”>
<SharePoint:SiteLogoImage name=”onetidHeadbnnr0″ id=”onetidHeadbnnr2″ style=”padding-left: 15px;padding-top: 10px;padding-bottom: 10px” LogoImageUrl=”<% $SPUrl:~sitecollection/Style Library/My Branding/Images/Logo.png %>” runat=”server”/></SharePoint:SPLinkButton>
(sample code for server, available in the readme file)
This will make the masterpage always show the logo, remember that the logo setting in site settings may override the masterpage SiteLogoImage. USing this method will also allow you to set a fixed link on the logo, so that it always points to the site collection root for instance.
(Code modification to the master needed to work on SharePoint Foundation)

Favicon : Replace the favicon.ico file in the ‘Style Library/My Branding/Images/ catalog. The ico file should be a real ico image and have a size of 32×32.
(Code modification to the master needed to work on SharePoint Foundation)

StyleSheet : Edit the styles in the included stylesheet MyStyles.css located in the ‘Style Library/My Branding/’ catalog. Or replace the file with your own using the same name. You can also add another CSS and refer to it in the master(se comments in master on how).
Add to this file the classes you need to style. (You can use F12 developer toolbar to find out which class to style.)
(Code modification to the master needed to work on SharePoint Foundation)

MasterPage : Edit the included master to suit your needs. The included master is a very lightly modified copy of the V4.master. Do not replace it or change its name, if you do, then you have to know what references in other places have to be changed as well.

The SharePoint Branding Project by BLKSTHL is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) License