The Search Service is currently offline

Problem:

The search service is currently offline. Visit the services on server page in SharePoint central administration to verify whether the service is enabled. This might also be because an indexer move is in progress

You will get the below screen when you navigate to the default content access account, crawl log or default content access account in the Search Server Administration.

Resolution:

Following are the steps to fix this issue.

1. Open central administration
2. Goto Operations -> Topology and Services -> Services on Server
3. Select Search Indexing -> On “Office SharePoint Server Search” click “Stop”. This will reconfigure the service
4. Now click “start”
5. Navigate to the indexer log file location which is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\12.0\Data\Office Server\Applications” for me. Here you will find a folder with Guid name. At the end of that folder add “_old”. Refresh the SSP page and wait for some time and now the indexer will recreate the guid folder.
6. This will fix this issue.

If this doesn't work out, then check the service account which is running the search service (default content access account for crawling the content). If there are any changes in the account, then this might also be the problem for the search service to go offline.

Please free to comment. Hope this helps you!

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Configuring Enterprise Search in SharePoint 2010

Hi All,

Read the useful arcticle which explains about Configuring the Enterprise Search in SharePoint 2010. A step by step explanation with screens is explained in this artcile.

Configuring Enterprise Search in SharePoint 2010 

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Inserting a web part into SharePoint page without designer

In the article “Inserting a web part into SharePoint Page without designer”, we have discussed about inserting a web part in New/Edit/Display from.aspx in without using designer the lower versions of SharePoint (WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007).

Now, in this article we will discuss about inserting a web part into the New/Edit/Display form.aspx page without designer in SharePoint 2010.

Now, suppose that we have custom list named “City”

Now, go to the List Settings of the custom list “City”

Under General Settings -> Advanced Settings

In the advance settings, we have an option for the Launching the forms in dialog when click on NEW for inserting a new value in a list.

Here, now we will disable that option by selecting NO in launch forms in a dialog as shown below:

Now, we will click on “New Item” for inserting a new item in the custom list

Now, we will be navigated to the newform.aspx without popup dialog since we have disabled it.

The URL in the address bar will be as below:

http://SiteName/Lists/City/NewForm.aspx?Source=http%3A%2F%2F%2D%3A2020%2FLists%2FCity%2FAllItems%2Easpx%3FInitialTabId%3DRibbon%252EListItem%26VisibilityContext%3DWSSTabPersistence&RootFolder=

In the above URL delete the URL before NewForm.aspx, we will have

 http://SiteName/Lists/City/NewForm.aspx

In this URL in the address bar, append “?ToolPaneView=2”

http://SiteName/List/City/NewForm.aspx?ToolPaneView=2

Click Go in the address bar, then you will see the Add Web Parts option for inserting into the newform.aspx page.

In the similar way, we can insert the web part into editform.aspx and displayform.aspx

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The Parameter is incorrect crawl error Search Server

In this article, we are going to discuss about a strange issue with Microsoft Search Server.

Scenario:

Usually with the SharePoint, we will install Microsoft Search Server for providing the users a search function.

We will configure the content source in Search Server Admin page and crawler indexes the contents and will display the results in the search depending upon the user query.

The below figure shows the Search Server Overview:

Content Sources – The link where the SharePoint site is configured for crawling

Crawl Log – The logs of the crawler

Sometimes we will get the “The Parameter is incorrect” in the crawl log and then onwards, the search server stops crawling the new contents and no results will be displayed in the search result.

Root Cause:

This is due to a limit that a SharePoint user group cannot have more than 1000 users in a single SharePoint group.

Resolution:

The only way is to either decrease the number of users in the group which has exceeded the 1000 users or to split the user groups (Check the reference article below).

The reason behind is

During the indexing process, the system stores the ACE of each user who was added to a SharePoint group instead of the ACE of the SharePoint group itself. This process supports approximately 1000 users per access control list (ACL), after which the "Parameter is incorrect" error causes crawling to fail.

Reference Article:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc850696.aspx

Thanks for reading. Share your feedback!

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Export SharePoint User Groups in Excel

In this article, we are going to discuss about a SharePoint tip which is not present in the User Groups by default.

Scenario:

From any list in the SharePoint, you can export the whole list in to a excel file or you can edit and save the excel file.

But is that possible in SharePoint User Groups?

Yes, it is possible.
Solution:

1. Go to Site Settings (http://sitname/_layouts/settings.aspx) -> Under Users and Permissions Select People and groups 

2. You will be seeing a URL like this http://sitname/_layouts/people.aspx?MembershipGroupId=5

3. Then navigate to the List Settings in the people and groups of a particular group which you want to export to the excel file

4. Now, in the URL you will see like this:

http://sitname/_layouts/listedit.aspx?List=72bcbfee-c10e-41ba-b128-2769c8fe9cc9&Source=%2Fpeople%2Easpx%3FMembershipGroupId%3D5
5. If you want you retrieve the users list from any view, then click on the view from the views list as shown below:
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the view you want to export

6.Now, copy the URL from the address bar and keep it in a notepad which is something like below:
http:// sitname /_layouts/ViewEdit.aspx?List=%7B72BCBFEE%2DC10E%2D41BA%2DB128%2D2769C8FE9CC9%7D&View=%7B4A52DE00%2D9B7C%2D4FDC%2DAC39%2D960FDF18F1F3%7D&Source=%252F%255Flayouts%252Flistedit%252Easpx%253FList%253D72bcbfee%252Dc10e%252D41ba%252Db128%252D2769c8fe9cc9%2526Source%255Flayouts%25252Fpeople%25252Easpx%25253FMembershipGroupId%25253D5

From the above URL, we have to copy the LIST ID and VIEW ID (marked bold in the above URL)

7. Now, we can easily export the people and groups in to excel using the following dll from the SharePoint server.

http://[sitename]/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?CS=109&Using=_layouts/query.iqy&List=[LISTID]&View=[VIEWID]&CacheControl=1

8. Now, replace the site name, LIST ID and VIEWID in the above URL:

I will get the final URL as:

http://sitename/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?CS=109&Using=_layouts/query.iqy&List=%7B64DAB4AC%2DD043%2D4DA4%2D85C7%2D9D4521C3F4CC%7D&View=%7B0FAE8D90%2D59D5%2D48F4%2DA54E%2DF02333777C7F%7D&CacheControl=1

Note:

To know more about the owssvr.dll please read this article

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd588689(v=office.11).aspx

Open the above URL in the address bar, you will get an option to save an EXCEL FILE.

9. Open the Excel file, you will be asked for authentication, enable the external content and open it.

10. That’s it. You will see all the users in the groups with their details exported to the excel file.
11. This excel file exported using this method has all the users from the user groups but it is not filtered by user group name.

Read this article to achieve exporting the SharePoint user groups with the group name Exporting SharePoint User Groups with Group Names.
Read this article to know How to Programmatically get the users with the Group Name in SharePoint 

Programmatically get SharePoint Users with Group Name.
See Also

Check if current user is member of a SharePoint group using JQuery

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SharePoint Web Part Maintenance Page

In this post, we will come to know how to navigate to the web part maintenance page.

Why we need this page in SharePoint ?

In the webpart maintenance page, we will see the web parts present in a SharePoint page.

By adding “?contents=1” at the end of the page URL, you can navigate to the web part maintenance page.

For Example:

http://severname/default.aspx?contents=1

Here, you can see the web parts present in the SharePoint page and you can delete the web parts if it is corrupted or not used in the particular page.

Advantage:

There will be scenarios like; you will get an error while opening the SharePoint page in the SharePoint designer. Read this article to know more Deafult.aspx is not opening in the SharePoint Designer

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