Adding the pdf icon to WSS or MOSS implementation.

These steps will add the pdf icon to any pdf document in document libraries.

Steps:

1. Save the following icon as pdficon.gif or download an icon from: http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html
   
   2- Make sure that you download the 17 x 17 icon.
   
   1. Add the PDF icon. “pdficon.gif to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Template\Images
   2. open with an xml editor Docicon.xml file located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Template\xml
   3. Within the tag add the following Mapping tag
   
   
   Make sure it is in alphabetical order and the value equals the name of the icon file.
   
   4. Save the Docicon.xml file
   5. Restart IIS.
   6. Check a document library you should now see a pdf icon next to all pdf documents.
   
   
   

Configuring WSS search to index pdf files, (installing and configuring pdf ifilters

Configuring WSS search to index pdf files, (installing and configuring pdf ifilters Pdf documents are used in many organizations as much as office documents, yet MOSS or WSS 3.0 does not support searching for these documents. In order to enable sharepoint search service to index and include pdf documents in the search results, pdf ifilters must be installed. The following steps explains how to configure the ifilters for WSS 3.0. Please note that this is for the 64 bit OS but the same steps will apply for 32 bit OScas well, the only difference is that you will need to download the correct ifilter in step 2 1. Follow the instructions to add the pdf icon to the WSS front servers. 2. Download and then install the Adobe PDF IFilter 9 for 64 bit platform from the following Adobe Web site: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4025

For 32 bit: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2611

(Please note that the pdf ifilter is included in iFilter functionality is now bundled within the Acrobat and Reader products so if you installed any version of Acrobat starting version 7.0.5 then the ifilter is already installed)
3. Extract the contents of "PDFiFilter64installer.zip" to your local drive.
4. Double click "PDFFilter64installer.msi" to launch the installer.
5. Follow the instructions in the installer wizard to complete the installation 6. Once you’ve installed the IFilter on your WSS 3.0 server, and then follow the instructions below:
The following is a copy of the Microsoft KB Article 927675 that details the instructions needed to edit the registry settings. 1. Add the following registry entry, and then set the registry entry value to pdf: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\Search\Applications\\Gather\Search\Extensions\ExtensionList\38
To do this, follow these steps:
a. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
b. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\Search\Applications\GUID\Gather\Search\Extensions\ExtensionList
c. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click String Value.
d. Type 38, and then press ENTER.
e. Right-click the registry entry that you created, and then click Modify.
f. In the Value data box, type pdf, and then click OK.
Verify that the following two registry subkeys are present and that they contain the appropriate values.

Note These registry subkeys and the values that they contain are created when you installed the Adobe PDF IFilter on the server.
o HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\.pdf
This registry subkey must contain the following registry entry:
Name: Default
Type: REG_MULTI_SZ
Data: {4C904448-74A9-11D0-AF6E-00C04FD8DC02}
o HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\Search\Setup\Filters\.pdf
This registry subkey must contain the following registry entries:
Name: Default
Type: REG_SZ
Data: (value not set)
Name: Extension
Type: REG_SZ
Data: pdf
Name: FileTypeBucket
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x00000001 (1)
Name: MimeTypes
Type: REG_SZ
Data: application/pdf
Upload the PDF documents to the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Web site.
Stop and then start the Windows SharePoint Services Search service. To do this, follow these steps:
. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
a. Stop the Windows SharePoint Services Search service. To do this, type net stop spsearch at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.
b. Start the Windows SharePoint Services Search service. To do this, type net start spsearch at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.
c. Type exit to exit the command prompt.
Final Note:
You will need to restart a full crawl if you added any PDF documents to the site before you installed the Adobe PDF IFilter on the server. To do that use STSAdm, use the following command

Stsadm -o spsearch -action fullcrawlstart,

This will allow the Windows SharePoint Services Search service crawls the existing PDF documents again.

Office 2010 is offered on the Web

It seems that Microsoft is moving to the Cloud offerings as expected. Microsoft has announced that the next version of Office will include Web-based versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and OneNote. Microsoft has offred Exchange and SgarePoint on the web a few moth ago. Offering office 2010 as a free service does not mean that the desktop version will not be available, Microsoft will still provide the desktop version that includes more features than the what they are offering on the cloud. This is in addition to Microsoft Live Office Workspaces, which lets users of the desktop Office suite collaborate online, Office Web Apps will be full lightweight versions of the products, allowing users to create, edit, save, and share docs on the Web. And, like obvious competitor Google Docs, Office Web Apps will be available for free.

“Office Web applications will be available in three ways: through Windows Live, where more than 400 million consumers will have access to Office Web applications at no cost; on-premises for all Office volume licensing customers including more than 90 million Office annuity customers; and via Microsoft Online Services, where customers will be able to purchase a subscription as part of a hosted offering.”
Following Google Docs, which requires a Google account, Microsoft will require Microsoft Windows Live account in order to use Office Web Apps. Microsoft says that the new version of Office and its accompanying Web version won’t be available until the first half of next year but Microsoft launched a preview site and a series of videos.
One change for Microsoft Office 2010 is Groove that now has a new name: Microsoft® SharePoint Workspace 2010. This reflects the focus of Microsoft on SharePoint as their fastest growing product ever and their focus on expanding the integration between Office and SharePoint. The change involve more than just having a new name, SharePoint Workspace 2010 expands the boundaries of collaboration by offering fast access, online and off, to all SharePoint content. Synchronize SharePoint libraries and lists to your computer with just a few clicks, and then easily update documents and forms offline.

CSC to Resell Cloud-Based Microsoft Online Services

Cloud computing is getting to be the buzz word these days with many companies racing to add cloud services to their offerings. Many companies either offer the service directly to clients or they develop partnership with consulting firms that can add value to their service. One example to this type of alliance is between CSC and Microsoft. CSC as global leader in IT consulting with revenue of 16.4 Billion last year (Fortune 500 position was 142 in the overall list and 2 in IT consulting sector) would be a natural choice for working with Microsoft in reselling their Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), part of Microsoft Online Services. The service is designed to help businesses easily and securely adopt cloud computing solutions across public, private and hybrid cloud networks, this agreement will allow our customers to reduce the costs of managing and maintaining business systems and give them access to Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Office Communications Online and Microsoft Office Live Meeting. This agreement will allow CSC will integrate Microsoft Online Services into its Trusted Cloud Services portfolio, which includes enterprise-class Cloud Orchestration Services, Trusted Cloud Services and World Class Consulting Capabilities. Given the powerful position that CSC has in the government sector, you will expect to see a great success for that partnership.

Error configuring SSO in MOSS 2007

Configuring SSO service on Moss 007 should be a smiple operation…well sometimes. Some times when you want to create the SSO database and configure single sign-on on MOSS 2007 you get an error:

You do not have the rights to perform this operation

Well, this is a user rights issue. I am not stating the obvious and that anyone can figure that we can guess that from the error message. You check the account that you used to log into the MOSS Central admin page and you are sure that you used the MOSS central admin account. This is why this error is confusing. If you use the MOSS Central admin account why would you get that error and how can you resolve the issue? The solution is to use the same service account of SSO service as the SSO Administrator Account at the "Manage Server Settings" page and you have to log in to the Central Administration site with the SSO service account to configure SSO.

I hope that will help someone out there.

What to do to restore a closed web part?

I received a call from a client today asking me in panic what to do to get a web part that he closed by mistake.
Web parts closed using the close button (the x button) they are just hidden but not deleted, that means that the web part loads on the page but will not be visible to the user. To be able to view a closed web part and restore the functionality is to add (?content=1) to the page url as shown:
http://yoursite/whatever/default.aspx?contents=1

The best way to remove a web part is using the delete web part option after you put the page in the edit mode.

Microsoft released 10 new SharePoint themes

On March 19th, Micrsoft released a set of ten Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint projects containing designed themes for SharePoint. The themes looks great and i am sure many intranets will chnage their theme now that we have these new ones.
To downlooad the new theams click here

Microsoft has announced the release of the February cumulative patches on their SharePoint team blog. Here is the information from the update notice:

February Cumulative Update Uber Package for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Version: 12.0.6341.5002)


Detail description

Description of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 cumulative update package: February 24, 2009

Description of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 cumulative update package: February 24, 2009

Installation Recommendation for a fresh SharePoint Server

The recommended installation sequence is:

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack 1
The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 1
February Cumulative Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
February Cumulative Update for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

There is also a VISIO ifilter hotfix that is a seprate downloaded that you can get here

After applying the preceding updates, run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard or “psconfig –cmd upgrade –inplace b2b -wait” in command line. This needs to be done on every server in the farm with SharePoint installed.
The version of content databases should be 12.0.6341.5000 after successfully applying these updates.