1. Ensure the SQL Service Account (Ex: SVC01) has been enabled admin access on the SQL server machine.

2. Login to SQL server using SVC01 account.

3. In SQL Server Configuration Manager, expand SQL Server Network Configuration, right-click Protocols for <server instance>, and then selectProperties.

4. In the Protocols for <instance name> Properties dialog box, on the Certificate tab, select the desired certificate from the drop down for the Certificate box, and then click OK.

5. On the Flags tab, in the ForceEncryption box, select Yes, and then click OK to close the dialog box.

6. Restart the SQL Server service.

To configure the Clustered server to accept encrypted connections

1. Ensure the SVC01 account has been enabled admin access on the SQL server machine.

2. Login to SQL server using SVC01 account.

3. In SQL Server Configuration Manager, expand SQL Server Network Configuration, right-click Protocols for <server instance>, and then selectProperties.

4. On the Flags tab, in the ForceEncryption box, select Yes, and then click OK to close the dialog box.

5. Since this is a clustered environment the certificate installed on the previous step will not be visible on the Certificate tab. Hence the certificate needs to be associated through a registry entry update as described in the following section.

6. Click OK.

7. Export the certificate thumbprint by running this command on elevated command window.

   certutil  –store –user my > cert.txt

8. Open the cert.txt file and find the property Cert Hash(sha1): corresponding to the cluster certificate.

9. Copy the hex value to Notepad and remove the spaces.

10. Start Regedit and copy the hex value to this key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\<YourSQLServerInstance>\MSSQLServer\SuperSocketNetLib\Certificate

11. Restart the SQL Server service.

12. Perform the same steps on other nodes of the SQL cluster.

To configure the SharePoint servers to request encrypted connections

1. Logon to every server instance on the SharePoint farm

2. Copy either the original certificate or the exported certificate file to the client computer.

3. On the client computer, use the Certificates snap-in to install either the root certificate or the exported certificate file.

4. In the console pane, right-click SQL Server Native Client Configuration, and then click Properties.

5. On the Flags page, in the Force protocol encryption box, click Yes

Sometime there might be needs to asses the property values associated with web part's to validate the faulty behaviors. During such scenarios a script might be handy for a quick validation of the CSWPs.

I came across such situations during an engagement which forced me to write a PowerShell script which can help me to make the task much simpler.

Share the same for someone who may need this sometime.

This PowerShell script can be run on 2 modes (Read Only or Update) by setting the input parameter $saveChanges.

When executed on readOnly mode ($saveChanges = $false) the script will only find the pages and web parts where the changes are required and will NOT update any web parts.

Where as the Update Mode ($saveChanges = $true) will find the $strToFind and UPDATE the matches with the $stringToReplace.

UpdateContentWebpartProps.ps1

The script would be completed by the import script which would allow the admins to add/update the items through the CSV itself.

These scripts would be helpful when there is need of synchronizing the MMS across environments or to export the MMS to excel for some non-technical needs.

Exporting the SharePoint Managed Metadata

• Any term store on any SharePoint farm can be exported with the script named ExportMMStoCSV.ps1.

• Navigate to the file ensure the parameters central Admin URL and Managed Metadata services name are in par with the environment.

• Login to admin server as farm admin

• Open the PowerShell ISE as administrator

• Open the ExportMMStoCSV.ps1

• Execute the script.

• The script, upon completion generates a CSV file on the same folder where the script is located.

• The file consists of information in the following sequence.

• The administrators can use Office Excel to open the CSV and perform changes.

Adding a new Term to CMS Managed Metadata Term Set

A new term can be added to the term set by adding a new line to the CSV file. The following example illustrates the new term named CPF Life 1 addition under the existing term Retirement

• Every new iterm needs to be identified with the Action field as “Add”

• A file can have both “Add” and “Update” items

Updating an Existing Term to CMS Managed Metadata Term Set

A new term can be added to the term set by adding a new line to the CSV file. The following example illustrates updating an existing Term 1.1.1 to Term 111

• In case of updates to a parent term, only the particular row on the csv needs to be updated and name on the child terms is not required to be updated.

• Every update needs to be identified with the Action field as “Update”

• A file can have both “Add” and “Update” items

Importing SharePoint Managed Metadata

• The csv file this updated above can be imported into any termstore on any sharepoint farm with the script named ImportCsvtoMMS.ps1

• Navigate to the file ensure the parameters central Admin Url and Managed Metadata services name are in par with the environment.

• Login to admin server as farm admin

• Open the powershell ISE as administrator

• Open the ImportCsvtoMMS.ps1

• Execute the script.

• The script, upon completion generates a CSV file on the same folder where the script is located with the status information.

ExportImportMMS.zip

This cache is not used for queries that are authenticated because of security concerns.

By default, the Anonymous Search Results Cache refreshes items every 15 minutes. The cache duration can be changed by updating the SharePoint web application property named "SearchResultsCacheTTLinSeconds" through the PowerShell.

Note:

In order to enable a Content Search or a Catalog Item Reuse Web Part for Anonymous search results cache the configuration of that Web Part must have the TryCache property set to true.

Also ensure the DataProviderJSON property of the CSWP is configured with the TryCache:true

Authentication prompt displayed to an anonymous user on a public SharePoint site after browsing to a system page. On user experience perspective, prompting for credentials is not an expected behavior and any administrators would like to avoid this.

In addition to that, denying access to system pages would reduce the chance of the attackers from trying their chances. Though the ViewFormPagesLockdown Feature provides some prevention from form page access, its not complete. Hence there is some enhancement required to block them completely.

Having said that, one of the possible option is to use the IIS URL Rewrite module extension 2.0.

About IIS URL Rewrite 2.0:
IIS URL Rewrite 2.0 enables Web administrators to create powerful rules to implement URLs that are easier for users to remember and easier for search engines to find. By using rule templates, rewrite maps, .NET providers, and other functionality integrated into IIS Manager, Web administrators can easily set up rules to define URL rewriting behavior based on HTTP headers, HTTP response or request headers, IIS server variables, and even complex programmatic rules. In addition, Web administrators can perform redirects, send custom responses, or stop HTTP requests based on the logic expressed in the rewrite rules.

Solution:

IIS URL Rewrite 2.0 can be enabled to achieve the complete blocking of system pages.

Download and install the IIS URL Rewrite Module 2.0 from the location http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9722532 on all SharePoint web front ends.

Upon installation close and reopen the IIS console to see the URL Rewrite icon every web application.

Open the IIS web application on which you need to block the system pages. usually this is the public anonymous sites extended on internet zone.

Add the following rewrite block just before the </system.webServer> tag. This procedure needs to be performed on all web front end servers.

Adding the above block to web.config will recycle the app pool automatically. As a validation step try to check the web application's configuration using the configuration editor on IIS.

Any error on UI would reveal that there is something messed up with the web.config updates.

Upon successful validations, try to access the system pages for example /_layouts/settings.aspx and ensure its getting redirected to home page.

Hence I realized the real need of workaround for addressing this issue and identified one. The idea is remove the work definitions programmatically to ensure the corresponding files are wiped off from the web. Make sure the following code is integrated to remove the workflow definitions from the given web.

/// <summary>
/// Removes the workflow definitions.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="web">The web.</param>
/// <param name="workflowDefinitionIds">The workflow definition ids.</param>
public static void RemoveWorkflowDefinitions(SPWeb web, List<Guid> workflowDefinitionIds)
{
 var workflowServicesManager = new WorkflowServicesManager(web);
 
 if (!workflowServicesManager.IsConnected)
 {
 var notConnectedEx = new NotConnectedException();
 Logger.LogCriticalException(notConnectedEx, ErrorCategory.CommonOperation);
 throw notConnectedEx;
 }
 
 var workflowDeploymentService = workflowServicesManager.GetWorkflowDeploymentService();
 
 foreach (var workflowDefinitionId in workflowDefinitionIds)
 {
 var workflowDefinition = workflowDeploymentService.GetDefinition(workflowDefinitionId);
 
 if (workflowDefinition != null)
 {
 workflowDeploymentService.DeleteDefinition(workflowDefinitionId);
 }
 }
}

And now we can call the method to remove the definitions with specific IDs as follows.

RemoveWorkflowDefinitions(web, new List<Guid> { new Guid("D7CA92FA-1220-4959-A806-719CBDE3DB6D") });

Note: Before deletion of any WF definition by calling the above line, Please make sure that all the workflow instances of the given workflow definition is removed/disassociated from the list/libraries .

Upon successful call to this method, you can validate and find that the workflow defintions are removed from the web Root Folder -> wfsvc.

Upon this, you  are good to go and activate the workflow definition feature that restores the updated (changed) version of the workflow on given site.

Sample Schema

The following is the schema of a sample WCF service that provides an Operation (Ensure Users) that can accept EnsureUserRequestReponse (Data Contract - Dynamic Value) as input and responds thru the same contract. The EnsureUserRequestReponse contract in turn has collection of users (Dynamic Value - Collection of Dynamic Values).

Building a Data Contract - Dynamic Value

With the help of Dynamic Value (User) and a Dynamic value collection (UserList), we need to construct another Dynamic Value (EnsureUserRequest), to represent the Data Contact.

For detailed steps on building a dynamic value and dynamic value collection, please refer to my other blog Handling Dynamic Values.

Making a WCF Service Call

Upon construction of data contract dynamic value, its time to make the WCF call. Drag drop a HTTPSend Activity and configure the following 4 properties.

 Upon completion, the activity might look similar to the following.

Retrieving WCF Response (using GetDynamicValueProperties)

The response (EnsureUserRequestResponse) from the WCF call will be stored to the dynamic variable (EnsureUserResponse) and can be retrieved thru GetDynamicValueProperties Activity.

Drag drop the GetDynamicValueProperties activity and configure the source as EnsureUserResponse.

Configure the Properties to be retrieved from the Dynamic value. In this case its Users (LHS - Name of the property on WCF service data contract) and EnsuredUserList (RHS - Local Dynamic variable)

Looping Thru Response Collection (Dynamic Value collection)

Can use a ForEach activity to loop thru the Dynamic Value collection (EnsuredUserList) and GetDynamicValueProperties activity again to read thru each Dynamic Value (Item) and get properties.

In case of nested dynamic values, we need to use GetDynamicValueProperties as well in the loop to retrieve the dynamic value at different levels.

Hope this helps you in making WCF service calls from SharePoint 2013 workflows.

Creating a Dynamic Variable 

As a first step before using the dynamic types, we need create a dynamic variable to hold the dynamic values.

For creating a dynamic value variable, go to variables tab on the workflow and create a new variable.

By default the "Microsoft.Activities.DynamicValue" wont be appearing, in such cases select option "Browse for Types..." from the Variable type drop down.

Selecting option "Browse for Types..." from the Variable type drop down, opens a new dialog to select the type. Typing in first few characters will bring you the types that start with those characters.

Select "Dynamic Value" from Microsoft.Activities group.

Creating a Dynamic Value

When the dynamic variable is created to store the dynamic value, drag drop the "BuildDynamicValue" activity from the tool box to the workflow.

Click on View Properties and start mapping your local variables (RHS) to the service's data (or) operator contract properties (LHS)

In this case UPN (string), Email (string) and DisplayName (String) are mapped to corresponding contract properties.

Make sure you create the local variables with respective data types as per the contract.

In case of complex types, the dynamic value will in turn hold another dynamic value, till the value reaches to simple types. By other terms, its the process of breaking complex types in to simple types.

For Example:

• User (Complex Type - Dynamic Value)
• UPN (Simple Type - string)
• Email Id (Simple Type - string)
• Display Name (Simple Type - string)
• Group (Complex Type - Dynamic Value)
• Name (Simple - string)
• Id (Simple - string)

Creating a Dynamic Value Collection

In order to create a dynamic value collection, we need to first create a variable.

By default the collection variable wont be available for selection and we need to browse thru the types.

Search for "collection" and select the "System.Collections.ObjectModel.Collection<T>, Upon selection, the dialog box provides an option to select the collection type. You have to select "DynamicValue" here. In case if its not listed, browse for types from the drop down, search and select the "Dynamic Value".

Building a Collection

For Building a collection of any type we can use the BuildCollection<T> Activity.

Upon adding this activity to workflow, it does open a dialog box where we need to select the content type for <T>. Need to select DynamicValue as type here.

The type selection here would be tricky here, as there is no option to change the type once selected. VS2012 property explorer will not provide any option to change the type.

The option is to either delete and recreate the activity with right data type or change the type in XAML file, which might be tricky and leads to unexpected results, when workflow is accidentally messed up. Really needs some hands on experience before you can try that.

Once the activity is dropped and the type is set to "Dynamic Value", we can associate the collection variable defined on the previous step. (UserList)

Building a Dynamic Value

Upon creation of all required variables and setting up activities, its time to build a dynamic value.

Include the logic to pull the values for different variables required for the dynamic value. In this case its UPN, Email and DisplayName.

Drag and drop a BuildDynamicValue activity and assign the result as dynamic variable defined. in this case its User.

Click on view properties and start assigning properties.

While assigning properties, make sure the local properties on RHS are of similar type as the ones on the LHS (i.e the Data contract properties)

Important Note: The LHS types would be derived dynamically based on the types of variables assigned on RHS. In case of misconfiguration, the LHS types wont be automatically corrected upon associating another variable of different type. This would throw a type mismatch error during compilation. This needs to be corrected manually on XML, which would be risky, Hence the recommendation here is to delete the assignment line item in subject and create a new one.

Add Dynamic Value to Collection

Upon construction of a Dynamic value the same can be added to a collection.

Drag and drop a AssignToCollection<T> activity and update relevant properties.

This activity must have the Collections property associated with the Dynamic Value Collection variable (UserList), type selected as Dynamic Value and the Item to be added (User).

Calling a WCF Service

The following is the schema of a sample WCF service that provides an Operation (Ensure Users) that can accept EnsureUserRequestReponse (Data Contract - Dynamic Value) as input and responds thru the same contract. The EnsureUserRequestReponse contract in turn has collection of users (Dynamic Value - Collection of Dynamic Values).

Building a Data Contract - Dynamic Value

With the help of Dynamic Value (User) and a Dynamic value collection (UserList)  built in above steps, we need to construct another Dynamic Value (EnsureUserRequest), to represent the Data Contact.

Making a WCF Service Call

Upon construction of data contract dynamic value, its time to make the WCF call. Drag drop a HTTPSend Activity and configure the following 4 properties.

 Upon completion, the activity might look similar to the following.

Retrieving WCF Response (using GetDynamicValueProperties)

The response (EnsureUserRequestResponse) from the WCF call will be stored to the dynamic variable (EnsureUserResponse) and can be retrieved thru GetDynamicValueProperties Activity.

Drag drop the GetDynamicValueProperties activity and configure the source as EnsureUserResponse.

Configure the Properties to be retrieved from the Dynamic value. In this case its Users (LHS - Name of the property on WCF service data contract) and EnsuredUserList (RHS - Local Dynamic variable)

Looping Thru Response Collection (Dynamic Value collection)

Can use a ForEach activity to loop thru the Dynamic Value collection (EnsuredUserList) and GetDynamicValueProperties activity again to read thru each Dynamic Value (Item) and get properties.

In case of nested dynamic values, we need to use GetDynamicValueProperties as well in the loop to retrieve the dynamic value at different levels.

Hope this helps you in playing around the dynamic values, collections and making WCF service calls from SharePoint 2013 workflows.

Mobile Safari introduced the "viewport meta tag" to let web developers control the viewport's size and scale. Many other mobile browsers now support this tag, although it is not part of any web standard. Apple's documentation does a good job explaining how web developers can use this tag, however I had to do some detective work to figure out exactly how to implement it in a SharePoint site with a custom fixed screen resolution. (Width 1024).

Viewport basics

A typical mobile-optimized site contains something like the following:

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, user-scalable=true;">

The width property controls the size of the viewport. It can be set to a specific number of pixels like width=600 or to the special value device-width value which is the width of the screen in CSS pixels at a scale of 100%. (There are corresponding height and device-height values, which may be useful for pages with elements that change size or position based on the viewport height.)

The initial-scale property controls the zoom level when the page is first loaded. The maximum-scale, minimum-scale, and user-scalable properties control how users are allowed to zoom the page in or out.

Need

In our SharePoint project we got the following very specific requirements with respect to mobility.

1. Custom Branding with a of fixed screen width of 1024 pixels
2. SharePoint Mobile View Turned Off.
3. Mobility support to enable scroll and pinch & zoom.

Per the given specs the actual page looks like the following with a fixed width of 1024 pixels.

Issues and Findings

Hence we tried with a recommended meta viewport setting of

<meta name="viewport" content="user-scalable=yes, width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=5.0, minimum-scale=0.25"/>

iPad Landscape Mode: The right side of the page is cut off and there is no scroll bar.

iPad Portrait Mode: The right side of the page is cut off and there is no scroll bar.

iPhone/iPod Landscape mode: The right side of the page is cut off and there is no scroll bar. 

iPhone/iPod Portrait Mode: The right side of the page is cut off and there is no scroll bar. 

Despite setting the user-scalable=true the pinch and zoom was not functional either, due to the setting content="width=device-width"

Fix

After a bit of play around, identified that with the following setting the issues are getting resolved and the pages are rendering fine with scroll bar, pinch & Zoom options etc,.

<meta name="viewport" content="user-scalable=yes, width=1024, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=5.0, minimum-scale=0.25"/>

IPad Landscape Mode: Renders full page and allows Pinch & zoom

IPad Portrait Mode: Scrolls to the right and allows Pinch & zoom

Hence the recommendation is to use the Width attribute to control the rendering contents, specifically for the pages with custom branding and Mobile view turned off.

 <meta name="viewport" content="user-scalable=yes, width=1024, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=5.0, minimum-scale=0.25"/>
 

1. SharePoint 2013 introduced a rich set of client-side object mode (CSOM) based workflow API that's can be fully leveraged in VS2012
2. VS2012 Provides a standard Workflow Association and Initiation form templates (ASP.Net form based) out of the box (When SharePoint 2013 templates are installed)

Understanding the need of Association Form:

Preparing workflows to be accessed from association forms

Adding an Association Form

• Right click the workflow folder and select "Add" - "New Item" from the context menu.

• On Add new Item Dialog, select "Workflow Association Form" on Office/SharePoint group

• This will add a new Association form like the one attached to the workflow with default placeholders (2 text boxes, 1 date control, save and cancel button) and basic Ready to Customize CSOM code that could be a good starting point to build (customize) it with your own logic based on your business requirements.

Changes on workflow Elements.Xml

Upon adding the association form, please ensure if the elements.xml associated with the workflow is updated with the entries highlighted below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

  <Module Name="Approval" Url="wfsvc/73C27777198F43B4A7C0FE6753ADA4C4">

    <File Url="Workflow.xaml" Type="GhostableInLibrary" Path="Approval\Workflow.xaml" Level="Published" DoGUIDFixUp="TRUE">

      <Property Name="ContentTypeId" Value="0x01002A2479FF33DD4BC3B1533A012B653717004C4A72D4775DB04F8979AE7A4A568F20" />

      <Property Name="ContentType" Value="WorkflowServiceDefinition" />

      <Property Name="_ModerationStatus" Value="0" />

      <Property Name="FileDirRef" Value="wfsvc/73C27777198F43B4A7C0FE6753ADA4C4" />

      <Property Name="FSObjType" Value="0" />

      <Property Name="FileLeafRef" Value="workflow.xaml" />

      <Property Name="isReusable" Value="true" />

      <Property Name="RequiresInitiationForm" Value="false" />

      <Property Name="RequiresAssociationForm" Value="true" />

      <Property Name="WSGUID" Value="{73C27777-198F-43B4-A7C0-FE6753ADA4C4}" />

      <Property Name="WSPublishState" Value="3" />

      <Property Name="WSDisplayName" Value="Approval" />

      <Property Name="WSDescription" Value="Approval" />

      <Property Name="RestrictToType" Value="List" />

      <Property Name="DisableAutoStartCreate" Value="false" />

      <Property Name="DisableManualStart" Value="false" />

      <Property Name="AssociationUrl" Value="wfsvc/73C27777198F43B4A7C0FE6753ADA4C4/Approval/AssociationForm.aspx" />

    </File>

    <File Path="Approval\AssociationForm.aspx" Url="Approval/AssociationForm.aspx" />

  </Module>

  <ListInstance FeatureId="{2c63df2b-ceab-42c6-aeff-b3968162d4b1}"

                TemplateType="4501"

                Title="wfsvc"

                Description="This list instance is used by SharePoint to keep track of workflows. Do not modify."

                Url="wfsvc"

                RootWebOnly="FALSE" />

</Elements>

Customizing an Association Form

By this time we will have a Ready to Customize association from its now time to go and customize the same. 

The form will be enabled with the following JavaScript method with some default logic.

// ---------- Save workflow association ----------

function associateWF(state, pauseFunction) {

if (complete != 0)

return complete;

var historyListId = "";

var taskListId = "";

var metadata = new Object();

// Get form input values and set workflow in-argument values

var strInputValue = document.getElementById("strInput").value;

if (strInputValue) {

metadata['strArg'] = strInputValue;

}

var intInputValue = document.getElementById("intInput").value;

if (intInputValue) {

var intValue = parseInt(intInputValue);                               

if (intValue)

metadata['intArg'] = intValue;

}

we can customize this logic to retrieve the content from the modified form elements and might make it something like the following.

// ---------- Save workflow association ----------

function associateWF(state, pauseFunction) {

if (complete != 0)

return complete;

var historyListId = "";

var taskListId = "";

var metadata = new Object();

// Get form input values and set workflow in-argument values

var html = $("#ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_spApprovers_upLevelDiv");

var approvers = $("#divEntityData", html).attr("key");

if (approvers && approvers.length > 0) {

metadata['Approvers'] = approvers;

}

else {

       alert("Approvers field cannot be empty"); return;

}

var intDurationDays = document.getElementById("txtDurationDays").value;

if (intDurationDays) {

var intValue = parseInt(intDurationDays);

if (intValue && intValue > 0) {

metadata['Duration'] = intValue;

}

}

var boolFirstApproval = document.getElementById("chkFirstApproval");

 if (boolFirstApproval) {

metadata['EndonFirstApproval'] = boolFirstApproval.checked;

}

In addition, the OOB method integrates the following logic as well.

1. Get form input values and set workflow in-argument values
2. Sets History list id. If its new history list, creates new history list
3. Sets task list id. If its new task list, creates new task list
4. Checks, if task list contains the OOTB SharePoint 2013 Workflow Task content type
5. Associates the workflow to selected triggering option selected on the previous workflow screen (Manual, Item Added, Item Updated)
6. If workflow association exists, then we will update its subscription information. Otherwise, it's a new association, and we will add the new subscription.
7. Publish the workflow

Editing an existing workflow - Customizing the association form to populate the association parameters

The Association form will not provide any option of populating the association parameter when editing an existing workflow. however this can be achieved by adding a new function and calling it from the function setHeader() which gets executed upon load. For retrieving the subscription info, will have to create an instance of the workflow manger and call the method getSubscription by passing subscription id as an input parameter. The subscription id would be available pre set upon the page load, there is no need to retrieve the subscription id manually.

Upon completion your association form is ready to go and get deployed.

Samples

Sample of a customized association form can be found here.

Sample Approval workflow with a customized association form can be downloaded from here.