.NET FOLLOWER

    Errors, warnings and info messages in all my SharePoint applications are being logged to the Application Event Log. For that I use a simple class tritely named EventLogger and listed later in this post. As for the moment, a couple of words about the EventLogger are stated below.

If necessary, the EventLogger registers a source in the Application Event Log once any its method is called for the first time (see the static constructor). The event logging uses the information stored in the Eventlog registry key. So, when dealing with the Application Event Log, we have to be ready to get exception about a lack of rights to read from or write to the registry. Because of that, the EventLogger initially tries adding a new source under the current user account and then, in case of failure, repeats the same under the application pool account (SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges) that is supposed to have all suitable permissions.

Due to the same reason, whenever a user different from the application pool account writes anything to the log, he will likely get an exception which is reporting that the current user doesn’t have write access. To guard users from that, we as administrators have to do some manual work, namely, to add the CustomSD value to the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\eventlog\Application] registry key how it’s described in the article SharePoint: Cannot open log for source. You may not have write access. If a SharePoint application supports anonymous access, use WD (all users) instead of AU (authenticated users). Also it’s very important to understand that the appropriate CustomSD must be added on all machines of a SharePoint farm. An alternative way is to wrap the writing to the log in SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges. Remember, however, that the SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges is quite resource-consuming and excessive for such frequent operation as event logging. So, use the SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges as an extreme measure and only when the previous approach with CustomSD didn’t help for some reasons.

Another feature of the EventLogger is that, as a backup plan, it writes to the SharePoint Trace Log through the Unified Logging Service (see the WriteToHiveLog method). In other words, if the EventLogger doesn’t manage to write a message to the Application Event Log, it tries appending the message to the ULS Log stored in the file system and accessible, for example, through the ULS Viewer.

Logging an error or warning based on the passed exception, the EventLogger forms the final text, using the exception’s message along with the message of the inner exception (if any) and stack trace.

Below is a combined example that demonstrates how to use the EventLogger to log errors, warnings and info.

using dotNetFollower;
...

EventLogger.WriteInfo("How to use the EventLogger");

EventLogger.WriteError("Sorry, couldn't perform this operation!");
// OR
EventLogger.WriteWarning("Sorry, couldn't perform this operation!");

try
{
	// the next line throws an exception
	SPList spList = SPContext.Current.Web.Lists["Not existing list"];
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
	EventLogger.WriteError(ex);
	// OR
	EventLogger.WriteWarning(ex);
}

Below is depicted what those records look like in the Windows Event Viewer:

Ok, it’s about time for the EventLogger listing:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration;

namespace dotNetFollower
{
    public static class EventLogger
    {
        private const string SOURCE = "dotNetFollower"; // put here your own source name

        /// <summary>
        /// Writes an error message
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="errorText">Error message</param>
        public static void WriteError(string errorText)
        {
            WriteWithinTryCatch(errorText, EventLogEntryType.Error);
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// Writes an error message
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="ex">Exception</param>
        public static void WriteError(Exception ex)
        {
            WriteWithinTryCatch(GetExceptionFormatted(ex), EventLogEntryType.Error);
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// Writes a warning message
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="text">Warning message</param>
        public static void WriteWarning(string text)
        {
            WriteWithinTryCatch(string.Format("Warning: {0}", text), EventLogEntryType.Warning);
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// Writes a warning message
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="ex">Exception</param>
        public static void WriteWarning(Exception ex)
        {
            WriteWithinTryCatch(GetExceptionFormatted(ex), EventLogEntryType.Warning);
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// Writes an info message
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="text">Info message</param>
        public static void WriteInfo(string text)
        {
            WriteWithinTryCatch(string.Format("Information: {0}", text), EventLogEntryType.Information);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Creates the appropriate source in Event Logs, if necessary
        /// </summary>
        public static void EnsureLogSourceExist()
        {
            if (!EventLog.SourceExists(SOURCE))
                EventLog.CreateEventSource(SOURCE, "Application");
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns an error message based on a passed exception. Includes an inner exception (if any) and stack trace
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="ex">Exception</param>
        /// <returns>Formed error message</returns>
        public static string GetExceptionFormatted(Exception ex)
        {
            return string.Format("Error: {0} (Inner Exception: {1})\t\nDetails: {2}", 
                ex.Message, 
                ex.InnerException != null ? ex.InnerException.Message : string.Empty, 
                ex.StackTrace);
        }

        static EventLogger()
        {
            bool error = false;

            Action action = delegate
                {
                    try
                    {
                        // register source in Event Logs
                        EnsureLogSourceExist();
                    }
                    catch
                    {
                        error = true;
                    }
                };

            // try under current user
            action();

            if(error)
                // try under application pool account
                SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(() => action());
        }

        private static void WriteWithinTryCatch(string message, EventLogEntryType type)
        {
            try
            {
                // To allow users (authenticated only or all of them) writing to Event Log,
                // follow the steps described in the article 
                // http://dotnetfollower.com/wordpress/2012/04/sharepoint-cannot-open-log-for-source-you-may-not-have-write-access/

                // If it doesn't help for some reason, uncomment the line with SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges and 
                // comment the other one. Note, however, that the use of SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges is 
                // resource-consuming and looks excessive for such frequent operation as event logging.

                //SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(() => EventLog.WriteEntry(SOURCE, message, type));
                EventLog.WriteEntry(SOURCE, message, type);
            }
            catch
            {
                WriteToHiveLog(message, type);
            }
        }

        private static void WriteToHiveLog(string message, EventLogEntryType type)
        {
            EventSeverity eventSeverity = type == EventLogEntryType.Error ? EventSeverity.Error : 
                (type == EventLogEntryType.Warning ? EventSeverity.Warning : EventSeverity.Information);

            var category = new SPDiagnosticsCategory(SOURCE, TraceSeverity.Unexpected, eventSeverity);

            SPDiagnosticsService.Local.WriteTrace(0, category, TraceSeverity.Unexpected, message, null);
        }
    }
}

Related posts:

• SharePoint: Cannot open log for source. You may not have write access.

In fact, there is no control with the name PeoplePicker in SharePoint, it’s a common name of the group of elements: a few controls, one aspx-page and a couple of JavaScript files. These elements are closely connected with each other, use each other and all together allow searching and picking out users and groups available in SharePoint and/or Active Directory.

Let’s take a closer look at each element of the People Picker.

PeopleEditor

PeopleEditor is a visual control providing an entry point to deal with People Picker. So, to leverage the People Picker functionality we need just to add the PeopleEditor control to our aspx-page as follows:

<%@ Register TagPrefix="wssawc" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" 
 Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %> 
... 
<wssawc:PeopleEditor id="peoplePicker" runat="server" SelectionSet="User,SecGroup,DL" 
  MultiSelect="true" Height="20px" Width="200px" />
...
 

Below is a class diagram demonstrating the ancestors of the PeopleEditor and supported interfaces:

The PeopleEditor usually consists of a composite Edit Box and two buttons: Check Names and Browse.

The Hml markup generated by the PeopleEditor is listed below. The listing is a relatively large bunch of the Html-tags but helps figure out what DOM elements are involved in and where in the markup they are located. The Html comments, indents and formatting are added for clarity.

<span id="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker" editoroldvalue="" 
  removetext="Remove" value="" nomatchestext="&lt;No Matching Names&gt;" 
  moreitemstext="More Names..." prefercontenteditablediv="true" 
  showdatavalidationerrorborder="false" eeaftercallbackclientscript="" 
  invalidate="false" allowtypein="true" showentitydisplaytextintextbox="0">

 <!-- [Begin] Hidden inputs of the composite Edit Box -->
 <input type="hidden" value=""
  name="ctl00$PlaceHolderMain$ctl00$ctl01$userPicker$hiddenSpanData"
  id="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker_hiddenSpanData">
 <input type="hidden" value="&lt;Entities /&gt;"
  name="ctl00$PlaceHolderMain$ctl00$ctl01$userPicker$OriginalEntities" 
  id="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker_OriginalEntities">
 <input type="hidden"
  name="ctl00$PlaceHolderMain$ctl00$ctl01$userPicker$HiddenEntityKey" 
  id="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker_HiddenEntityKey">
 <input type="hidden"
  name="ctl00$PlaceHolderMain$ctl00$ctl01$userPicker$HiddenEntityDisplayText" 
  id="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker_HiddenEntityDisplayText">
 <!-- [End] Hidden inputs of the composite Edit Box -->

 <table id="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker_OuterTable" class="ms-usereditor" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" style="border-collapse:collapse;">
  <tr>
   <td valign="top">
    <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" style="width:100%;table-layout:fixed;">
     <tr>
      <td id="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker_containerCell">

 <!-- [Begin] Visible up level div of the composite Edit Box -->
 <div id="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker_upLevelDiv" tabindex="0" 
   onfocus="StoreOldValue('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker');
            saveOldEntities('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker');"
   onclick="onClickRw(true, true,event,'ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker');"
   onchange="updateControlValue('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker');"
   onpaste="dopaste('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker',event);"
   autopostback="0" rows="3" 
   ondragstart="canEvt(event);" 
   onkeyup="return onKeyUpRw('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker');" 
   oncopy="docopy('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker',event);" 
   onblur="
    if(typeof(ExternalCustomControlCallback)=='function'){		
     if(ShouldCallCustomCallBack('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker',event)){
      if(!ValidatePickerControl('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker')){
        ShowValidationError();
        return false;
      }
      else
        ExternalCustomControlCallback('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker');                          
     }
    }"
   title="People Picker" 
   onkeydown="return onKeyDownRw('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker', 3, true, event);" 
   aria-multiline="true" contenteditable="true" aria-haspopup="true" class="ms-inputuserfield" 
   style="word-wrap: break-word; overflow-x: hidden; background-color: window; color: windowtext; overflow-y: auto; height: 48px;" 
   prefercontenteditablediv="true" name="upLevelDiv" role="textbox">
 </div>
 <!-- [End] Visible up level div of the composite Edit Box -->

 <!-- [Begin] Usually invisible down level textarea of the composite Edit Box -->
 <textarea rows="3" cols="20" style="width:100%;display: none;position: absolute; "
  name="ctl00$PlaceHolderMain$ctl00$ctl01$userPicker$downlevelTextBox" 
  id="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker_downlevelTextBox" 
  class="ms-inputuserfield" autopostback="0" 
  onkeyup="return onKeyUpRw('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker');" 
  title="People Picker" 
  onfocus="StoreOldValue('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker');
           saveOldEntities('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker');" 
  onblur="
   if(typeof(ExternalCustomControlCallback)=='function'){		
    if(ShouldCallCustomCallBack('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker',event)){
     if(!ValidatePickerControl('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker')){
       ShowValidationError();
       return false;
     }
     else
       ExternalCustomControlCallback('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker');                          
    }
   }"
  onkeydown="return onKeyDownRw('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker', 3, true, event);" 
  renderascontenteditablediv="true" 
  onchange="updateControlValue('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker');">
 </textarea>
 <!-- [End] Usually invisible down level textarea of the composite Edit Box -->

      </td>
     </tr>
    </table>
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>
    <span id="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker_errorLabel" class="ms-error"></span>
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr style="padding-top:2;">
   <td>
    <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" style="width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;">
     <tr>
      <td valign="top" style="width:88%;">
       <span style="font-size:8pt;"></span>
      </td>
      <td valign="top" nowrap="true" style="padding-left:5px;padding-right:5px;">

 <!-- [Begin] Check Names Button -->
 <a id="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker_checkNames" 
  title="Check Names"
  href="javascript:"
  onclick="
    if(!ValidatePickerControl('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker')){
      ShowValidationError(); 
      return false;
    }
    var arg=getUplevel('ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker'); 
    var ctx='ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker';
    EntityEditorSetWaitCursor(ctx);
    WebForm_DoCallback('ctl00$PlaceHolderMain$ctl00$ctl01$userPicker',arg,
           EntityEditorHandleCheckNameResult,
           ctx,EntityEditorHandleCheckNameError,true);
    return false;">
  <img title="Check Names" src="/_layouts/images/checknames.png" alt="Check Names" style="border-width:0px;">
 </a>&nbsp;
 <!-- [End] Check Names Button -->

 <!-- [Begin] Browse Button -->
 <a id="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker_browse" 
  title="Browse" href="javascript:"
  onclick="__Dialog__ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker(); 
          return false;">
  <img title="Browse" src="/_layouts/images/addressbook.gif" alt="Browse" style="border-width:0px;">
 </a>
 <!-- [End] Browse Button -->

      </td>
     </tr>
    </table>
   </td>
  </tr>
 </table>
</span>

*Note that this markup corresponds to the empty PeopleEditor when nothing is typed in.

The PeopleEditor (like other classes derived from EntityEditor) uses functions defined in the entityeditor.js that located at 14\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS.

Composite Edit Box

The composite Edit Box performs the following two functions:

• displays the already selected users and groups (I call them “resolved accounts”);
• allows typing names (or part of them) of users and groups (I call them “unresolved accounts”).

All names (resolved and unresolved) should be delimited by the so-called Entity Separator. Usually it’s a semicolon (“;“). So, typing two or more names we need to separate them from each other to let the validation know what entries should be resolved.

Being aggregative, the Edit Box usually comprises a few hidden inputs, one invisible textarea and one visible div element (see the PeopleEditor‘s Html markup above). The div element, so-called upLevelDiv, displays everything we see in the Edit Box and allows typing by handling key pressing. And, of course, there are a lot of JavaScript defined in the entityeditor.js and intended to apply all that rich functionality to the simple div. Besides the upLevelDiv another quite important element of the Edit Box is one of the hidden inputs namely the so-called hiddenSpanData. The value attribute of the hiddenSpanData at any moment contains the copy of the content (innerHtml) of the upLevelDiv. Whenever the content of the upLevelDiv is changed those changes are reflected in the hiddenSpanData by calling the copyUplevelToHidden function defined in the entityeditor.js. As you know, the content of div elements is never sent when submitting data to the server. That’s why we need the hiddenSpanData, which is an input (though invisible) and, therefore, takes part in form submitting. So, everything we typed in or selected in the upLevelDiv will be sent to the server by the hiddenSpanData. Also note that the hiddenSpanData keeps the copy of the upLevelDiv‘s inner Html as is, NO transformation is applied. That means that the very Html used to visualize the “resolved accounts” in the upLevelDiv is going to be posted to the server. That requires the server side to parse the Html (usually bunch of SPAN and DIV tags) to extract the entries. I have no idea why the Microsoft uses such a complex and excess format to pass the entries, but that’s a fact. Later in the article we’ll see an example of such Html-formatted entries sent to the server.

The usually invisible so-called downlevelTextBox textarea is used when browser doesn’t support content editable div. So, in case of legacy browser the downlevelTextBox gets visible while the upLevelDiv disappears. All changes of the text inside the downlevelTextBox are being reflected in the hiddenSpanData as well. Note that since textarea doesn’t support Html formatting inside, the typed entries are being sent to the server as a plain text.

The hidden input so-called OriginalEntities is aimed to keep the users and groups (“resolved accounts”) that were selected formerly. For example, if we are opening a list item to edit and the page contains the PeopleEditor bound to a field of the “Person or Group” type, the current value of the field will be persisted into the OriginalEntities. When data is submitted back to the server the original entities allow tracking whether the set of users and groups has been changed. Unlike the hiddenSpanData, the OriginalEntities input keeps the “resolved accounts” as a pure Xml string. The following two methods are used on the server side to serialize entities to and deserialize from the Xml stored in the OriginalEntities: PickerEntity.ConvertEntitiesToXmlData and PickerEntity.ParseEntitiesFromXml respectively. Below in the article we’ll see an example of such Xml-formatted entries as the same format is used to return the result of the validation process.

Two more hidden inputs, HiddenEntityKey and HiddenEntityDisplayText, make sense only if the MultiSelect property of the PeopleEditor is set to false (that’s true for other controls derived from the EntityEditor unless that behavior is overridden somehow). The inputs keep respectively the Key (ID) and DisplayText (readable alias) of the first and only resolved entity. Both look quite useless for the PeopleEditor, but you can learn the way they are employed for picking out a BDC entity through the Enhanced ItemPicker.

Check Names button

The Check Names button validates/resolves the typed names. If the typed names match real accounts, such accounts are displayed in the Edit Box as the resolved ones. If no matches are found or some typed name matches multiple accounts, the name becomes clickable, and clicking on it displays the drop-down menu that looks like the one depicted below:

The menu allows choosing an entity that, in user’s opinion, best conforms to the typed name. Clicking Remove in the menu deletes the typed name. While More Names… does the same what the Browse button does (described below).

The PeopleEditor implements the ICallbackEventHandler interface and therefore supports Client Callbacks. Clicking Check Names button ends up with sending an async request to the page that hosts the PeopleEditor. When on the server side the page and all its controls have been re-created the instance of the PeopleEditor handles the request by parsing input, validating/resolving entries and sending the result back to the browser, then on the client side the Edit Box’s content is updated. What is the input sent to the server? It’s an inner Html of the upLevelDiv (or text of the downlevelTextBox textarea in case of a legacy browser). The GetInnerHTMLOrTextOfUpLevelDiv function from the entityeditor.js is responsible for getting the current input. So, in case of the Client Callback the Html-like data is taken directly from the upLevelDiv/downlevelTextBox, while in case of the usual Form Submit the data of the same format is posted by the hiddenSpanData.

Ok, let’s take a look at possible inputs (__CALLBACKPARAM in the request) that come into the ICallbackEventHandler.RaiseCallbackEvent method of the PeopleEditor. For example, in case the “jira; student” is typed in the Edit Box, the input will be the same – “jira; student“. If, however, the Edit Box contains one or more of the “resolved accounts”, the input becomes much trickier. For example, the string “JIRA; jir” transforms to the following (indents and formatting are added for clarity):

 
<SPAN id=spanHQ\jira class=ms-entity-resolved 
   onmouseover=this.contentEditable=false; 
   title=HQ\jira tabIndex=-1 
   onmouseout=this.contentEditable=true; 
   contentEditable=true isContentType="true">

  <DIV id=divEntityData description="HQ\jira" 
     isresolved="True" displaytext="JIRA" key="HQ\jira" style="DISPLAY: none">

    <DIV data='<ArrayOfDictionaryEntry xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
                      <DictionaryEntry>
                        <Key xsi:type="xsd:string">AccountName</Key>
                        <Value xsi:type="xsd:string">HQ\jira</Value>
                      </DictionaryEntry>
                      <DictionaryEntry>
                        <Key xsi:type="xsd:string">Email</Key>
                        <Value xsi:type="xsd:string">jira@someservername.com</Value>
                      </DictionaryEntry>
                      <DictionaryEntry>
                        <Key xsi:type="xsd:string">PrincipalType</Key>
                        <Value xsi:type="xsd:string">User</Value>
                      </DictionaryEntry></ArrayOfDictionaryEntry>'>
    </DIV>

  </DIV>
  <SPAN id=content tabIndex=-1 contentEditable=true
     oncontextmenu='onContextMenuSpnRw(event,"ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl00_ctl01_userPicker");' 
     onmousedown=onMouseDownRw(event);>
		JIRA 
  </SPAN>

</SPAN>; jir&nbsp;; 

So, this listing demonstrates three things at once: the inner html of the upLevelDiv, the data stored in the hiddenSpanData and the data sent during the Client Callback. The EntityEditor.ParseSpanData is called on the server side to parse the input like that, while the ConvertEntityToSpan function from the entityeditor.js is used on the client side to turn the Client Callback result into such Html-like string.

To get the picture of how the PeopleEditor processes the input, see the code along with my comments that are listed below. The code is borrowed from the EntityEditor class (the ancestor of the PeopleEditor).

// eventArgument is an input similar to the ones shown above
private string InvokeCallbackEvent(string eventArgument)
{
	// ensure that all child controls of the PeopleEditor are re-created
    this.EnsureChildControls();
	// remove all " ", i.e. Html spaces
    string spans = StrEatUpNbsp(eventArgument);
	// parse input, extract entries, convert them to instances of PickerEntity 
    // and then add to the Entities collection
    this.ParseSpanData(spans);
	// go through the collection and try resolving the entities
    this.Validate();
	// serialize the entities into the output xml string
    return this.GenerateCallbackData(this.Entities, false);
}

During the validation process itself the following methods are used ultimately: SPUtility.ResolvePrincipal or SPUtility.ResolveWindowsPrincipal, or, in case of the claims-based authentication, SPClaimProviderOperations.Resolve. If a name can’t be resolved, the process will make an attempt to find suitable accounts by calling such methods as SPUtility.SearchWindowsPrincipals or SPUtility.SearchPrincipals. As regards the claims-based authentication, the SPClaimProviderOperations.Resolve itself is able to return suitable accounts if the only one couldn’t be found.

Ok, let’s take a look at what kind of result is returned to the browser in case the “jira” entity has been resolved while the “jir” has multiple matches:

<Entities Append="False" DoEncodeErrorMessage="True" Separator=";" MaxHeight="3"
    Error="No exact match was found. Click the item(s) that did not resolve for more options.">

  <Entity Key="HQ\jira" DisplayText="JIRA" IsResolved="True" Description="HQ\jira">
    <ExtraData>
      <ArrayOfDictionaryEntry xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
        <DictionaryEntry>
          <Key xsi:type="xsd:string">AccountName</Key>
          <Value xsi:type="xsd:string">HQ\jira</Value>
        </DictionaryEntry>
        <DictionaryEntry>
          <Key xsi:type="xsd:string">Email</Key>
          <Value xsi:type="xsd:string">jira@someservername.com</Value>
        </DictionaryEntry>
        <DictionaryEntry>
          <Key xsi:type="xsd:string">PrincipalType</Key>
          <Value xsi:type="xsd:string">User</Value>
        </DictionaryEntry>
      </ArrayOfDictionaryEntry>
    </ExtraData>
    <MultipleMatches />
  </Entity>

  <Entity Key="jir" DisplayText="jir" IsResolved="False" Description="Multiple entries matched, please click to resolve.">
    <MultipleMatches>      
      <Entity Key="HQ\jira-users" DisplayText="HQ\jira-users" IsResolved="True" Description="HQ\jira-users">
        <ExtraData>
          <ArrayOfDictionaryEntry xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
            <DictionaryEntry>
              <Key xsi:type="xsd:string">AccountName</Key>
              <Value xsi:type="xsd:string">HQ\jira-users</Value>
            </DictionaryEntry>
            <DictionaryEntry>
              <Key xsi:type="xsd:string">PrincipalType</Key>
              <Value xsi:type="xsd:string">SecurityGroup</Value>
            </DictionaryEntry>
          </ArrayOfDictionaryEntry>
        </ExtraData>
      </Entity>
      <Entity Key="HQ\locadmin" DisplayText="Jira Admin Local" IsResolved="True" Description="HQ\locadmin">
        <ExtraData>
          <ArrayOfDictionaryEntry xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
            <DictionaryEntry>
              <Key xsi:type="xsd:string">AccountName</Key>
              <Value xsi:type="xsd:string">HQ\locadmin</Value>
            </DictionaryEntry>
            <DictionaryEntry>
              <Key xsi:type="xsd:string">PrincipalType</Key>
              <Value xsi:type="xsd:string">User</Value>
            </DictionaryEntry>
          </ArrayOfDictionaryEntry>
        </ExtraData>
      </Entity>
      <Entity Key="HQ\jira" DisplayText="JIRA" IsResolved="True" Description="HQ\jira">
        <ExtraData>
          <ArrayOfDictionaryEntry xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
            <DictionaryEntry>
              <Key xsi:type="xsd:string">AccountName</Key>
              <Value xsi:type="xsd:string">HQ\jira</Value>
            </DictionaryEntry>
            <DictionaryEntry>
              <Key xsi:type="xsd:string">Email</Key>
              <Value xsi:type="xsd:string">jira@someservername.com</Value>
            </DictionaryEntry>
            <DictionaryEntry>
              <Key xsi:type="xsd:string">PrincipalType</Key>
              <Value xsi:type="xsd:string">User</Value>
            </DictionaryEntry>
          </ArrayOfDictionaryEntry>
        </ExtraData>
      </Entity>
    </MultipleMatches>
  </Entity>

</Entities>

So, the server response is a Xml-based string where each resolved or unresolved name is presented by an Entity-node. The IsResolved attribute indicates if the name is resolved, i.e. whether the name matches a real user or group. Each Entity may contain the nested ones wrapped into MultipleMatches-tag in case the name matches multiple accounts. Those nested Entities will be enumerated in the drop-down menu when clicking the unresolved name.

Note that the OriginalEntities input contains the data in the same format.

Browse button

The Browse button opens the search dialog namely the dialog containing the picker.aspx page. Note that the static method PickerDialog.PickerActivateScript is called to get the appropriate JavaScript opening/activating the search dialog. The PickerDialog.PickerActivateScript, in turn, uses another static method PickerDialog.GetPickerDialogPage that constructs the url to the picker.aspx including all needed query string parameters. The PickerDialog is an ancestor of the PeoplePickerDialog class that along with the picker.aspx will be described in another article.

Related posts:

• SharePoint: What is a People Picker? Part 2 – Picker.aspx and PeoplePickerDialog

    After migration a SharePoint 2007 application to SharePoint 2010 my jQuery scripts communicating with asmx web services stopped working. The error I got was a 500 Internal Server Error. The scripts looks as follows:

$.ajax({
  type: "POST",
  url:  "http://someserver/someapp/_layouts/Services/Products.asmx/GetProductByCountry",

  data:        JSON.stringify({ countryCode: "USA" }),
  dataType:    "json",
  contentType: 'application/json; charset=utf-8',
  context:     this,

  success: function (data) {
		     alert(data.d);
           },
  error:   function (XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) {
		     alert(textStatus);
           }
});

Note: The JSON object mentioned in the script is defined in the json2.js available at http://www.json.org.

This issue can be solved by adding an appropriate <webServices> section to the SharePoint application’s web.config (in my case it’s located at C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\80). So, find the global <system.web> section in your web.config and make changes so that the result would look like the following:

<system.web>
  <webServices>
    <protocols>
      <add name="HttpGet" />
      <add name="HttpPost" />
    </protocols>
  </webServices>
...
</system.web>

However, from the security point of view such solution is not ideal as it allows external access through the HTTP-GET and HTTP-POST messaging protocols to all your XML web services. So, it’s better to specify the access protocols for each web service separately, not affecting other ones. The <location> element added to the root <configuration> element provides us with this capability. The sample below defines the protocols for accessing the web service reachable by the specified path:

<configuration>
...
  <location path="_layouts/Services/Products.asmx">
    <system.web>
      <webServices>
        <protocols>
          <add name="HttpGet"/>
          <add name="HttpPost"/>
        </protocols>
      </webServices>
    </system.web>
  </location>
...
</configuration>

Note that the _layouts virtual directory is available as a subfolder of every SharePoint Web site. So if you want to limit the use of the web service by only one SharePoint Web site, specify the path like someapp/_layouts/Services/Products.asmx.

PS Here is a good article about how to create a custom web service in SharePoint 2010.

    I was asked to transfer a few SharePoint 2007 lists with their contents into a SharePoint 2010 application. Obvious steps were create the lists’ templates (.stp files) in SP 2007 and redeploy them in SP 2010. Having successfully created and uploaded the templates into the List Template Gallery (_catalogs/lt) of a 2010 Site Collection, I got the following error whenever I tried to create a new list instance based on any of the uploaded templates:

Microsoft SharePoint Foundation version 3 templates are not supported 
in this version of the product.

Fortunately, a straightforward solution was found quite quickly.

.stp File Content

A .stp file is just a .cab archive (similar to a .wsp) and, after changing the file’s extension to cab, it can be opened and viewed with any popular archiver (WinRar, 7 zip and so on).

In the .cab you’ll see at least one file, manifest.xml (frequently, there is nothing but the one). The manifest.xml contains the target list’s schema and content (if the template was created with the appropriate option). The first lines of the manifest.xml look like the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<ListTemplate WebUrl="http://myapplication/mysitecollection">
    <Details>
        <TemplateDescription></TemplateDescription>
        <TemplateTitle>MyList</TemplateTitle>
        <ProductVersion>3</ProductVersion>
        <Language>1033</Language>
        <TemplateID>20</TemplateID>
        <Configuration>0</Configuration>
        <FeatureId>{00BFEA71-DE22-43C2-A848-C05706800101}</FeatureId>
        <TemplateType>100</TemplateType>
        <BaseType>0</BaseType>
    </Details>
...
</ListTemplate>

Pay attention to the <ProductVersion> element containing the value 3. So, the solution mentioned above is to modify the file so that its <ProductVersion> would contain 4. Having done that, we need to recreate the .cab file with the altered manifest.xml and change the output file’s extension back to stp.

Recreate .cab

The most tricky part in the solution is to repack file or group of files into .cab as the most popular archivers don’t allow that. So, we have to do it by ourselves using the Microsoft’s makecab.exe utility usually located at C:\Windows\System32. If your template contains only manifest.xml, use the command line like the following to repack it into .cab:

makecab.exe C:\ExtractedStpFiles\manifest.xml c:\RepackedStpFiles\MyList.cab

The first argument is a path to the file to be wrapped into .cab. Here the altered manifest.xml is assumed to be in the c:\ExtractedStpFiles folder. The second argument is a path to the output archive file. Here the destination folder is c:\RepackedStpFiles.

To avoid the step with changing the output file’s extension from cab to stp, you can modify the above command line to

makecab.exe C:\ExtractedStpFiles\manifest.xml c:\RepackedStpFiles\MyList.stp

If the list template contains more than one file inside, first of all, we need to prepare a directive file (.ddf file) containing instructions for makecab.exe how to compress and package the files. Each instruction starts with “.”, comment starts with “;”. For our task such file may look as follows (let’s name it MyList.ddf and place in C:\ExtractedStpFiles):

.OPTION EXPLICIT
 
.Set CabinetNameTemplate=MyList.stp ; Name of the output .cab file, in our case we can specify the file's extension as .stp
.Set Cabinet=on
.Set CompressionType=MSZIP ; All files will be compressed

.Set DiskDirectoryTemplate=CDROM ; All compressed files in the output .cab will be in a single directory
.Set DiskDirectory1=c:\RepackedStpFiles ; The output .cab file will be placed in this directory

; the next lines specify the files to be included into the output .cab
"c:\ExtractedStpFiles\manifest.xml"
"c:\ExtractedStpFiles\10000000.000"

Ok, now we need to run the following command line to repackage required files:

makecab.exe /f "C:\ExtractedStpFiles\MyList.ddf"

The /f key indicates that to create .cab file, the makecab.exe should use the directive file pointed next.

Converting Step-by-step

So, the straightforward solution to make a 2007 list template compatible with SharePoint 2010 includes the following steps:

1. Change the extension of the original 2007 .stp file to cab;
2. Extract files with any archiver into a folder (for example, c:\ExtractedStpFiles);
3. Open the manifest.xml and set the value of <ProductVersion> element to 4;
4. Repackage the modified manifest.xml and other files (if any) into .stp (generally .cab) file. Use for that either the command line like

   makecab.exe C:\ExtractedStpFiles\manifest.xml c:\RepackedStpFiles\MyList.stp
   

   when the list template in question contains only the manifest.xml, or the directive file (for example, C:\ExtractedStpFiles\MyList.ddf)

   .OPTION EXPLICIT
    
   .Set CabinetNameTemplate=MyList.stp ; Name of the output .cab file, in our case we can specify the file's extension as .stp
   .Set Cabinet=on
   .Set CompressionType=MSZIP ; All files will be compressed
   
   .Set DiskDirectoryTemplate=CDROM ; All compressed files in the output .cab will be in a single directory
   .Set DiskDirectory1=c:\RepackedStpFiles ; The output .cab file will be placed in this directory
   
   ; the next lines specify the files to be included into the output .cab
   "c:\ExtractedStpFiles\manifest.xml"
   "c:\ExtractedStpFiles\10000000.000"
   

   along with the command line

   makecab.exe /f "C:\ExtractedStpFiles\MyList.ddf"
   

   when there are more than one files in the list template.

After that the output .stp file is ready for uploading into the List Template Gallery (_catalogs/lt) of the target Site Collection.

Summary

Be aware that this solution is not a best practice and it may not work in some cases.

If you have a lot of .stp files to migrate you can automate this process using the PowerShell scripts posted here and here.

    How to create/open a Modal Dialog Window (along with the passing parameters into it) is shown in the post SharePoint: How to pass parameters into a Modal Dialog Window and then access them. This post, in turn, will be devoted to closing the Modal Dialog Window.

Modal Dialog Window is based on IFrame element

As you probably know, Modal Dialog Windows are implemented through IFrame elements. So, when saying “open a web page in a Modal Dialog Window” we mean to load another Html document into an IFrame element of the current Html document. Let’s call the page, which hosts the IFrame element, a Parent-page and the page loaded into the IFrame – a Child-page. From the Child-page the IFrame element containing it can be reached by means of the window.frameElement DOM-object.

Methods to close Modal Dialog Window

To close a Modal Dialog Window we can employ the methods shown below. Note that the methods become accessible through the window.frameElement after the dialog has been opened/created, in other words, SP Dialog framework extends the window.frameElement object by adding these custom methods.

• SP.UI.ModalDialog.commonModalDialogClose(DialogResult dialogResult, Object returnVal)
• window.frameElement.commonModalDialogClose(DialogResult dialogResult, Object returnVal)
• window.frameElement.commitPopup(Object returnVal)
• window.frameElement.cancelPopUp()
• Summary

SP.UI.ModalDialog.commonModalDialogClose

This method allows to close the current (the most recently opened) Modal Dialog Window, passing a desirable DialogResult and a return value into the dialogReturnValueCallback method. This method is mostly intended to be called from the Parent-page. Below is a sample of possible use. Let’s assume that within the Parent-page we have two JavaScript functions, OpenChildDialog and CloseChildDialog, and a Html link, which opens the dialog and sets up the delayed closing of it. The functions:

function OpenChildDialog() {
  var opt = {
    url : 'childPage.aspx',
 
    dialogReturnValueCallback:
      function (res, retVal) {
        alert(retVal);
      }
  };
  SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog(opt);
}
function CloseChildDialog() {
  //SP.UI.ModalDialog.commonModalDialogClose(SP.UI.DialogResult.OK, 'Closed with OK result');
  SP.UI.ModalDialog.commonModalDialogClose(SP.UI.DialogResult.cancel,'Cancelled'); 
}

The link:

<a href="#" onclick="OpenChildDialog(); setTimeout(function(){ CloseChildDialog(); }, 10000); return false;">
Open dialog
</a>

So, clicking on the link you open the dialog, which will be closed automatically in 10 seconds unless you close it manually before.

window.frameElement.commonModalDialogClose

Technically, it’s the same commonModalDialogClose function, but accessible through the window.frameElement object. Unlike the previous one the given function is intended to be called from within the Child-page (opened in the dialog). The main advantage of the window.frameElement.commonModalDialogClose is that it can be invoked from within a SharePoint-independent page, which knows nothing about SP Dialog framework and its js-files. Before showing an example, let’s take a look at the SP.UI.DialogResult enumeration, which is situated in the SP.UI.Dialog.js file:

SP.UI.DialogResult.prototype = {
    invalid: -1, 
    cancel : 0, 
    OK     : 1
}

Use of SP.UI.DialogResult inside the SharePoint-independent page will cause getting of ‘SP’ is undefined error message. So, we have to use the real values of SP.UI.DialogResult as the enumeration apparently will be undefined. So, below is an example of use. Let’s assume that to open the dialog we use the same OpenChildDialog method listed above and, somewhere within the Child-page, we have two Html links to close the dialog with OK or cancel as the result. The links:

<a href="#" onclick="window.frameElement.commonModalDialogClose(1 /*OK*/, 'Closed with OK result'); return false;">
Commit
</a>
<a href="#" onclick="window.frameElement.commonModalDialogClose(0 /*cancel*/, 'Cancelled'); return false;">
Cancel
</a>

window.frameElement.commitPopup

The given function closes the dialog and passes SP.UI.DialogResult.OK as the result. It also allows to pass a return value into the dialogReturnValueCallback method. Like the previous one, window.frameElement.commitPopup is intended to be called from within the Child-page, which may be SharePoint-independent. Traditionally, an example implies that the dialog is opened by the OpenChildDialog method and contains a Html link:

<a href="#" onclick="window.frameElement.commitPopup('Closed with OK result'); return false;">
Commit
</a>

Another good example of use of window.frameElement.commitPopup is demonstrated in the article – SharePoint: SPLongOperation inside a Modal Dialog Window.

window.frameElement.cancelPopUp

The window.frameElement.cancelPopUp closes the dialog as well. However, as opposite to commitPopup, it returns the SP.UI.DialogResult.cancel as the dialog result and doesn’t allow to pass a return value. It should be called from within the Child-page, which may be SharePoint-independent. The opened dialog can be closed, for example, by the Html link, which is placed within the Child-page and defined as the following:

<a href="#" onclick="window.frameElement.cancelPopUp(); return false;">
Cancel
</a>

Summary

Let’s take a look at a summary table below. The SharePointless column indicates whether the appropriate function can be used from within a SharePoint-independent page. The Intended to be placed within column shows where the appropriate function should be put in, in either Parent– or Child-pages. Note that there are no strict rules where the functions must be used, all of them, in some conditions, can be used on any pages.