Ben Prins – Page 14 – Consulting and developing on Office 365

SharePoint Timer Job: Workflow Auto Cleanup Job

September 26, 2016 Ben Prins Office 365

One of our customers uses workflows to review and approve important project documents. The project board members receive workflow tasks to approval for example the mandate and the project initiation documentation (PID). The customer uses a view to see if the approval workflow is running, complete or not used. After weeks of using the workflow the customer stated that all the workflow information of completed workflows is missing. This is a problem because the customer needs to be able to provide an audit trail of the approval process for important project document.

Cause
The cause of the seaming missing workflow information is the SharePoint timer job Workflow Auto Cleanup Job. The job is responsible for deleting related workflow tasks and the workflows status used in views. The job removes tasks that still exist 60 days after the workflow is completed or cancelled. This is done to prevent the task list to become too large and impact performance. The actual workflow information will not be removed and can still be accessed through the workflow history.

Solution
Because the required audit trail information is not lost we did not change anything to the timer job, to make sure no potential performance issues where introduced.
We introduced the following solution to overcome the default cleanup behavior.

We added a step in the workflow that filled in an extra column, the column contains the information if the workflow has run or not.
The column was removed from the edit page to make sure only the workflow changed the value of the column.
We taught the customer how to use the workflow history, to gain easy access to the audit trail.

Disable the timer job (not recommended)
It is possible to disable the timer job. However, this is not recommended. Disabling the timer job creates a potential impact to performance.

SharePoint Online: A few new features

July 1, 2016 Ben Prins Office 365

SharePoint 2016 contains a few new features. Here is a list of a few of these features which I am excited about.

File Size for uploads
The file size for uploads can be as large as 10 GB, with the previous file size being max. 2 GB.

List view threshold
The list view threshold is stated as greater than 5.000 and is different for specific actions. This will increase the performance of lists.

Specifies the maximum number of list or library items that a database operation, such as a query, can process at the same time outside the daily time window set by the administrator during which queries are unrestricted.
When adding or removing a column index, the threshold is 20,000 by default.
When deleting a list or folder, the threshold is 100,000 by default.
When renaming a folder within the same library, the threshold is 100,000 by default

Document library features
Change from details view to the new tiles view with a click.

New ribbon with quick to access features

New details view per document, including editing properties and sharing information

New and improved get (share) a link features, too easily send view and edit links.

When uploading a document into a document set through the drag and drop feature, the document will be uploaded directly into the document set without the user opening the document set.

Existing documents can be move into a document set through the drag and drop feature, the document will be moved directly into the document set without the user opening the document set.

It is possible to pin documents to the top of the document library through the feature ‘Pin to top’. This will allow users to pin the most important documents on a very quick to access location.

Every user is able to quickly see what the recent activities where within the document library.

Turn scripting capabilities on

June 8, 2016 Ben Prins Office 365

By default scripting capabilities are turned off in Office 365. This will prevent the use of a set of settings and a larger number of web parts.
The administrator of the environment can enable scripting in SharePoint admin center. When scripting is turned on it takes about 24 hours for the change to take effect.

Solution
1. Sign in to Office 365.
2. Open the admin center.

3. Open the SharePoint admin center.

4. Click on settings.
5. Set custom scripting to allow.

6. Save the changes and wait 24 hours.

The following web part, features are settings are effected by the turning scripting on/off. When scripting is disabled (off) these functions will be unavailable to administrators.

Effect Web parts and features
Web Part Category	Web Part
Blog	Blog Archives Blog Notifications Blog Tools
Business Data	Business Data Actions Business Data Item Business Data Item Builder Business Data List Business Data Related List Excel Web Access Indicator Details Status List Visio Web Access
Community	About This Community Join My Membership Tools What’s Happening
Content Rollup	Categories Project Summary Relevant Documents RSS Viewer Site Aggregator Sites in Category Term Property Timeline WSRP Viewer XML Viewer
Document Sets	Document Set Contents Document Set Properties
Forms	HTML Form Web Part
Media and Content	Content Editor Script Editor Silverlight Web Part
Search	Refinement Search Box Search Navigation Search Results
Search-Driven Content	Catalog-Item Reuse
Social Collaboration	Contact Details Note Board Organization Browser Site Feed Tag Cloud User Tasks
Master Page Gallery	Can’t create or edit master pages
Publishing Sites	Can’t create or edit master pages and page layouts

Effected sites settings
Site Feature	Behavior	Notes
Save Site as Template	No longer available in Site Settings.	You can still build sites from templates created before scripting was disabled.
Save document library as template	No longer available in Library Settings.	You can still build document libraries from templates created before scripting was disabled.
Solution Gallery	No longer available in Site Settings.	You can still use solutions created before scripting was disabled.
Theme Gallery	No longer available in Site Settings.	You can still use themes created before scripting was disabled.
Help Settings	No longer available in Site Settings.	You can still access help file collections available before scripting was disabled.
HTML Field Security	No longer available in Library Settings.	You can still use HTML field security that you set up before scripting was disabled.
Sandbox solutions	Solution Gallery will not appear in the Site Settings so you can’t add, manage, or upgrade sandbox solutions.	You can still run sandbox solutions that were deployed before scripting was disabled.
SharePoint Designer	Site Pages: No longer able to update web pages that are not HTML. Handling List: Create Form and Custom Action will no longer work. Subsites: New Subsite and Delete Site redirect to the Site Settings page in the browser. Data Sources: Properties button is no longer available.	You can still open data sources.
Uploading files that potentially include scripts	The following file types can no longer be uploaded to a library .asmx .ascx .aspx .htc .jar .master .swf .xap .xsf	Existing files in the library are not impacted.

Add new page button

June 6, 2016 Ben Prins Office 365

SharePoint has multiple ways to add pages. It can be done in the document library (pages) or through the settings drop-down menu. For most users these are not the most practical and easy. An easier and faster way is to simply add a hyperlink or button on a page for user to click on. My favorite method is to add a button on the page in SharePoint style. The hyperlink I am using is exactly the same as the hyperlink in the settings drop-down menu.

Solution with hyperlink only
1. Edit the page where the button needs to be placed.
2. Add a Script Editor web part to the page.
3. Add the following code in the script editor.

 <a onclick="if (LaunchCreateHandler(&#39;PublishingPage&#39;)) { SP.SOD.executeFunc(&#39;sp.ui.dialog.js&#39;, &#39;SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog&#39;, function() { var dlgOptions = { url:&#39;\u002fsites\u002fknowledge\u002fBestPractice\u002f_layouts\u002f15\u002fCreatePublishingPageDialog.aspx&#39;, autoSize: true, autoSizeStartWidth: 550 }; SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog(dlgOptions); }); };" href="#">  
      new page  
 </a>

4. Publish the page.

Solution with button SharePoint style
1. Edit the page where the button needs to be placed.
2. Add a Script Editor web part to the page.
3. Add the following code in the script editor.

 <div class="ms-comm-heroLinkContainer">  
   <a onclick="if (LaunchCreateHandler(&#39;PublishingPage&#39;)) { SP.SOD.executeFunc(&#39;sp.ui.dialog.js&#39;, &#39;SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog&#39;, function() { var dlgOptions = { url:&#39;\u002fsites\u002fknowledge\u002fBestPractice\u002f_layouts\u002f15\u002fCreatePublishingPageDialog.aspx&#39;, autoSize: true, autoSizeStartWidth: 550 }; SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog(dlgOptions); }); };" href="#" class="ms-textXLarge ms-heroCommandLink">  
    <span class="ms-list-addnew-imgSpan20">  
      <img class="ms-list-addnew-img20" src="/_layouts/15/images/spcommon.png?rev=23">  
 </span>new page  
 </a>  
 </div>

4. Publish the page.

SharePoint: Show all files which have no checked in version

January 14, 2015 Ben Prins Office 365

With SharePoint 2010/2013 and the “Check in – Check out” feature enabled documents may seem to disappear and reappear for users without a cause. A common scenario is that colleague 1 saved a document on SharePoint but colleague 2 is unable to find it. While Colleague 1 can still see and find the document. This is a common and a very frustrating situation. This happens when a new file is stored on SharePoint but does not yet have a checked in version. This can happen when multiple files are uploaded to SharePoint and a required column is not filled in or when the setting Require Check Out is enabled. The file(s) will be stored on SharePoint but will be check out and only visible for the up-loader. There is a way for every user to see these hidden checked out documents.

Colleague 1 sees		Colleague 2 sees

Solution

1. Open the document library where the documents are missing.
2. Click in the ribbon on Library – Settings – Library Settings.
3. Click on Manage files which have no checked in version.
4. All the documents without a checked in version will be displayed.

5. If needed the user can take over the ownership and check in the document.

SharePoint Online: Search refiners and searchable columns

October 31, 2014 Ben Prins Office 365

Adding search refiners and creating searchable columns with SharePoint Online is a little bit different then with SharePoint 2013 on premise. In this blog post I will explain how to add search refiners and how to make custom columns searchable. There are 5 major parts we need to implement;

Create a custom column
Add some content
Map a crawled property to a refinable managed property
Created the alias
Configure the refiners

Solution

1. Create your custom column, for example Product.
2. Create some content with the custom column.
3. Wait for the column to be added as a crawled property, this might take up to 24 hours.
4. Open the SharePoint admin center and click on Search.

5. Click on Manage Search Schema.
6. Depending on the type of column you will need to use different type of preset Managed Properties.

Managed property name	Data type for mapping
RefinableDate00 – RefinableDate19	Dates.
RefinableDecimal00 – RefinableDecimal09	Numbers with max three decimals.
RefinableDouble00 – RefinableDouble09	Numbers with more than three decimals.
RefinableInt00 – RefinableInt49	Whole numbers.
RefinableString00 – RefinableString99	Strings, Person or Group, Managed Metadata, Choice and Yes/No

7. Search the related type on Managed Property.

8. Click on Edit Map Property in het drop-down menu.
9. Add the Crawled property of the custom column, in our example it will be ows_Product.

10. Fill in the alias, this will make the column searchable.
11. Save the changes.
12. Close the SharePoint admin center and open the search center result page.
13. Set the page in edit modus and edit the Refinement web part.

14. Click on Choose refiners… and add the managed property, in this example RefinableString01
15. Change the display name to the custom columns name, otherwise the refiner will be shown as RefinableString01
16. Search for some content and enjoy the result!

Result