Living with SharePoint

Sunday, September 28, 2014

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Configure Crawl Rules in Sharepoint 2013

To create or edit a crawl rule

1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is an administrator for the Search service application.

2. In Central Administration, in the Application Management section, click Manage Service Applications.

3. On the Manage Service Applications page, in the list of service applications, click the Search service application.

4. On the Search Administration page, in the Crawling section, click Crawl Rules. The Manage Crawl Rules page appears.

5. To create a new crawl rule, click New Crawl Rule. To edit an existing crawl rule, in the list of crawl rules, point to the name of the crawl rule that you want to edit, click the arrow that appears, and then click Edit.

6. On the Add Crawl Rule page, in the Path section:

In the Path box, type the path to which the crawl rule will apply. You can use standard wildcard characters in the path.

To use regular expressions instead of wildcard characters, select Use regular expression syntax for matching this rule.

7. In the Crawl Configuration section, select one of the following options:

I. Exclude all items in this path. Select this option if you want to exclude all items in the specified path from crawls. If you select this option, you can refine the exclusion by selecting the following:

Exclude complex URLs (URLs that contain question marks

Select this option if you want to exclude URLs that contain parameters that use the question mark (?) notation.

II. Include all items in this path. Select this option if you want all items in the path to be crawled. If you select this option, you can further refine the inclusion by selecting any combination of the following:

Follow links on the URL without crawling the URL itself. Select this option if you want to crawl links contained within the URL, but not the starting URL itself.

Crawl complex URLs (URLs that contain a question mark (?)). Select this option if you want to crawl URLs that contain parameters that use the question mark (?) notation.

Crawl SharePoint content as http pages. Normally, SharePoint sites are crawled by using a special protocol. Select this option if you want SharePoint sites to be crawled as HTTP pages instead. When the content is crawled by using the HTTP protocol, item permissions are not stored.

8. In the Specify Authentication section, perform one of the following actions:

To use the default content access account, select Use the default content access account.
If you want to use a different account, select Specify a different content access account and then perform the following actions:

1. In the Account box, type the user account name that can access the paths that are defined in this crawl rule.

2. In the Password and Confirm Password boxes, type the password for this user account.

3. To prevent basic authentication from being used, select the Do not allow Basic Authentication check box. The server attempts to use NTLM authentication. If NTLM authentication fails, the server attempts to use basic authentication unless the Do not allow Basic Authentication check box is selected.

To use a client certificate for authentication, select Specify client certificate, expand the Certificate menu, and then select a certificate.
To use form credentials for authentication, select Specify form credentials, type the form URL (the location of the page that accepts credentials information) in the Form URL box, and then click Enter Credentials. When the logon prompt from the remote server opens in a new window, type the form credentials with which you want to log on. You are prompted if the logon was successful. If the logon was successful, the credentials that are required for authentication are stored on the remote site.
To use cookies, select Use cookie for crawling, and then select either of the following options:

1. Obtain cookie from a URL. Select this option to obtain a cookie from a website or server.

2. Specify cookie for crawling. Select this option to import a cookie from your local file system or a file share. You can optionally specify error pages in the Error pages (semi-colon delimited) box.

To allow anonymous access, select Anonymous access.

Click OK.

To test a crawl rule on a URL

1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is an administrator for the Search service application.

2. In Central Administration, in the Application Management section, click Manage Service Applications.

3. On the Manage Service Applications page, in the list of service applications, click the Search service application.

4. On the Search Administration page, in the Crawling section, click Crawl Rules.

5. On the Manage Crawl Rules page, in the Type a URL and click test to find out if it matches a rule box, type the URL that you want to test.

6. Click Test. The result of the test appears below the Type a URL and click test to find out if it matches a rule box.

To delete a crawl rule

1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is an administrator for the Search service application.

2. In Central Administration, in the Application Management section, click Manage Service Applications.

3. On the Manage Service Applications page, in the list of service applications, click the Search service application.

4. On the Search Administration page, in the Crawling section, click Crawl Rules.

5. On the Manage Crawl Rules page, in the list of crawl rules, point to the name of the crawl rule that you want to delete, click the arrow that appears, and then click Delete.

6. Click OK to confirm that you want to delete this crawl rule.

To reorder crawl rules

1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is an administrator for the Search service application.

2. In Central Administration, in the Application Management section, click Manage Service Applications.

3. On the Manage Service Applications page, in the list of service applications, click the Search service application.

4. On the Search Administration page, in the Crawling section, click Crawl Rules.

5. On the Manage Crawl Rules page, in the list of crawl rules, in the Order column, specify the crawl rule position that you want the rule to occupy. Other values shift accordingly.

Configure Best Bets in SharePoint

SharePoint 2013 Preview transforms all your old Search Keywords or Best Bets into Query Rules .

So let’s create a Query Rule that fires on the exact query ‘image library’ or ‘picture library’, then promotes a result for the Image Library to the top of the page.

First, we’ll go to the Query Rules management page. On your search center’s upper-right-hand corner, click the gear icon, then select Site Settings.

Next, on the Site Settings page, under the Search heading, click Query Rules. Note that you may see a Search Query Rules link under Site Collection Administration. This happens if you’re the Site Collection administrator and the search center is the site collection’s root site. Don’t click that one; those Query Rules affect every site in the site collection, and for now we want to focus only on the search center site.

Now that you’re on the Query Rules page, the first question to ask is “Where will the user be?” For example, do you want to manage Query Rules for your main Enterprise Search? Or for People Search? Or Video Search? Each search experience, out-of-the-box or custom, can have its own Query Rules.

This is what we call the query’s context. You configure Query Rules for a particular context by using that first row of dropdowns in the Query Rules management page.

To manage Query Rules for a specific search experience, use the first dropdown to pick the Result Source for that experience. We’ll go into Result Sources in another post — for now, think of them as a SharePoint 2010 Federated Location plus a Search Scope. Each search experience sends queries to a Result Source, and that source guarantees results meeting certain conditions. For instance, People Search sends queries to the Local People Results source, which only returns People results.

We want our new Query Rule to fire on the main Enterprise Search. That search experience sends queries to the Local SharePoint Results source (which includes everything SharePoint crawls except People). So choose Local SharePoint Results from the first dropdown.

Next, click Add Rule to start creating your new rule.

Having picked a context, we just need to give the rule a name, then specify its conditions and actions. In other words, say when this rule will fire, and what it will do when it does. This is very similar to creating a Search Keyword in SharePoint 2010:

1. Give the rule a name: Image Library.

2. In the Query Conditions section, leave the condition type on “Query Matches Keyword Exactly”. In the textbox, type the queries we want to match, separated by semicolons: image library; picture library.

3. In the Actions section, since we want to promote a result to the top of the page, click Add Promoted Result. These are just like Best Bets in SharePoint 2010.

4. In the Add Promoted Result dialog, fill out the title, URL, and description.

5. Click Save in the dialog, then Save in the Add Query Rule page.

And that’s it…you’ve created a Query Rule! To try it out, go to your search center and search for ‘image library’ or ‘picture library’ (note that it can take a few seconds for the Query Rule to start working).

This Query Rule, while simple, demonstrates the high-level steps for creating all Query Rules.

Pick the context (e.g., queries sent to the Local SharePoint Results source).
Specify the conditions (e.g., fire if the query exactly matches ‘image library’ or ‘picture library’).
Specify the actions (e.g., promote a result for the Image Library).

Upgrade Nintex workflows

VERIFY & CONFIGURE NINTEX WORKFLOW CONSTANTS

From the home page of the upgraded site, navigate to Site Actions -> Site Settings -> Manage Workflow constants (under Nintex workflow Management)
Ensure all the Nintex workflow constants (Site level and Site Collection level) are configured.

RE-PUBLISHING NINTEX WORFLOWS

Access the list/document library which contain the Nintex workflow.
From the ribbon, navigate to List -> Workflow settings -> Manage Workflows
Open each available Nintex workflow and re-publish

Upgrade Infopath Forms

RE-PUBLISH INFOPATH FORMS

Download the infopath form from the current job library, on the upgraded site.
Right click on the downloaded xsn file and open the form in design mode.
Click on File -> Publish -> Export Source ( to a local folder).
Access the local folder where the source is stored and locate the manifest.xsf.
Right click on the manifest.xsf file and open it in notepad.
In the notepad, find for the url of current site and replace it with the url of the upgraded site.
For example:-
Replace http://apdc.oneabbott.com/showcase/workflow/BTR2020 with http://team.oneabbott.com/showcase/workflow/BTR2020
Save the manifest.xsf.
Right click on the manifest.xsf file and open it in the design mode.
Execute the below steps for each data source added to the infopath (from the Manage Data source section).

Click on Manage data source link form the infopath.
Click on the first data source and click Modify.
Continue to click “Next” until the dialog display the parameters to be passed to the web service calls.
Verify if the url of the current site is passed as one of the parameters. If so, then replace the url with the url of the upgraded site.

Save the changes to the data source and also to the manifest.xsf.
Click File -> Publish -> Sharepoint library
From the publish dialog select the ‘Current Job” library and publish the form.

Attach an existing content database to the farm using PowerShell script

The Mount-SPContentDatabase cmdlet attaches an existing content database to the farm. If the database being mounted requires an upgrade, this cmdlet will cause the database to be upgraded.

The default behavior of this cmdlet causes an upgrade of the schema of the database and initiates upgraded builds for all site collections within the specified content database if required. To prevent initiation of upgraded builds of site collections, use the NoB2BSiteUpgrade parameter. This cmdlet does not trigger version-to-version upgrade of any site collections.

Syntax:

Mount-SPContentDatabase [-Name] <String> [-WebApplication] <SPWebApplicationPipeBind> [-AssignmentCollection <SPAssignmentCollection>] [-AssignNewDatabaseId <SwitchParameter>] [-ChangeSyncKnowledge <SwitchParameter>] [-ClearChangeLog <SwitchParameter>] [-Confirm [<SwitchParameter>]] [-DatabaseCredentials <PSCredential>] [-DatabaseServer <String>] [-MaxSiteCount <Int32>] [-NoB2BSiteUpgrade <SwitchParameter>] [-SkipIntegrityChecks <SwitchParameter>] [-WarningSiteCount <Int32>] [-WhatIf [<SwitchParameter>]]

Example:

Mount-SPContentDatabase "MyDatabase" -DatabaseServer "MyServer" -WebApplication http://sitename

This example mounts an existing database to the sitename web application. If upgrades are required, it triggers database schema upgrade and then performs only build-to-build upgrade actions on existing site collections if required. This operation does not changed the CompatibilityLevel for existing site collections in this database.

Mount-SPContentDatabase "MyDatabase" -DatabaseServer "MyServer" -WebApplication http://sitename -NoB2BSiteUpgrade

This example mounts an existing database to the sitename web application but it prevents any site upgrades from occurring. If upgrades are required, it triggers database schema upgrades only and no build-to-build upgrade actions are performed on any site collections. This operation does not change the CompatibilityLevel for existing site collections in this database.

For More Info:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607581(v=office.15).aspx

Common SharePoint Issues & Solutions

PROBLEM: When attempting to deploy a solution from Visual Studio you get an access error that includes this code – “SPUserCodeV4″

SOLUTION: Go to Central Administration -> System Settings. Under the “Server” heading go to “Manage Services on Server.” Look for “Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Sandboxed Code Service” and enable it. If that doesn’t work, go to the Security item in the sidebar. Under the “General Security” heading, go to “Configure service accounts.” Each service has to have a user account assigned to it. Silly. I know. Select “Windows Service – Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Sandboxed Code Service” from the dropdown, and leave YourBelovedandVeryImportantCustomer\spadmin as the account.

PROBLEM: When running a user control that contains UserProfileManager, you get an error that says the object cannot be found

SOLUTION: UserProfile Service has to be started in Central Admin. Follow the directions above, but enable both UserProfile services. You will be prompted to assign an account. Leave the account as YourBelovedandVeryImportantCustomer\spadmin. Reset IIS.

PROBLEM: All your list searches return null. OR a programmatic list update fails.

SOLUTION: Look at how you are creating your SPWeb item. If you are setting it equal to a local site, make sure the list is on that site. Here’s some handy code to get to the top level of the site without any items to dispose:

using (SPSite site = new SPSite(SPContext.Current.Site.Url))

{

using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())

{

SPList list = web.List["TheNameOfYourList"];

}

*Edit: SPContext objects should not be disposed, see Jason's absolutely

correct comment below!

PROBLEM: On a filtered list, you cannot select a value if it is the only row.

SOLUTION: This one eluded me for a little while. In the “Miscellaneous” category of the web part editor panel, there is a “Send first row to connected web parts…” item. Initially this seems to just control when in the page life the data is sent. HOWEVER… In typical SharePoint non-logic logic… this actually means “select first row by default.” The data binding event occurs regardless, except the datarow is empty if there is no selected row. Oh SharePoint, you poorly-worded rascal!

PROBLEM: ”File Not Found” error. OR User Profile service cannot be accessed at all.

SOLUTION:

If you are only experiencing the first issue do this:

Go to Central Admin > Application Management > Manage Services on Server
Start the following:

Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application
Managed Metadata Web Service
SharePoint Server Search
If you still have a file not found error, restart IIS.
If you STILL have a file not found error, restart SharePoint Web Services in IIS Manager manually

If you are having user profile service issues, do the above, then check the following:

Go to Start > Administrative Tools > Services
Both forefront identity managers need the following settings -
- Make sure they are both disabled (SP will start them automatically)
- Right click the service name and go to properties. Click the “Log On” tab. Chck “This Account” and put the farm account in. On our server its UCLA\SPAdmin, password is “password”
Go to Start and enter “MMC” in search. Open the management console.
- Go to “Add snapins” in the file menu
- Add “Certificates”
  - Select Computer account for the account
  - Select local machine for the machine
- In The following three places, look for security certificates that begin with “Forefront”
  - Personal > Certificates
  - Trusted Root Certification Authorities > Certificates
  - Trusted People > Certificates
- If none of the certificates exist, that’s fine. If they do, delete them.
Follow the steps in Spence Harbar’s post here: To delete the current user profile service and create a new one.
After all this reset IIS.
If you still can’t connect, check Central Admin > Application Management > Service Application – Configure Service Application Associations
- Make sure the web app has the User Profile Service proxy enabled.

After you delete your current service, you may want to delete the Application Pool so that you can create a new one with a logical name. (The default is “User Profile Services Application” and it’s a pain to have to create new pools with new names all the time, but it’s nice to just clear the old one out and try again)

Run PowerShell as an administrator, and enter do the following:
- enter Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell
- enter Get-SPServiceApplicationPool
- Copy the name of the pool you want to delete
- enter Remove-SPServiceApplicationPool “Name of my pool”
  - Keep the quotes around the name

- If you are still experiencing problems, you may want to restart all the associated machines.
  - If you do this, you may need to:
    - go to the your DB machine and open the sql config manager. Make sure all the services are started
    - On both the APP and WFE machines, make sure user profile service and all of the sharepoint services started back up.
  - If you get an error that the configuration database is unavailable from Central Admin, then you need to double check all the services on the DB machine from sql config manager. If you miss a single one, you may not be able to access SQL.