SP2010 Beta 2: MySite's Organization Browser Silverlight crashes browser

Problem:
When trying to access Organization tab on My Profile page in SharePoint 2010 My Site, the Organization Browser Silverlight control partly loads, but soon freezes the browser, and consumes all available CPU (well, on multi-core CPUs only one core, to be exact). Only option is to kill browser process and stay away from the Organization Silverlight.

Thoughts:
When looking at the HTTP traffic using Fiddler, I noticed that page Silverlight control loading seemed to halt more or less immediately after querying information of a same specific individual using /MY/_vti_bin/SilverlightProfileService.json/GetUserSLProfileData.

Solution:
So, I went to the profile of this user and found out that if a person is a Manager of himself/herself, the Silverlight control will crash. It is probably going into some never-ending loop. In my case the problematic user was the most top-level manager. After I modified the profile of this user in Central Admin and cleared the manager field, Organization control started working.

SP2010 Beta 2: Error occurred during the processing of /my/default.aspx or /my/personcontent.aspx

Problem:
When you modify My Site master page (mysite.master) either using SharePoint Designer 2010 (SPD), or by creating new master page and setting your custom master page as Custom Master Page using SPD, you will end up with error when trying to access My Network page. You are not using any server side code blocks in your master page. In fact, you only need to create a new version of the default mysite.master without modifying it, and publish the new version, to get this error.

The error you see is: An error occurred during the processing of /my/default.aspx. Code blocks are not allowed in this file.

You might also get the same error from file /my/personcontent.aspx.

Solution:
You need to modify web.config and add the following PageParserPath (although you are not using inline code in your master page):

<SharePoint>
<PageParserPaths>
<PageParserPath VirtualPath="/my/default.aspx" CompilationMode="Always" AllowServerSideScript="true" />
</PageParserPaths>
</SharePoint>

SP2010 Beta 2: Access Denied when accessing My Content

Problem:
When trying to access My Content section in MySite in SharePoint 2010 Beta 2, you get error:

There has been an error creating the personal site. Contact your site administrator for more information

Furthermore, you get these errors in Application Event Log:

Log Name: Application
Source: Microsoft-SharePoint Products-SharePoint Foundation
Date: 11.1.2010 12:54:21
Event ID: 6141
Task Category: Topology
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: DOMAIN\SPFarmAdminAccount
Computer: mycomputer.domain.com
Description:
The site /my/personal/palojus could not be created. The following exception occurred: Access denied..

and

Log Name: Application
Source: Microsoft-SharePoint Products-SharePoint Portal Server
Date: 11.1.2010 12:54:21
Event ID: 5187
Task Category: Administration
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: DOMAIN\palojus
Computer: mycomputer.domain.com
Description:
My Site creation failure for user 'domain\palojus' for site url 'http://communities.domain.com/my/personal/palojus'. The exception was: Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.PersonalSiteCreateException: A failure was encountered while attempting to create the site. ---> System.Security.SecurityException: Access denied.
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedObject.BaseUpdate()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPJobDefinition.Update()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy.TaxonomyFeatureReceiver.EnsureHiddenListFullSyncTimerJob(SPWebApplication webApplication)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy.TaxonomyFeatureReceiver.FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeature.DoActivationCallout(Boolean fActivate, Boolean fForce)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeature.Activate(SPSite siteParent, SPWeb webParent, SPFeaturePropertyCollection props, Boolean fForce)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeatureCollection.AddInternal(SPFeatureDefinition featdef, Version version, SPFeaturePropertyCollection properties, Boolean force, Boolean fMarkOnly)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPTemplateAssociationElement.EnsureTemplateAssociatedSiteFeaturesActivated(SPSite site, String sTemplateName)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeatureManager.<>c__DisplayClass16.
...
The Zone of the assembly that failed was:
MyComputer
...

Thoughts:
1. Granting direct access to the user (in addition to obviously already having access via NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users) didn't have any effect.


2. Verifying My Site Settings (Central Administration --> Manage Profile Service --> User Profile Service Application --> My Site Settings --> Setup My Sites) didn't have any effect, as the settings were already correct.

Solution:
In My Site Settings (Central Administration --> Manage Profile Service --> User Profile Service Application --> My Site Settings --> Setup My Sites), I changed My Site Host slightly (".../my/" to ".../my2/").


Then I tried accessing My Content again, and My Site was created successfully. Finally I changed My Site Host back to original value and got some flash-backs from the good old MOSS times when many things didn't work, and suddenly they just started to work. Some things never change.

Media Center Status Application version 0.6 released

New features

• Option to post new item to user's Facebook Wall instead of changing user Status. Configuration tool can be used to select whether to post to Wall, update user Status or do both.
  
• User may configure specific Amazon shop (US/UK/FR/DE/JP/CA) which is queried before wall post in order to try to get some details, cover and rating of the media being played.
• User may select what media types have Amazon queries enabled. By default Music, DVD, Video have queries enabled. TV related media types don't have it enabled by default as very few TV series have DVD boxes, resulting incorrect search results.
  
• Extended permissions are now requested during Facebook login process (upon Media Center startup), so there is no need to grant permissions beforehand. Existing extended permission web page will remain for troubleshooting purposes.
• If Facebook status update type is Wall, Facebook friends may hide status update messages on their News feed. Because of this, you might want to make sure not to spam your friends too much, so consider enabling Status update confirmation in configuration tool and/or increase the polling time to maybe few minutes.
  

Changes

• Uses new Facebook desktop application authentication method.
• No longer gets current Status from Facebook upon startup
  
• No longer uses soon-to-be-deprecated Facebook domains. NOTE! Old versions (pre 0.6) of the application will STOP working when Facebook removes the old domains, so please update as soon as possible.
  

Download here

Windows Media Center TV Guide displays program info in wrong language

Problem:
When using Media Center in Windows 7 or 8 to watch TV in a country where broadcasters send EPG information in multiple languages, you may end up having your Guide programs titles and descriptions in wrong language. For this to happen you must be using different language version Windows compared to the language you would like to see the Guide in.

E.g., I live in Finland and want to see Guide information in Finnish. I use English version of Windows 7. Media Center Guide tries to get program info in English, but can only find Guide data in Swedish and Finnish (because Finland has two official languages). Swedish happens to come first, so Guide decides to show all information in Swedish, and only if program doesn't contain Swedish information, it will display information in Finnish. I will end up having half of the Guide information in Swedish and half in Finnish because only few channels provide EPG both in Finnish and Swedish.

This is a new issue in Windows 7 and didn't occur in Vista and XP. Despite I reported it to Microsoft during beta-testing, they didn't seem to fix this before launch.

Workaround:

1. Open RegEdit and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\MCE.GlobalSettings
2. Change systemLanguage value to the language you wish to see the Guide data in, e.g., I had to change mine from "eng" to "fin"
3. Reboot your PC
4. [Optional] open an elevated command prompt, run the following command then wait a few minutes (approximately 4-5 mins): %windir%\eHome\mcupdate -pscn 0
5. Start Media Center and open the Guide: all schedule data should now be in correct language.

---
Shortly in Finnish:

Windows näyttää ohjelmaoppaan ohjelmatiedot väärällä kielellä
Jos käytössäsi on englanninkielinen (lue: muun kuin suomenkielinen) Windows 7 tai 8 mutta haluaisit Media Centerin TV ohjelmaoppaan tekstit suomeksi, se ei onnistu täydellisesti, vaan Media Center näyttää ohjelmaoppaassa tietoja väärällä kielellä. Osalla kanavista ohjelmatiedot tulevat ruotsiksi ja osalla suomeksi. Tarkemmin sanottuna jos ohjelmalla on ruotsinkielinen EPG-tieto saatavilla, Media Center näyttää sen, eikä suomenkielistä tietoa.

Tämä johtaa siihen, että ainakin YLEn ohjelmatiedot ovat ohjelmaoppaassa ruotsiksi, mutta muilla kanavilla suomeksi, sillä muut kanavat eivät näytä kovin aktiivisesti toimittavan kaksikielisiä ohjelmatietoja.

Ongelman voi kiertää seuraavasti:

1. Avaa RegEdit ja navigoi avaimeen: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\MCE.GlobalSettings
2. Vaihda systemLanguage arvo sen kieliseksi, jolla haluat ohjelmaoppaan tiedot nähdä, tässä tapauksessa vaihda se arvosta "eng" arvoon "fin"
   
3. Käynnistä tietokone uudelleen
4. [Ei pakollinen toimenpide] Avaa elevated komentorivi ja aja seuraava komento ja odota muutama minuutti (n. 4-5 min): %windir%\eHome\mcupdate -pscn 0
5. Käynnistä Media Center ja avaa ohjelmaopas: kaikki pitäisi nyt olla suomeksi

Media Center Status Application version 0.5.4 released

New features

• Option to fully customize status strings
  

Download page

Media Center Status Application version 0.5.3.1 released

Fixes

• Fixed 32 bit Configuration Tool to update Recording TV event configuration values
  
• Fixed issue that caused error message if Facebook events were disabled but Twitter events were enabled

Download page

Vista support when developing Media Center applications on Windows 7

Problem:
I switched from Vista to Windows 7 x64 a while back and currently also do my software development on a Windows 7 machine.

Some time ago I begun getting complaints from some users that they were not able to use my Media Center Status Application as it was giving some "Invalid Application - Unable to launch FBMCE" errors when starting Media Center on Windows Vista.

I hadn't done any drastic changes in my program code and testing the application on Windows 7 machines (both x86 and x64) didn't indicate any issues. Finally I decided to really dig into this and installed Vista to Virtual PC. Well, what do you know, I immediately got the same error users were reporting :)

Solution:
Error message was because I had started to build my application on Windows 7 instead of Vista.

In Windows 7, the Media Center version of the assemblies referenced (Microsoft.MediaCenter.dll and Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI.dll) is 6.1.* but Vista only has versions 6.0.*.

Taking the assemblies from Vista and referencing those directly instead of the ones in Windows 7 GAC solved the issue and the application again works on both Vista and Win7.

Media Center Status Application version 0.5.3 released

Changes

• Option to update status when TV show is being recorded, status will be "is recording PROGRAM NAME"
• Configuration Tool now correctly shows UAC dialog when starting
• Vista support is back
  

Download page

MOSS: Unable to import custom SPFields of type User

Problem:
Imagine the following scenario: You have created custom SPField for your Content Type. SPField is of type "User", i.e., a PeopleEditor field where you can select a one or several Active Directory users or groups.

In my case the SPField definition is something like this:

<Field ID="{UNIQUE_GUID}"
Name="ProjectOwner"
Group="MyGroup"
Type="User"
DisplayName="Project Owner"
SourceID="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3/fields"
StaticName="ProjectOwner"
Required="FALSE">
</Field>

Then you do a STSADM EXPORT and IMPORT for the SPWeb using Content Type using this SPField.

STSADM EXPORT succeeds, but STSADM IMPORT throws error:

Progress: Importing ListItem /a/windows-hardening/Pages?id=1.
FatalError: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: g
at System.Guid..ctor(String g)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ListItemSerializer.UpdateFieldData(SPListItem listItem, ImportObjectManager objectManager, Guid docId, String fieldName, String value, String value2, Guid gFieldId, Boolean& bCreated, Dictionary`2 brokenFields)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ListItemSerializer.UpdateFieldData(SPListItem listItem, Guid docId, Boolean& bCreated, SPContentTypeId contentTypeId, ImportObjectManager objectManager, Object data)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ListItemSerializer.SetObjectData(Object obj, SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context, ISurrogateSelector selector)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.XmlFormatter.ParseObject(Type objectType,Boolean isChildObject)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.XmlFormatter.DeserializeObject(Type objectType, Boolean isChildObject, DeploymentObject envelope)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.XmlFormatter.Deserialize(Stream serializationStream)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ObjectSerializer.Deserialize(Stream serializationStream)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ImportObjectManager.ProcessObject(XmlReader xmlReader)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.SPImport.DeserializeObjects()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.SPImport.Run()

Thoughts:
If you use -nofilecompression parameter when exporting and importing using STSADM, you can look at the exported Manifest.xml and see the difference between fields that have List="UserInfo" and the ones that don't.

OOB field PublishingContact value is exported like this:
<Field Name="PublishingContact" Value="2;UserInfo" FieldId="6677cf63-f416-4e1e-9e6e-f77f243ef4a6" />

while custom ProjectOwner field value without List="UserInfo" in its definition is exported like this:
<Field Name="ProjectOwner" Value="2;691e9a30-76c4-42b6-869f-294c2c68267d" FieldId="6677cf63-f416-4e1e-9e6e-f77f243ef4a6" />

You can see that the custom field contains the GUID of the list where the item is located in, while the OOB field contains clear reference to UserInfo list.

Solution:
First of all, remember to always include List="UserInfo" when defining SPFields of type "User", like this:

<Field ID="{UNIQUE_GUID}"
Name="ProjectOwner"
Group="MyGroup"
Type="User"
DisplayName="Project Owner"
SourceID="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3/fields"
StaticName="ProjectOwner"
Required="FALSE"
List="UserInfo">
</Field>

If you realize this requirement too late, you can modify the exported Manifest.xml and replace the values of the fields affected from:

<Field Name="ProjectManager" Value="2;GUID_OF_PAGES_LIST" FieldId="6677cf63-f416-4e1e-9e6e-f77f243ef4a6" </>

to

<Field Name="ProjectManager" Value="2;UserInfo" FieldId="6677cf63-f416-4e1e-9e6e-f77f243ef4a6"</>

and import after that.

In addition you need to have custom application that enumerates all existing items and fix field definition on them using API.