Site Administration in SharePoint 2013

In this article, we will have know how does Site Administration in SharePoint 2013 looks. Here is the screenshot of SharePoint 2013 site administration.

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New Features of SharePoint 2013

It has been a while here, there are many reasons and I was busy as well. Let’s start it again with SharePoint 2013J
SharePoint 2013 has many new features and it is trending in the market. Let’s see the list of features which is new and what is different from the other versions of SharePoint.

1. HTML 5 and CSS 3 support  - Cross browser compatibility and optimized browser experience.
2. Device Manager & Device Channels – new way of designing  theme for  the site using SharePoint Designer 2013.
3. Community Portal – Social Networking  makes collaboration within the organization easier.
4. New Search Experience (My favorite feature J) - Continuous Crawl – yes, you get the results once you publish the new contents to the site
   Fast Search is integrated in the search feature and it is not a separate product now, licensing becomes easier.
5. Content Search Web Part – display information from the other web apps which is not possible in other versions of SharePoint – and off course content has to be crawled and indexed for displaying in this web part
6. Rich Workflows – New actions, no code web service call
7. Shredded Storage  - removes the duplicate files  and hence reduces the amount of storage in the site
8. WCM – Managed metadata for navigation and shortening of URL’s
9. Apps & Apps Store – Create and publish apps
10. Mobile Experience –  Mobile usage has increased drastically and this feature allows you to view the SharePoint site in three view such as Classic, Contemporary, Full Screen UI.

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The Server could not complete your request SharePoint Designer 2013

Problem:

When I tried opening SharePoint 2013 site in SharePoint Designer, I got the following error:

When I clicked on Details, it opened another dialog and continuously pop up window is opening and not able to open the SharePoint site.

 Finally got an error message

Solution:

    1.   Go to Run -> type Inetmgr -> Open the IIS

    2.   In the Web Sites select “SharePoint Web Services” in the list

    3.   Click on the Authentication and Enable “Anonymous Authentication” as shown below:

   4.   After enabling this, I am able to open the SharePoint site in designer without any issues

Reason for the issue: Check this article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2758431 

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News feeds not working in SharePoint 2013 - microsoft.office.server.microfeed.microfeedexception

To know about Micro Blogging in SharePoint 2013, read this post.

When I tried to use the News Feed Feature in SharePoint 2013, it thrown exception:

microsoft.office.server.microfeed.microfeedexception

The below is the screenshot: 

 Solution:

As I mentioned in the earlier post about Micro blogging in SharePoint 2013, news feeds are related to User Profile Service.

Hence, we have to check two things which are related to User Profile Service in SharePoint 2013.

    1.   Check whether AppFabric Caching service is running with the service account which has elevated permissions. 

   2.   Next, check the account which is running the User Profile Service application:

     Open Central Administration -> Mange Service Applications -> User Profile S    Service is started and also check the permissions for the service

    

   Click on the User Profile service and in the permission section in the ribbon check whether the service account running this service has full control. 

 If all the above scenarios are properly configured in SharePoint farm, then the news feed will work properly as expected.

Feel free to comment and share this post if this helps you.

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Micro blogging in SharePoint 2013

Introduction:

Microsoft has introduced a new social feature called “Micro blogging” in SharePoint 2013 to enhance the social networking and collaboration features.

This powerful feature is added as an OOTB web part to SharePoint 2013 and ready to useJ

So, what is micro blogging?

It is a type of blog which allows users to share their updates. This updates are called micro posts and the use of this services is called micro blogging.

Ref: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/microblog.html

Micro blogging in SharePoint 2013

The SharePoint Micro Blogging feature is like Facebook and Twitter which allows the users to communicate with others easily, by posting some questions, responding, comments and etc.

Following are the list of features:

  Ø  Update picture and links in the posts and replies

  Ø  Participate in a conversation by posting comments (with rich media and

        Links in the post) and replied

  Ø  Use mentions (@) to tag a user in  a post and in the replies

  Ø  Use tags (#) to define keywords so that the users can follow and search for   the same topic easily

  Ø  Like a post, follow people, documents, sites and tags

   Also, the author’s (one who posts an update or comment or reply for a post)

   presence (online, off-line, busy, in a meeting) are also displayed.

Add the Site Feed web part to the page:

Edit the page -> Insert -> Web part -> Social Collaboration -> Site Feed

 Once added, you will see a dialogue to post your feeds as shown below:

Add a new Post in the Micro blog:

You can add a post by typing your post in the text box and hit post to update your post

Add Rich Media & Links, Delete a Post:

In the Post you can add Rich media such as Image, Video, Links, etc.. Also, you have options of deleting  the post.

Like, Reply, Copy Link to conversation, Follow up, Lock Conversation:

Like other social networking as I mentioned earlier in this post you have options of Like, Reply, Copy Link to Conversation, Follow up and Lock a Conversation :)

Also, there is an option "Show More Posts" to view the old posts.

Tagging a User and Topic

The options of Tagging a user by "@" allows the other user to specifically tag a post to a user and also Tagging a topic by "#" allows the posts to be categorized and also it helps in searching the posts easier.

 See where the Micro blog contents are stored?

This micro feed are based upon the User Profile Service in SharePoint. This feeds are stored in a list called Micro Feed by default where you will see all the details stored.

Navigate to the following path to view the Micro Feeds:

http://SiteName Here/Lists/PublishedFeed/AllItems.aspx 

Check for the Micro Feed List

Clicking on the List, you will see a List with different columns which stores the feeds.

Hope you enjoyed the post. Feel free to share your valuable comments which always make me to write more. Also share this post to your friends if it is helpful. 

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Migrate SharePoint 2010 to 2013

In this article, we will learn how to migrate SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013. This migration is applicable for OOTB features migration not for Custom Solution migration to SharePoint 2013.

Steps:

      1. Change the Authentication mode of SharePoint 2010 application to Claims using the PowerShell command

$WebAppName = ""
$account = ""
$wa = get-SPWebApplication $WebAppName
Set-SPwebApplication $wa –AuthenticationProvider (NewSPAuthenticationProvider) –Zone Default

2.   We have to take the backup of solutions (WSP) from SP 2010 and deploy it in the SP 2013 farm. Use the following PowerShell command to back up the WSP

$farm = Get-SPFarm
$file = $farm.Solutions.Item("Backup.wsp").SolutionFile
$file.SaveAs("C:\Backup.wsp")

3.   Now, deploy the solution to the SP 2013 farm using the following command:

Add-SPSolution -LiteralPath "C:\Backup.wsp" 

(rebuilding the solution in Visual Studio 2012 is required sometimes)

     4.  Now take the backup of Content DB from SP 2010 and attach in SP 2013 database server

Note: This will automatically update the DB schema for SQL server 2012 (which is previously lower version in SP 2010)

    5.   Create a new web application in SP 2013 and after creating the web application detach the Content DB (which is newly created for SP 2013 now)

    6.   Now, attach the backup Content DB (taken from SP 2010) using the following command

Mount-SPContentDatabase -name -WebApplication 

Note: This will automatically update the Dictionary and other required update for SP 2013.

    7.   Now deploy the List templates and other backups from SP 2010 if required.

Note: This is applicable only for OOTB solutions. If you have custom solutions, then you have to re-build the code using Visual Studio 2012 and then deploy the solution.

Hope this helps you and please free to comment and share this post.

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Create Custom Page Layouts in SharePoint 2013

In this article we will learn how to create Custom Page Layouts for SharePoint 2013. Like SP 2010, we can create Custom Page Layouts in SharePoint 2013 using Visual Studio 2012 and Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2013 either from the scratch or by using the existing Layouts.

New in SharePoint 2013:

In SharePoint Designer we have a new feature called “Design Manager” (under Look and Feel) where we can create a Custom Layout. Once created, it will be available in the Page Layouts Gallery.

Steps:

1.   Navigate to Site Settings -> Look and Feel -> Design Manager

   2.   Under Design Manager Click on 6. Edit Page Layouts -> you have an option to “Create a page Layout” and then create it.

  3.   When the Layout is created, it is available in Edit Page Layouts (under Look and Feel -> Design Manager) and in Master pages and page layouts (under Web Designer galleries)

  4. In the Master pages and page layouts section, you will see two files created for the layout created. “.aspx and .html files”

  5.  For editing the layout page, either you can download the HTML page from the Layouts Gallery or edit the HTML files in the SharePoint Designer

    Note: No Changes should be made to .aspx file in the layouts gallery.

  6.  Once the changes are made in the HTML file, upload the updated HTML file to the gallery so that the .aspx file updated automatically.

  7.   Check in and Publish the created layouts 

  8. Now, create pages (Site Settings -> Pages -> Create Page using New Document -> Page and select the Custom Page Layout which is created) 
Hope this helps you!

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Creating Master Page with HTML Templates in SharePoint 2013

SharePoint 2013 has many new and improved design features for designing and branding it. In SP 2013, a new concept called Design Manager has been introduced where all the site branding is managed. The following article explains the step by step process of converting HTML Master Pages for using Design Manager and using the converted Master Page for the site collections.

Steps:

     1.   Create a Site Collection using Central Administration

     2.   Go to the Site Settings -> Enable SharePoint Publishing Feature in Site Collection Feature (Site Collection Administration -> Site Features) and Site Features level (Site Actions -> Site Features) as shown below:

    3.   Go to Site Settings -> Web Designer Galleries -> Master Pages and Page Layouts

    4.   I have created a folder called Custom Master Page inside the Master Pages and Page Layouts Folder and uploaded the HTML, CSS, JS, Images in the folder

    5.   Now navigate to Site Settings -> Look and Feel -> Design Manager -> Edit Master Pages -> Click Convert an existing HTML to Master Page 

  6.   Once converted you will see the converted Master Page in the List with the status Conversion Successful and make sure it is approved and published.

    7.   Now navigate to Site Settings -> Look and Feel -> Page Layouts and Site Templates select the Custom master Page created and use it for the site collection.
For branding in SP 2010 we need good web designing skills (HTML, CSS and JS). But in SP 2013 it has made very simple and easy! 

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Audit Logging in SharePoint 2013

Audit Logging gives the following information in Site Collection:

1. Opening or downloading documents, viewing items in lists, or viewing item properties
2. Editing items
3. Checking out or checking in items
4. Moving or copying items to another location in the site
5. Deleting or restoring items
6. Editing content types and columns
7. Searching site content
8. Editing users and permissions

Below are the steps to achieve:                                                                 

       1. Go to Central Administration -> Manage Service Applications

    2. Choose Secure Store Service 
 

    3. Then Click on the Properties in the Ribbon

4. In the Enable Audit option Select the Check Box Audit Log Enabled (the default value is 30 days and it can be changed)

5. After enabling the Audit Logging in Central Administration, we have to configure the audit settings at the site collection level and below are the steps:

Go to Site Settings -> Site Collection Administration -> Site Collection Audit Settings 

Under this settings, select the settings as shown below:

 Now, Audit Logging is configured for the site and now you can view the following types of Reports.

Checking the Reports Generated for the Site Collection
Go to Site Collection Administration -> Audit Log Reports

Once you click on any reports, it will ask for the Report Save location. Select any of the Libraries to store the Report.

Example Report Generated Screenshot:

 

 Select an Library to store the Report and Click OK

Report Generated in Excel

Hope this article helps you in understanding the Audit Logging in SharePoint 2013. Please feel free to share and comment about this post if it helps you.

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Unexpected error occurred while communicating with Administration Service

Scenario:

I ran into the following issue when attempting to access  Fast search features such as:

1. FAST Search keywords

2. Fast Search site promotion and demotion

3. Fast search user context

Solution:

I checked my Administrators group in the SP server. Fast Search ADMIN account configured is added in the Administrators group. Though I am unable to access these features.

Then found the resolution from a TechNet article.

1.   Create a group named FASTSearchKeywordAdministrators in the SP server (this group is not automatically created during default installation).

2.   Add the Fast Search ADMIN account (account configured for fast search) to this group.

Then tried accessing the features and everything works as expected.

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