Thoughts, insights and commentary

Problem with Publisher_2010.xml in Productivity Hub 2010 SP1

Charles S. Teague — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:50:00 GMT

When attempting to install the Publisher content pack for the SharePoint 2010 Productivity Hub SP1 you may receive the error shown below when attempting to run the install script with the Publisher_2010.xml file. Exception calling "Load" with "1" argument(s): "'<' is an unexpected token. The expected token is '>'. Line 10, position 16."
At C:\Files\Productivity Hub 2010 SP1\Unpack\Publisher\Install.ps1:88 char:41
+     $xd = [System.Xml.Linq.XDocument]::Load <<<< ((Resolve-Path $xml))
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DotNetMethodException You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At C:\Files\Productivity Hub 2010 SP1\Unpack\Publisher\Install.ps1:98 char:34
+ $productName = $xd.Root.Attribute <<<< ("Product").Value
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (Attribute:String) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At C:\Files\Productivity Hub 2010 SP1\Unpack\Publisher\Install.ps1:102 char:37
+ $productVersion = $xd.Root.Attribute <<<< ("ProductVersion").Value
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (Attribute:String) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At C:\Files\Productivity Hub 2010 SP1\Unpack\Publisher\Install.ps1:104 char:37
+ $productIconUrl = $xd.Root.Attribute <<<< ("IconUrl").Value
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (Attribute:String) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At C:\Files\Productivity Hub 2010 SP1\Unpack\Publisher\Install.ps1:106 char:39
+ $productFullTitle = $xd.Root.Attribute <<<< ("FullTitle").Value
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (Attribute:String) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At C:\Files\Productivity Hub 2010 SP1\Unpack\Publisher\Install.ps1:108 char:78
+ [System.Guid] $productKeywordGuid = new-object System.Guid($xd.Root.Attribute <<<< ("KeywordGuid"
).Value)
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (Attribute:String) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull Test-Path : Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Path' because it is null.
At C:\Files\Productivity Hub 2010 SP1\Unpack\Publisher\Install.ps1:191 char:14
+     if(Test-Path <<<< $productIconUrl)
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidData: (:) [Test-Path], ParameterBindingValidationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationErrorNullNotAllowed,Microsoft.PowerShell.
   Commands.TestPathCommand Registering keyword in term mgr
CreateKeywordTerm : Cannot process argument transformation on parameter 'tagGuid'. Cannot convert n
ull to type "System.Guid".
At C:\Files\Productivity Hub 2010 SP1\Unpack\Publisher\Install.ps1:232 char:93
+ [Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy.Term] $keywordTerm = CreateKeywordTerm -site $spSite -tagGuid <<<<
$productKeywordGuid -termString $productKeywordTerm
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidData: (:) [CreateKeywordTerm], ParameterBindin...mationExcept
   ion
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentTransformationError,CreateKeywordTerm Uploading   content
You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At C:\Files\Productivity Hub 2010 SP1\Unpack\Publisher\Install.ps1:251 char:33
+ foreach($xe in $xd.Root.Elements <<<< ())
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (Elements:String) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull The cause of the error is that the Publisher_2010.xml file has an error in it. In the top section on line 10 (shown below) the element closing tag is not properly formatted.

    2010\Reference_Publisher_2007_to_2010.xlsx
    Publisher Command Reference
    See where commands moved from Publisher 2007 to Publisher 2010.
    Beginning
    No
    No
    No
To correct the problem you will need to add ">" to the end of the line so that it looks like this...

Increase file upload size to install SharePoint 2010 Productivity Hub SP1

Charles S. Teague — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:28:18 GMT

I needed to take a look at the Productivity Hub 2010 SP1 for SharePoint 2010 so it was time to actually install it. After downloading the files and readying my SharePoint 2010 farm for the installation following the steps in the installation guide I started the install script. I chose to have the main install script install of the content packs. All was looking good until I noticed that a few or the content packs were generating errors that they were not present or invalid. One of the content packs reporting this error was the Access content pack so I tried to install in manually to see what I got.

When running the content pack install script on the Access_2010.xml file I got the error that the file was to large to be uploaded. Interesting since nothing in the main part of the installation guide mentioned needing to increase the file upload size. In reading to the bottom of the installation guide I found the section "Unable to upload large files to the Productivity Hub" with some code to add to the web.config file. I'm running Windows Server 2008 R2 for my farm so I took the approach to go into Central Administration and increase the maximum file upload size at the web application level. After an increase to 250MB I was able to run the install script and have it complete with no errors.

Happy New Year

Charles S. Teague — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 12:03:00 GMT

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year. May 2009 be the year for whatever you need it to be.

Support and compatibility with 2008 products

Charles S. Teague — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:00:00 GMT

The question regarding does Commerce Server 2007 support Windows Server 2008 and/or SQL Server 2008 and/or Visual Studio 2008 has came up several times and I wanted to give a quick post on this.

With the release of Commerce Server 2007 Service Pack 2, we do fully support both Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008. SQL Server 2008 had only undergone some basic testing on its release candidate as Commerce Server 2007 Service Pack 2 released prior to SQL Server 2008. Full testing is in process and once testing is complete we will announce it and let everyone know the support status.

PayPal component for Commerce Server 2007

Charles S. Teague — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:12:00 GMT

Just wanted to share some information that apparently the developers at PayPal have an Express Checkout component in the works for Commerce Server 2007. Here is the link to the note about it. https://www.paypaldeveloper.com/pdn/blog/article?blog.id=devblog&message.id=523#M523

I'm not familiar with the component or its current status but I know that many people have made inquiries regarding PayPal integration so I wanted to share. The post is a bit old but if you are in need of PayPal integration you can contact the PayPal developer blog for more information.

Are you ready for Internet Explorer 8.0

Charles S. Teague — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:07:00 GMT

As many already know Internet Explorer (IE) 8.0 Beta 2 has been released to the public with good reception. We have done some basic testing of IE8 Beta 2 against the Commerce Server 2007 Starter Site and Starter Site R2 and have found no real issues so far. If you happen to be doing some of your own testing and run into issues or if you have a production site and want it to be IE 8 ready there are some steps you can take now. First, be sure your site is code following W3C Standards. This is the best way to ensure compatibility not only with IE8 but other standards based broswers such as FireFox.

If you are seeing some compatibility issues with IE8 please refer to methods 4 and 5 in Microsoft article #956197 <https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;956197>.

Increasing the number of days CSS logging retains data

Charles S. Teague — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:45:00 GMT

In Commerce Server 2007 Staging (CSS) the event logging will retain 3 days worth of event and project data by default. The number of days can be adjusted from 1 to 999 by manually editing the appropriate registry value. To adjust the value follow these steps: Open Regedit.exe and expand to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\CSS\EventLogging\CSSLocalEvents Right click on the value 'EventLifetime' and select Modify. Change Base to Decimal and then enter the Value data (number of days) you want. Select OK to save the value.

After saving the value you will need to restart the Commerce Server Staing service so that the new value will be used.

How to configure Commerce Server Staging to log to SQL database

Charles S. Teague — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:34:00 GMT

By default Commerce Server 2007 Staging (CSS) logs event and project data to an Access database. This works fine but for those administrators that won't to be able to better manage and make use of the reporting history usage of a SQL Server database is the best choice. In this post I will outline the steps needed to re-configure CSS to log to a SQL Server database. CSS uses the ODBC System DSN 'CSSLocalEvents' to define where to perform logging which by default is an Access database named events.mdb. The DSN can be changed to use either a local or remote SQL Server database. Use the steps below to change the database that the 'CSSLocalEvents' DSN will use for CSS logging. For these steps we will be using a SQL Server 2005 database and administration tools.

> Using the SQL Server Management Studio, create a new empty database named "Events" on the SQL Server you will use to host the database.

> Set the account that the Commerce Server Staging service is running as (\CSStageSvc) to be db_owner on the Events SQL database just created.

> Open the Commerce Server Staging MMC and stop the CSS service

> From Start\Administrative Tools select Data Sources (ODBC)

> In the ODBC Data Source Administrator select the System DSN tab

> Select the CSSLocalEvents data source and click the Configure button

> Rename the data source to CSSLocalEventsOriginal and then select OK to save the change (this step allows a user to easily go back to logging to the Access database if needed)

> Click the Add button to create a new ODBC System DSN. This will start the wizard and on the first page scroll through the list of drivers and select SQL Server.

> Complete the wizard by entering the SQL server name and selecting the Events database already created.

> Restart the Commerce Server Staging service from the Commerce Server Staging MMC

To verify that the service was able to initialize the new Events SQL database use SQL Server Management Studio to view the tables in the database. You should see that two tables named 'Events' and 'TranslatedEvents' were created and populated. If the tables do not exist check the application event log for any errors.

Note: When viewing the project reports in the Commerce Server Staging MMC if you receive an error that the DSN could not be found or something similar you should look at your IIS permission settings to resolve the issue.

Usage of the Starter Site and the sample catalog

Charles S. Teague — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:39:00 GMT

I have a question I would like to get some feedback on. For those that are building new Commerce Server 2007 sites how many start with the Commerce Server 2007 Starter Site as the base for your new site?

Also, in your testing how many people use the Adventure Works sample product catalog as you starting point or as a bench mark testing catalog? How many people would find a more robust and in-depth designed product and inventory catalogs useful?

How to set sequence for product variants in the Commerce Server 2007 Starter Site

Charles S. Teague — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:01:00 GMT

After setting the sequence for product variants in Catalog Manager, the Commerce Server 2007 Starter Site still does not list product variants such as color or size in the desired order. They are always listed alphabetically. To resolve the issue you will need to edit the control used to display product information. Open the CommerceCommponents.csproj which is located in the directory where you unzipped the Starter Site. In the file 'pvcClient.js' find the line that contains the statement "values.sort();" (minus quotes) and comment out this line. You will now rebuild the Dll and then deploy to your site. Now when you select the product variant drop down for a product, in the list displayed in the drop down the product variants will now be displayed as they were sequenced in Catalog Manager.