Migrate or Move you SPD Workflow

The need came up to move one of my workflows to a different server, this workflow was running on a Form Library based created from publishing an InfoPath form. I tried to migrate the whole site using stsadm however when I tried running the workflow it was broken. I tried to to fix the broken steps but it became a pain.

I few Google searches later and I found this:

http://vspug.com/andynoon/2007/09/18/reparenting-a-workflow-to-a-different-list/

It worked like a charm, there was still some clean up to be done, but the clean up proved to be easier than when I migrated the whole site. Actually, the clean up that needed to happen was due to the fact that I missed some columns when I recreated the Form Library in my destination site. If you prepare your destination site to match your original site, this should work without a problem.

The search service is currently offline

Woke up one day and I had the following error when accessing my MOSS Search Settings.

"The search service is currently offline. Visit the Services on Server page in Share Point Central Administration to verify whether the service is enabled. The might also be because an indexer move is in progress."

The error was popping up in two places.

1. Like I mentioned above when going into SSP then Search Settings
2. When going into User Profiles and Properties then View import log

I found a solution in the following link.

http://blog.sallarp.com/the-search-service-is-currently-offline/

The solution I used was in the first comment and not the blog post itself.

I had to open the command prompt, then navigate to Bin folder and last, I ran the following command.

psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait

It will bring down your site for a moment, I assume while restarting IIS, so you might want to run it off hours or notify your users that the site will be down for maintenance.

Sigh! crisis averted!

Easy to follow Web Part Tutorial

If you're new at building custom Web Parts and have gone through tons of tutorials only to get dazed and confused over and over again, well then this tutorial might be of some help. This is by far the easiest Web Part tutorial I have come across.

\m/

Install WSS 3.0 and Visual Studio Extensions on Vista

I was getting ready to install the Visual Studio 2008 extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on my computer running Vista. As soon I ran the executable I got an error that said "This product can only be installed if Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 has been installed first."

After digging around online I found this registry hack the allows you to install the extensions without a problem.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0] "Sharepoint"="Installed"

Web Part Templates for Visual Studio 2008

Save time when creating Sharepoint Web Parts with CodePlex Smart Templates for Visual Studio 2008.

http://smarttemplates.codeplex.com/

Access Sharepoint from your Mobile device.

I've been looking for a solution to allow my end users to access SharePoint from both a Blackberry and iPhone.

Here are a couple of things I've found, I will post more if I find anything else.

For iPhone: iShare from Spyk Software Cost from App Store = $9.99
For Blackberry: Mobile Documents from WickSoft Don't have cost for this yet.

I'll probably give these two solutions a try, I will post what I find.

How I use the Fab 40 Application Templates from Microsoft

Something that I have trouble with in my organization is trying to explain to users all of the things that Sharepoint 2007 can do. There are so many things to explain and so little time.

Thank God for the Microsoft Fab 40 Application Templates. These templates not only help me deploy quick solutions for many of my companies business needs, they also help when it comes to educating users.

I have created within my companies Intranet Portal, a Labs Website (grabbing the idea from Google Labs). In this Labs Portal I have made available to most of my organization all 40 templates. As the company Sharepoint Admin I get asked for ideas all the time, now, after a quick explanation, I simply point my users to the Labs Website and let them play with all of the different templates until they find something we can build upon.