From your client where you have Internet Explorer 6 or 7, browse to the sharepoint List2 and create new item, in new item creation page go to Column2 and click on the drop down button, it will take very long time display the items pulled from List1.  We will not experience this issue in SharePoint 2003, we have identified this issue after migrating SharePoint 2003 site to a MOSS 2007 environment and there is no change in client side (IE version).

The reason behind this performance issue is because in MOSS the way we render the data and process is changed compared to earlier version SharePoint 2003.

In SPS 2003 the dropdown items are rendered as HTML SELECT element with each option in the dropdown specified as a separate OPTION elements, it will be easier and quicker in IE 7 to process and display the data.  But there will be delay in network traffic as http payload is high.

      <SELECT TABINDEX=1 NAME="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#GetData"><OPTION Value="">(None)</OPTION><OPTION  VALUE="13360">America</OPTION><OPTION  VALUE="13107">b</OPTION><OPTION  VALUE="13040">bhm</OPTION><OPTION  VALUE="12754">bnm</OPTION><OPTION  VALUE="12749">bnmvb</OPTION><OPTION  VALUE="13358">bus</OPTION> 

In MOSS the dropdown items are rendered as a SPAN element (with its opt attribute set to _Select) and then all the dropdown items are specified as a long string with items separated by ‘|’ (pipe) symbol.  So that the data packet size is reduced, it will improve the nework performance at the same time it has issues with old IE versions like IE6 and IE7.

<span style="vertical-align:middle"><input name="ctl00$m$g_b4b96149_5df0_41fd_8890_f4dac0ac0b09$ctl00$ctl04$ctl01$ctl00$ctl00$ctl04$ctl00$ctl01" type="text" id="ctl00_m_g_b4b96149_5df0_41fd_8890_f4dac0ac0b09_ctl00_ctl04_ctl01_ctl00_ctl00_ctl04_ctl00_ctl01" class="ms-lookuptypeintextbox" onfocusout="HandleLoseFocus()" opt="_Select" title="LookRom" optHid="SPLookRom_Hidden" onkeypress="HandleChar()" onkeydown="HandleKey()" match="" choices="(None)|0|America|13357|b|13359|bhm|13358|d|25|d|31|d|34|d|37|d|40|d|207|d|213|d|216|d|219|d|222|d|389|d|395|
d|398|d|401|d|404|d|571|d|577|d|580|d|583|d|586|d|753|d|759|d|762|d|765|d|768|d|935|d|941|d|944|d|

Solution:

To overcome this performance issue we need to upgrade the Internet Explorer version to IE8.

For example my site URL is:  https://wfeone/ (14)
The document library I have created:  Queen/ (6)
Folder created under Queen:  0123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789/ (101)
Sub-folder : 0123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789/ (101)
Sub-folder : 012345678901234567890123456789/ (31)

14+6+101+101+31 = 253

Complete length of the below URL is 253 characters
https://wfeone/Queen/0123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789/0123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789/012345678901234567890123456789/

Edit:
======
To edit the document, it must have only 6 characters in length (a.docx), if you upload any document which is 7 in length (ab.docx) cannot be editable. We get the following error message.

"The URL for this file is too long for the application.  A temporary copy of this file will be opened on your computer.  You must save this copy as a new file"

Upload:
=======
While uploading we use different mechanism to calculate length.
We do not count the site URL https://wfeone/ (14), the count starts from document library Queen/, so the total length would be 239 and you are allowed to upload a document which is 20 (0123456789012345.docx) in length, you cannot upload a document which is 21 characters.  You will get the following error message.

Error:
The specified file or folder name is too long. The URL path for all files and folders must be 260 characters or less (and no more than 128 characters for any single file or folder name in the URL). Please type a shorter file or folder name.
Troubleshoot issues with Windows SharePoint Services.

So, we have restrictions in both sides, while uploading and editing.  But it works in different way, site URL is not counted while uploading.

select * from sites
select * from webs
                copy the SiteId from the above query and replace it with the below query.

select 'https://selvag/' + DirName + '/' + LeafName as url, LEN('https://selvag/' + DirName + '/' + LeafName) as urllength  from alldocs where siteid = '9BE4D0E8-ADC6-4C3F-946B-08D6748CC123' and LEN('https://selvag/' + DirName + '/' + LeafName) >200 order by urllength desc

We can create custom event handler which can count the site URL as well.
Some of the reference links are here …

https://www.sharepointjoel.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=111
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointdevelopment/thread/e09fc8c1-b5f4-4ac6-9bd5-3ff8ebe06190

What is the scenario and error message, why it is interesting ?

Scenario: Launch Microsoft Word application and create a document, save it to a SharePoint document library as Test.htm.  Try to edit the same Test.htm and try to save it back to the same SharePoint Document library, you will get the following error message.

Error message: “The file cannot be saved because it is not checked out.  To make changes to this file, you must check it out.”

This error message looks pretty much common with Check-in/Check-out, we have many articles and troubleshooting tips to fix it, then what difference this article is going to make it.

The SharePoint UI will show that the document is checked-out, if you query SQL server and check the document Test.htm, it will show as checked-out.  We can’t fix this issue with common troubleshooting method until we know the root cause of the issue.

Root Cause: When you save a document file as .htm to a SharePoint document library, it creates additional resource folder and files, it won’t be visible in SharePoint UI.  When we try to edit Test.htm, the main file is getting checked-out but not all the resource folder and files.  When we try to save the Test.htm back to document library, it will try to update the resource folder and files as well, since those files are not checked out, we are getting the above error message.

here is the sample data …

Create a document library named “TestLib”
Upload a document named Test.docx
Checkout the document
Run the following query on SQL server.
             select checkoutuserid, checkoutdate, checkoutexpires,dirname, leafname from dbo.AllDocs with (nolock) where dirname = 'TestLib'
Result will look like.

Browse to the document library you will see 2 files, Test.docx and Test.htm.
Run the same above SQL query and compare this result.

Instead of using .htm and .html, use the following file formats while saving webpages to document library.
     “Single File Web Page (*.mht; *.mhtml)”
     “WebPage, Filtered (*.htm; *.html)”

What is BlobCache?

Disk-based Caching for Binary Large Objects

Disk-based caching controls caching for binary large objects (BLOBs) such as image, sound, and video files, as well as code fragments. Disk-based caching is extremely fast and eliminates the need for database round trips. BLOBs are retrieved from the database once and stored on the Web client. Further requests are served from the cache and trimmed based on security.

Enabling and Modifying Disk-based Caching for SharePoint sites.

Disk-based caching is disabled by default. To enable and customize the disk-based cache, you must modify the following statement in the web.config file for the SharePoint Web application.

By default, it looks like this:
<BlobCache location="C:\blobCache" path="\.(gif|jpg|png|css|js)$" maxSize="10" enabled="false" />

In order to improve the performance of your site, the BlobCache should be enabled.
<BlobCache location="C:\blobCache" path="\.(gif|jpg|png|css|js)$" maxSize="10" enabled="true" />

Example:

<BlobCache location="C:\blobCache" path="\.(gif|jpg|png|css|js)$" maxSize="10" max-age="86400" enabled="false"/>

In the preceding example:

•             location is the directory where the cached files will be stored
•             path specifies in the form of a regular expression which files are cached based on the file extension
•             maxSize is the maximum allowable size of the disk-based cache in gigabytes
•             max-age specifies the maximum amount of time in seconds that the client browser caches BLOBs downloaded to the client  computer. If the downloaded items have not expired since the last download, the same items are not re-requested when the  page is requested. The max-age attribute is set by default to 86400 seconds (that is, 24 hours), but it can be set to a time period  of 0 or greater.
•             enabled is a Boolean that disables or enables the cache.

Flushing the Disk-based Cache:

                We can flush current site collection object cache.
                Site collection administration -> site collection object cache -> disk based cache reset.

If we have multiple WFE in a farm, each WFE will maintain its own copy of Disk-based Cache.  MOSS does not have a Web user interface (UI) to flush Disk-based Cache on all the servers in a farm and there is no option to select specific WFE.

When we use web user interface to flush, reset will happen at the WFE server where the current IE session established.  Eg:: Configure DNS round robin for a URL, open IE(1) and browse the site, it establish connection with WFE1.  Open another IE(2) and browse the site, it establish connection with WFE2.  When you do flush thru IE(1), WFE1 disk-based cache will get reset, do the same thru IE(2), WFE2 cache will get reset.

We have to use STSADM command to flush all binary large object (BLOB) caches associated with a specific Web Application on different Web front-end computers in a farm

STSADM -o setproperty -propertyname blobcacheflushcount -propertyvalue 11 -url  https://mywebapp:port

How BOLBCACHE works:

After enabled blobcache in web.config, do IISRESET and browse /settings.aspx first, instead of home page (Collaboration portal site).

If we browse the settings.aspx, it creates Change.bin, dump.bin and flushcount.bin (all the files will be in 1KB size)

Browse the home page now, it will create a folder PUBLISHINGIMAGES folder, all the images rendered from database will be stored here and the above bin files also will get updated (we can see the difference in file size)

Every time when a new image file rendered from database, the image folder gets a copy of the image.  The bin files (index) will get updated with additional entry.

Every request from client will check the index file first; if the required image is not there in index, the request will go to database to get page content and image.  It will not check the image folder whether the image is there or not.  If the index file says there is no such image then the request goes to database, after the image rendered the image folder and index file get updated, so that next request will not go to database.

What happens, if the image is not there in cache folder or image file is corrupted?

            We will not get the image; we get ‘X’ in place of image.

What you mean by image file not there?

            Filename.jpg.cache file is missing.

What you mean by image corrupted?

           When you try to open the image file using image viewer (use IE), it will show ‘X’, because it is not a image file format (we get the same ’X’ in SharePoint page as well)

Solution:  We have to reset index file.  Site settings -> Site collection object cache -> Check the box for “Force this server to reset its disk based cache”.  It will completely delete all the images and reset the bin files back to 1KB, so that next request will go to database and the complete index will be getting rebuilt.

Workaround: If you do not want to reset the complete index.  Find out the missing image and copy to the image folder, name it as “filename.JPG.cache”
Refresh the page now; it should pick up the image.

Index file update:

Everytime when web.config initialize the index file loaded from blobcache folder to memory, all new entries will keep getting updated in index file where in memory. 
IISRESET /stop will dump the updated index file from memory to blobcache folder.
IISRESET /start will load the index file from blobcache folder to memory.
As long as the application pool is alive the index file will be getting updated in memory itself.
 

Index file corruption:

Index file corruption is possible only when IISAdmin crashed or the index file overwritten with wrong information.  When IIS try to load index file from blobcache to memory and identifies that, it is corrupted file (not a valid file), it will get completely rebuilt (flush) as fresh file (1KB), all the old entries and images will be lost.

Q & A:

1.  In a farm environment, is there any way of having all the WFEs' blob caches synchronized among each other?
      No, it cannot be synchronized. When a new file is added, SharePoint loads in memory the list of “cached” files in order to avoid checking the file system every time.

2.  In a single WFE environment using web gardening, how does blob caching function? Is there any sync that happens among the working processes?
      BLOB cache doesn’t support web gardening. The reason for that is because thre is different processes to access the same blobcache (there’s one blobcache per IIS web Site). As  result, the second web process is not able to access the BlobCache. When a recycle occurs and the original W3WP process dies gracefully the lock released and the new W3WP process is then able to access  BlobCache.

3.  What would be the best way of using blob cache in a farm environment (best practices)?
       If the requirement is to “centralize” static cached files, then 3rd party content distribution network (CDN) solutions like Akamai need to be used.

•   WSS 3.0 / MOSS Server
•   SPTimer service
•   SMTP Relay
•   Active Directory management service
•   User account which has rights in AD (Delegate control for a specific OU)

About Incoming E-mail:

•   Feature of MOSS that enables SharePoint sites to receive and store e-mail messages and attachments in lists and libraries.
•   Users can upload documents to SharePoint document library.
•   Each list and library will have unique email address.

Simple Scenario:

Easy to configure, very less resources required.

You cannot use your existing corporate email client to send emails to Sharepoint lists.

Users have to remember all the email address for Sharepoint list items or it has to stored in local contacts list, there is no central location where you can store like Active Directory or GAL.

Windows 2003 server
Internet Information Services 6.0
SMTP service
.Net Framework 3.0
WSS 3.0 / MOSS server

SMTP Configuration:

Server Configuration:

Though you have exchange server in organization we have to install SMTP service on one of the web front end server in Sharepoint farm. Make sure SMTP component is installed on one of your Sharepoint server, Sharepoint timer service will pick email/attachments from known local SMTP service only.
When you install SMTP service on your local Sharepoint server, it will create a domain under SMTP Virtual server.
Need not to configure anything manually, but few things needs to be checked before proceeding further.

Open IIS manager -> Default SMTP virtual Server -> Domains -> MOSSserver.domain.com -> Properties
Check the drop directory location, default location would be "C:\inetpub\mailroot\Drop" where all the emails will be stored till Sharepoint timer service pick it up.  Sharepoint timer service will check this folder every 5 minutes (default).

Check the security level for the the folder "C:\inetpub\mailroot\Drop"
Make sure the 'WSS_ADMIN_WPG' local group has full control on this folder.

Client Configuration:

Client computers can be any windows operating system with email clients, either MS Outlook or Outlook Express to send email to SharePoint list.

Launch Outlook Express -> Create new email account
Display name: MOSS Administrator
email address: mossadmin@MOSSserver.domain.com

Incoming Email Server type: POP3
Incoming Email server: MOSSserver
Outgoing Email server: MOSSserver
Username: mossadmin
Password: xxxxxx

Note: You might get POP3 server connection failure, we can ignore this because we have configured only SMTP server not the POP3 service on Sharepoint server.  For incoming E-mail configuration SMTP server configuration is enough.

Test:

Open outlook express and send an email to <DocLibrary>@SELVAWEB.SELDOM.com with attachment.
Check the folder "C:\inetpub\mailroot\Drop" and make sure the email dropped here in the format of *.eml file.

SHAREPOINT Configuration:

Global Settings from Admin:

Browse to Central Administration site -> Operations -> Incoming Email Settings (https://server:2345/_admin/IncomingEmail.aspx)

Enable incoming E-mail: Yes
Setting mode: Automatic
Directory management Service: No
Incoming E-mail server display address: MOSSserver.domain.com
Safe E-mail servers: Accept mail from all e-mail server

Settings for Individual List items:

Browse to SharePoint site and create a document library.

Document library settings -> Incoming email settings

Allow this document library to receive e-mail?  - Yes 
E-mail address:  <DocLibrary>@SELVAWEB.SELDOM.com
E-Mail Attachments: Save all attachments in root folder
Overwrite files with the same name? -  Yes
Save original e-mail?  - Yes
Save meeting invitations?  - Yes
E-mail Security policy: Accept E-mail from any sender

Sending E-mail to a Sharepoint document library:

1. Sending email

2. Email dropped in SMTP drop folder

3. Email picked by Sharepoint timer service and uploaded to a specific document library.

Advanced Scenario:

Easy to configure, When we create Sharepoint list item it will create new contact entry in Active Directory as per configuration in Sharepoint Admin.  All the Sharepoint list address will be stored in Active directory as a contact object, where users can access from any client in a Domain.  We can use our existing corporate email client.

Windows 2003 server
Internet Information Services 6.0
SMTP service
.Net Framework 3.0
WSS 3.0 / MOSS server

Active Directory

Setting up Active Directory OU:

Create new Organizational Unit in Active Directory and grant permission for Sharepoint service account using delegate control option.

In this scenario we have created new OU named SPS

Central Admin configuration:

Global Settings from Admin:

Browse to Central Administration site -> Operations -> Incoming Email Settings (https://server:2345/_admin/IncomingEmail.aspx)

Settings for list item:

Create a document library and configure Incoming E-mail settings as mentioned above.

Check the OU in Active Directory, you will find a contact item created.  We can manage all the contact item thru Active Directory.

Creating connector in Exchange server for

Using Exchange Connector to forward emails:]]> https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/selvagan/form-based-authentication-sample-code-moss Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:27:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/selvagan/2008/01/26/form-based-authentication-sample-code-moss/ LDAP Authentication: