Distribution lists in SharePoint

In SharePoint, we can manage the users by assigning the permission levels to groups. We can do that by setting up individual users of Active directory groups. We can do that in two ways using Security groups in site and using distribution groups.

A distribution group is used to send emails for not security-enabled users. We cannot list the distribution groups in discretionary access control list that are used to define the permissions. By selecting security groups users will not be accessible to my sites. User groups will be dedicated to only a specific site.

We can create SharePoint distribution groups by navigating security and clicking on the Approve or reject distribution groups in Users section.

Create new Item in the distribution group by clicking on new item link

Enter details of the item like group title, Alias name, Description, Owner Email details. Click on ok to save details. Here justification is message to the user who approves the requests in the distribution groups. We can see the requests in the list once it is approved.

Gantt view errors in SharePoint site- “Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException: This view requires at least Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0, Mozilla FireFox 3.0, or Apple Safari 3.0.”

In SharePoint 2010, sometime we try to browse the gantt index pages, we can see the error as “Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException: This view requires at least Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0, Mozilla Firefox 3.0, or Apple Safari 3.0.” as shown the image below.

We can get this error when user agents in SharePoint are not permitted to crawl the content in SharePoint index server. We can fix this by changing Gathering manager value in Registry. To do that Start -> Run -> Regedit

Navigate to following path,

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\14.0\Search\Global\Gathering Manager

In Gathering Manager, Search for “User Agent” and edit the value. Update the value to

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.1; Trident/4.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; InfoPath.3; .NET4.0C; MS-RTC LM 8; Tablet PC 2.0)

Click on Ok Save the settings and restart the server.

Document information panel in SharePoint

Document information panel in SharePoint contains Meta data about document. This will enables users to enter metadata regarding the document. Documents stored in library will contain other columns to show metadata. Document information panel will display the field for each content type property or column that user can edit.

Document management panel allows users to enter metadata for Microsoft based documents that stored in SharePoint. This will not display by default with the document. We have show this by changing the settings for content type.

We can enable document information panel using the steps below,

Navigate to SharePoint Document library Settings page, Click on the content type which to enable Document Information Panel should be enabled.

Click on Document Information Panel Settings in settings section.

In Document Information Panel Templates section, we can specify the default template or custom template. Select “Always Show Document Information Panel on document open and initial save for this content type” Check-box in Show Always section, Click on OK to save the settings.

By editing the document uploaded to document library we can see the fields as shown below.

SharePoint user profile service error: An error was encountered while retrieving the service

While working with SharePoint user profile through code, I got an error when accessing the user profile from user profile manager. Stack trace has thrown the error as,  

Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserNotFoundException was unhandled
  Message=An error was encountered while retrieving the user profile.
  Source=Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles

I have checked in User profile service that account crawled correctly or not. Yes it is there. Iam able to get the user in SharePoint user picker as expected. I have googled about the issue for some time. I have fixed the exception using an article from technet. Tip shown in the blog post fixed my error.

Actually iam getting the error from following code line 

UserProfile currentUser = profileManager.GetUserProfile("Domain\UserName")

Here profilemanager is UserProfileManager object. After changing “\” to “\\” in user profile my issue got fixed. I have replaced my code line with 

UserProfile currentUser = profileManager.GetUserProfile("Domain\\UserName")

Simple. Hope this will help you.

Difference between Cumulative updates, Service Packs and Public Updates

While applying the updates in SharePoint I have a lot of confusion every time in Cumulative Updates, Service Packs and Public updates. By going through articles in TechNet and some of blog posts, i have found the following differentiation among them.

Service Pack:

It’s an update or combination of previous updates helps to make our product more reliable. It includes new fixes, functionality additions and all fixed that released previously (means Previous Service packs, Cumulative updates). That means if MS people released a service pack recently means that contains all the list of features up to date.

Service packs will not be multilingual. We have to download and install separate service packs for each installed language. We must install service packs for specific product as soon as possible. Microsoft provides all the latest fixes and updates in Service pack. There are no prerequisites for Service pack installations because each service pack includes all the recent updates from product release. Service Packs will not release frequently.

Cumulative Update (CU):

Cumulative update is collection of all the hot-fixes up to date. Generally Office hot fixes are released for every two months in a package. It includes fixes for all the issues collected from hot-fix accepted criteria that related to customer impact or reproducible. 

Cumulative update also includes critical on-demand hot fixes and security updates. It includes all the previous cumulative updates and public updates from previous service pack release. Cumulative updates are multilingual. It includes fixes for all languages. To install CU in our machine,, we have to install recent service pack related to that product (If released). 

Generally cumulative updates are not mandatory to install. We can install them to fix any issue. While downloading CU itself we can see the applicable scenarios in KB article page. There is lot of chances to affect the system. So we have to check before installation or advised by Microsoft people support to install. Cumulative updates releases frequently for a second month like (Feb, April, June, Aug, Oct, Dec)

Public Update and Critical On Demand:

Public update includes product fixes that applicable to large number of customers. Public update also applies for multilingual. To install public update we have to install most recent service pack if released. Sometimes Public Updates may have prerequisites for Cumulative updates also.  Public Update includes security fixes and it is recommended to install ASAP.

Critical On Demand will applicable for less number of customers facing critical problem. It will applicable for a specific problem or issue. COD is not multilingual. We have install COD’s on Microsoft people recommendations only.