Virtual PC: Performance Issues on Notebook, Mini-PC etc.

Power management may slow down virtual PC. I found a solution that works perfectly on my Notebook:
http://svengillis.blogspot.com/2008/01/performance-issues-with-virtual-pc-on.html

Essentialy I had to change the enable_idle_thread setting in the options file located at
C:\Users\[My User Name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC in my windows machine.

The secrets of SQL Syntax Queries for Relevant Results in MOSS 2007 Enterprise Search

I just found a very helpful post from Lars Fastrup containing a nice overview and samples for SQL syntax queries in MOSS 2007 Enterprise Search:
http://blog.sharepointproducts.com/archive/2009/03/31/repost-the-secrets-of-sql-syntax-queries-for-relevant-results-in-moss-2007-enterprise-search.aspx

Wildcards in the CONTAINS Predicate in Windows SharePoint Services Search SQL Syntax - no results

If you get no results with CONTAINS and wildcard search in MOSS make sure you don't forget the " in the query. The MSDN documentation does not include them.

wrong: select title, author, rank from scope() where CONTAINS (defaultproperties, 'sharep*') order by rank desc

correct: select title, author, rank from scope() where CONTAINS (defaultproperties, '"sharep*"') order by rank desc

I recommend http://www.codeplex.com/SPSearchBench for testing.

Content for this URL is excluded by the server because a no-index attribute

In SharePoint/MOSS server search crawl log you may see "Content for this URL is excluded by the server because a no-index attribute" apear for pages that you would like to be indexed.

What to check in this case:

• Rules
• Robots.txt file
• Page Source (robots meta)
• Page library advanced settings
• 'Site Settings' - 'Search Visibility' under 'Site Administration'
• and last but not least: Make sure you can access the page with the user that you definied as robots/crawler user. See central administration:
  /ssp/admin/_layouts/contentaccessaccount.aspx
  (log on to your site with this user)

Hint fot German users: The error message in German is "Der Inhalt für diese URL wird wegen eines Nichtindexattributs vom Server ausgeschlossen".

How to copy a MS SQL database from one server to another without server admin rights on source machine

Step 1: Generate a SQL script including data by using SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard:
The wizard is integrated in Visual Studio Server Manager. Alternate download for older versions: http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=56e5b1c5-bf17-42e0-a410-371a838e570a

Step 2: Use SQLCMD.exe to execute the file.
Normally you can't use the query analyzer because it would throw an exception of type System.OutOfMemoryException:

sqlcmd -S servername -d TargetDBName -i C:\SQLFileGeneratedByDBPubWizard.sql -o C:\DBImportLog.txt

Have a look at the log file to see what's going on.

If you can not execute sqlcmd on the target machine you might for example want to write a command line tool that executes the sql commands in smaller blocks.

SharePoint Search Queries Test Utility

Found a new very helpful windows utility today to test SharePoint Search Queries. Also displays scopes and managed properties.
http://www.codeplex.com/SPSearchBench

Export MOSS (SharePoint) page library (or any other List) to file system

Exporting a page library in MOSS can be quite tricky. One great alternative ist to use SPIEFolder (http://www.codeplex.com/SPIEFolder) that can export the files quite fast to a file system folder of your choice as follows.

Example command:
SPIEFolder.exe http://win2003-moss1/DE/MediaMessageImport Seiten C:\OutputTest export

The files can then easily be reimported for instance via web browser (upload files).

Save/export MOSS (SharePoint) Page Library as STP

Unfortunately there is no "save list as template" option in MOSS for page libraries. A simple work around is to use the /_layouts/savetmpl.aspx page and add the query string value for list manually. This might finally look something like this:

http://win2003-moss1/DE/MMImport/_layouts/savetmpl.aspx?List=%7B19216C57%2D1B09%2D4CDB%2DB766%2DF0289E3D28F5%7D

Explorer.exe high CPU on Windows Server 2008

I had very high CPU usage for explorer.exe today on a web server running Windows Server 2008. Task manager showed that it was running under the Administrator Account.

I did not log off the last time I worked on this machine and it seams that explorer.exe bug out meanwhile. Thus the solution for now is logging of and log on again. If I find out more or if the problem reoccurs I will post that here.

SharePoint Workflows: Delay Activity not working/firing after GAC update

I recently had an issue with a Delay Activity not firing after I updated the GAC from Visual Studio 2008.

I finally found a MS KB that helped me:
"A workflow does not resume automatically when a delay activity is triggered in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953630/en-us

Solution for my project: Restart the Service "Windows SharePoint Services Timer" after an update.

P.S. The same trick also helps to solve the "System.IO.FileNotFoundException" issue that can occur when installing a wsp with a feature receiver.