Mark Jones

What is the SharePoint Action Framework and why would I need it ?

2010-03-11T18:09:2000:00:00

For those out there that are a little curious as to whether SAF is any use to your organisation, please read this FAQ.

What is SAF ?

SAF is free to use.
SAF is the "SharePoint Action Framework", it was built by myself and Hugo (plus a few others along the way).
SAF is written entirely in C# code, available from : http://saf.codeplex.com.
SAF is a way to automate SharePoint configuration changes.
An Action is a command/class/task/script written in C# that performs a unit of execution against SharePoint such as "CreateWeb" or "AddLookupColumn".
A SAF Macro is collection of one or more Actions.
A SAF Macro can be run from Msbuild, a Feature, StsAdm or plain old .Net code.
Parameters can be passed to a Macro at run-time from a variety of sources such as "Environment Variable", "*.config", "Msbuild Properties", Feature Properties, command line args, .net code.
SAF emits lots of trace statements at run-time, these can be viewed using "DebugView".
One Action can pass parameters to another Action.
Parameters can be set using Spring expression syntax such as "DateTime.Now - 10".

You should consider SAF if you suffer from one of the following symptoms...

"Our developers write lots of code to deploy changes at release time - it's always rushed"
"I don't want my developers shelling out to Powershell or Stsadm from a Feature".
"We have loads of Console applications now, I have lost track of where they are, or what they do"
"We seem to be writing similar scripts against SharePoint in lots of ways, testing is hard".
"My scripts often have lots of errors - they are done at the last minute".
"When something goes wrong - I have no idea what went wrong or how to solve it".
"Our Features get stuck and bomb out half way through - there no way to roll them back".
"We have tons of Features now - I can't keep track".
"We deploy Features to run one-off tasks"
"We have a library of reusable scripts, but, we can only run them in one way, sometimes we want to run them from MSbuild and a Feature".
"I want to automate the deployment of changes to our development environment".
"I would like to run a housekeeping task on a scheduled basis"

So I like the sound of SAF - what's the problems ?

Realistically (and honestly), there are few things that need to be considered:

Someone on your team will need to spend a day or 2 learning + understanding SAF and deciding exactly how you want to use it. I would suggest a Tech Lead, System Admin or SP Architect will need to download it, try out the examples, look through the unit tests. Ask us questions. Although SAF can be downloaded and set to go in a few minutes, you will still need to address issues such as - "Do you want to execute your Macros in MsBuild or from a Feature ?" and "How can I integrate SAF into my current build and deployment process?"
You will need to decide who is going to do your deployments - is it each developer to themself, or do you require a dedicated Build Manager ?
As most environments (Dev, QA, Live etc) require different settings (e.g. Urls, Database names, accounts etc), you will more than likely want to define these and set a properties file up for each environment. (These can then be injected into Saf at run-time).
There may be no Actions to solve your particular problem. If this is the case, suggest it to us - we can try and write it, or write it yourself. It's very easy to write a new Action - we have an approach to easily unit test it, document it and author it. For example, I wrote one to deploy a WSP in 2 hours the other day. Alternatively, Saf can also call Stsadm commands and Powershell scripts. Once the Action is written you can register it with SAF then all your devs can run it using the most appropriate client.

Anyway, I do hope this helps! If you still need help, or a quick start, we can also offer consultancy around SAF. If you want to know more give us a call or drop an email to support@collaboris.co.uk

Automating SharePoint configuration with MSBuild and SAF

2010-02-18T21:23:4200:00:00

One of the major areas developed for v2 of the SharePoint Action Framework (SAF) is its ability to integrate tightly with Msbuild. In order to get SAF working, you simply need to reference the Msbuild Saf task - which can be referenced like this :

<UsingTask AssemblyName="Collaboris.Saf, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=182db3eac6a9e195" TaskName="Collaboris.Saf.Adapters.MSBuild.SAF" />

You may also choose to create a couple of targets (one for the Undo and one for the Do) - like this - but this is optional.

<Target Name="Do">
  <SAF MacroPaths="@(Macros)" ProcessMode="Do" ContinueOnError="false" />
</Target>
<Target Name="Undo">
  <SAF MacroPaths="@(Macros)" ProcessMode="Undo" ContinueOnError="false" />
<Target>

Now this is setup, you then need to create a few item groups where all the properties can be passed to.

<ItemGroup>
    <Macros Include="Collaboris.Saf.Actions.Wss.Web.CreateWeb.macroTemplate">
      <disabledo>false</disabledo>
      <disableundo>false</disableundo>
      <description>New Web created by SAF</description>
      <lcid>1033</lcid>
      <overwrite>true</overwrite>
      <template>STS#0</template>
      <title>New Web title</title>
      <url>NewWeb</url>
      <useuniqueperms>false</useuniqueperms>
      <webname>New Web name</webname>
      <id>{47B640DD-64A9-493b-8445-789FC0D05FF1}</id>
      <stopondoexception>true</stopondoexception>
      <stoponundoexception>true</stoponundoexception>
      <Url>http://localhost:4422</Url>
      <InstanceId>{156E17A5-A7BA-4e1f-8A48-1BC341A7C658}</InstanceId>
    </Macros>
  </ItemGroup>

For a more detailed walkthrough, please take a look at 'How to run a Macro from MSBuild '. You will find an example of how to call every SAF action in the documentation which can be accessed at here.

Examples of SAF Macros released for ALL actions...

2010-02-18T20:50:0500:00:00

Action	Description	Example
AddLookupColumnToList	Creates a new <b>list</b>-scoped lookup column pointing to an existing list.	Download Quickstart
AddSiteColumnToContentType	Adds a site column to an existing content type.	Download Quickstart
AddSiteColumnToList	Adds a site column to an existing SharePoint list.	Download Quickstart
CreateLookupColumn	Creates a new <b>site</b>-scoped lookup column pointing to a field in an existing list.	Download Quickstart
EnsureSiteColumn	Adds or updates a SharePoint site column (allows the GUID to be specified for new columns).	Download Quickstart
ExportList	Exports a SharePoint list to a Content Migration Package (CMP) based on the web and list name.	Download Quickstart
ExportListItem	Exports a SharePoint list item to a Content Migration Package (CMP) based on the web, list name and list item ID.	Download Quickstart
ExportWeb	Exports a SharePoint web (SPWeb) to a Content Migration Package (CMP).	Download Quickstart
ImportList	Imports a lists items from a Content Migration Package (CMP).	Download Quickstart
ImportListItem	Imports a web (SPListItem) from a Content Migration Package (CMP).	Download Quickstart
ImportWeb	Imports a web (SPWeb) from a Content Migration Package (CMP).	Download Quickstart
AddContentTypeToList	Adds a specified content type to a SharePoint list.	Download Quickstart
EnsureContentType	Allows a content type to be added or updated in a SharePoint site.	Download Quickstart
SynchroniseContentTypes	Ensures that a child content type has the same columns (fields) as the parent content type.	Download Quickstart
AddFile	Adds a file to a list.	Download Quickstart
ApproveFiles	Approves a list of files contained within the list.	Download Quickstart
CheckInFiles	Checks in a list of files to one or more document libraries.	Download Quickstart
CheckOutFile	Used to check out a list of files in a one or more document libraries.	Download Quickstart
CopyFile	Copies a single file from a source list to a destination list (in SharePoint).	Download Quickstart
GetFiles	Reads the list of files (and urls) specified in the ListFileInfo, based on a List Name and Filter Pattern.	Download Quickstart
PublishFiles	Publishes a list of supplied files.	Download Quickstart
UpdateFileContent	Updates the file content in a list.	Download Quickstart
AddListItemEventReceiver	Adds a list event receiver to a SharePoint list.	Download Quickstart
DeleteList	Destroys (or recycles) a SharePoint list. Can also optionally delete data only.	Download Quickstart
ImportDataSetToList	Imports the given Dataset data into the list.	Download Quickstart
EnsurePropertyBagItems	Adds (or updates) a value in the relevant property bag. The web, site, web application and farm property bags can all be updated.	Download Quickstart
CreateUser	Creates a new user in the site (see documentation on SPWeb.SiteUsers) and can optionally make the user site collection admin.	Download Quickstart
CreateSite	Creates (or overwrites) a site collection (SPSite) in a web application.	Download Quickstart
CreateWeb	Creates a new web in a site collection.	Download Quickstart
SetMasterPage	Sets the current web master page. Can also (optionally) set child webs.	Download Quickstart
CreateWebApplication	Creates a new SharePoint web application.	Download Quickstart
ExtendWebApplication	Extends an existing web application in IIS.	Download Quickstart
AddWebParts	Allows multiple web parts to be added to a web part zone on a web part page.	Download Quickstart
ConnectWebParts	This action allows 2 web parts (provider and consumer) to be connected on a particular web part page.	Download Quickstart
RemoveWebParts	Allows multiple web parts to be removed from a web part page.	Download Quickstart
SetWebPartProperties	Sets the WebPart properties in a page.	Download Quickstart
StsAdmin	Allows a SQL Statement to be run against a database as specified by a supplied connection string.	Download Quickstart

MOSS Actions available in SAF :

Action	Description	Example
ShowInNavigation	Allows the current site to be included or excluded from the global and/or current navigation.	Download Quickstart
CreateRedirectPage	Creates a new redirect page using the standard SharePoint redirect page layout.	Download Quickstart
PublishPage	Attempts to publish a page in a SharePoint publishing 'Pages' library.	Download Quickstart
SetAvailablePageLayout	Adds or removes page layouts from the 'Available Page Layouts' collection in the current web.	Download Quickstart
SetAvailableSiteTemplates	Adds or removes site templates from the 'Available Site Templates' collection in the current web.	Download Quickstart
SetPageLayout	Updates a publishing page layout for a publishing page.	Download Quickstart
SetWelcomePage	Sets the 'Welcome Page' (default) page to a specific page in the 'Pages' library for the current publishing web.	Download Quickstart
UpdatePublishingPageFields	Adds or Updates a field to a specific page in the 'Pages' library for the current web.	Download Quickstart

Standard Actions available in SAF

Action	Description	Example
GetDataSetFromCSV	This action is responsible for getting a DataSet from a Comma Seperated File.	Download Quickstart
GetFiles	Gets a list of file names (with path) for the given criteria.	Download Quickstart
FtpUpload	This action will FTP one or many files to a destination FTP server.	Download Quickstart
ExecutePowershell	Allows 1 (or more) Powershell scripts to be run.	Download Quickstart
ExecuteSQL	Allows a SQL statement to be run against a database as specified by a supplied connection string.	Download Quickstart
NVelocity	This action requires a user defined collection and the name of an NVelocity Template, to create an instance of an outputted document.	Download Quickstart

SAF v2 is released.

2010-02-08T19:14:3400:00:00

SAF v2 is now freely available to download from CodePlex @ http://saf.codeplex.com

Major points worth noting in this release :

- Loads more actions to help you automatically configure SharePoint.

- Downloadable examples and documentation explaining how to run every Action.

- Run actions from an MSBuild project and pass properties.

- Run actions from a SharePoint Feature and pass properties.

- Run actions from StsAdm and pass properties.

- Support for Dynamic Properties - allowing you to pass values from one action to another.

- Support for Placeholders (tokens) allowing runtime replacement from these sources :

Web|app.config files,
Environment Variables,
Registry values,
MSBuild Properties
Feature Properties.

- Support for Expressions when setting properties on the actions.

- Improvements to logging using .Net tracing statements - easily viewable in DebugViewer

As always we love to hear your feedback, so drop us an email to support@collaboris.co.uk or leave a comment on our Wiki or on Codeplex.

Happy automating!

The SAF Team

Roadmap for SAF 1.4

2009-07-30T06:47:4001:00:00

It’s 6am and I am bored, so I thought I would give you a quick heads up on what’s coming in the next version of SAF (due by the end August). Here’s the Feature list :

DSL with Diagram capabilities inside Visual Studio 20008.

This is probably been the most exciting one for the release. We have been spending a few months working on a way to create SAF Macros visually via a VS 2008 designer window. This will give you the following advantages :

You don’t need to know the Schema for a SAF Macro (which happens to be a Spring IOC Container)
It’s much easier to see what a Macro will do. (a “picture paints a thousand words (or Xml Elements in our case)
It’s nice to demo – much nicer than showing you how to create a Macro in Xml anyway.

Usage will be very simple and will happen like this :

Load a new VS2008 Project –(more than likely a WSP Builder project).
From the menu, choose “Add new SAF Macro”
…Designer loads…
Select one or more actions and drag onto the design surface
Configure the parameters for each of the Actions
Connect the actions to set up a processing order.
Save and deploy.

Underneath, the SAF Diagram will be converted to a Macro Xml message, which can then be chucked into SAF for processing.

MSBuild Adapter

The Adapter has been knocking around in our codebase for a few releases now, but, hasn’t really been road tested in a working scenario yet. Luckily, I have a wonderful opportunity to do this on a large SharePoint Project I am working with. The main idea is to integrate SAF into MSBuild (and hence, Visual Studio too). If you team this up with the DSL above (and WSP Builder), then the possibilities for tight integration are awesome.

Unit / Integration (“Uni-gration”) Testing for all Actions

We already have excellent test coverage for the SAF Engine and its Adapters. The last tests we need to author are for about 5 (or so) Actions. All of the existing Action tests have been done as SharePoint “integration” tests, which means that we start with a virgin WSS / MOSS site on the same machine as VS and then run Action for real in SharePoint. We tried various mocking approaches, but, in our experience SharePoint has so many quirks that “Uni-gration” is the only way to gain real confidence that it will work!

Documentation and Screencasts

Yeah I know – we have sucked on this so far! There are only so many hours (blah, blah), but, I do understand that the easiest way to gain mass adoption is to document and demo. All I can say is – it’s coming!!! I need to get used to Camtasia first though!

Useful Links :

SAF on Codeplex : http://saf.codeplex.com

My Twitter : MarkQJones

Join the SharePoint 2007 – 2010 Linked in group (nearly 5000 members) : http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=43166

Upgrading SharePoint Site Content Types

2009-07-28T07:37:1201:00:00

Introduction

Well it's now Saturday afternoon and the family have been out shopping all day, so I have taken the opportunity to conduct some tests that I had been meaning to do for a long time now (geek I hear you say). I wanted to find specifically what happens if you want to make changes to Content Types, Columns and Lists that have previously been deployed using Features and CAML. I am going to split my findings up into several posts.

I will detail each set of tests then summarise at the end what I think should be best practice if you want to update these.

Test Cases – Removing Content Types

Can we remove a content type by deactivating the Feature that deployed it? Yes

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a Content Type (via Feature and CAML)

2. Deactivate the Feature

Outcome:

1. Content type will be removed

2. Feature is deactivated

Can a Content Type can be removed that’s in use by a List? Yes (and No)

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a Content Type (via Feature and CAML)

2. Reference it in a list

3. Deactivate the Feature

Outcome:

1. Content Type is removed

2. Feature is deactivated

3. List Content Type is still associated with the list

4. The Lists Content Type “Parent” is now amended to be the “Grand Father” Content Type (e.g. the List Content Type gets granddad as its new dad!)

Can an “orphaned” List Content Type be re-parented by reactivating the feature containing the CAML for the real dad? Yes it can.

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a Content Type (via Feature and CAML)

2. Reference it in a list

3. Deactivate the Feature (list CType gets grandad as the new parent)

4. Reactivate Feature (list CType gets it the real dad back)

Outcome:

1. Content Type is re-installed

2. Features is Activated

3. List Content Type is associated with the list

4. List Content Types “Parent” is the Content Type (not the GrandFather).

Can we remove a Content Type that’s been customised in the GUI by deactivating a Feature ? No

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a Content Type (via Feature and CAML)

2. Reference it in a list

3. Change the “name” of the Content Type using the GUI

4. Deactivate the Feature

Outcome:

1. Content Type is not removed

2. Feature is deactivated

3. List Content Type is still associated with the list

4. List Content Types parent is still the real parent

What if we customise a Content Type and then deactivate its Feature? Can we remove the Content Type via the GUI? No, as it's in referenced in a List.

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a Content Type (via Feature and CAML)

2. Reference it in a list

3. Change the “name” of the Content Type in the GUI

4. Deactivate the Feature

5. Attempt to Delete the Content Type via the GUI

Outcome:

1. Feature is deactivated

2. List Content Type is still associated with the list

3. List Content Types parent is still the real parent

4. Exception thrown on Delete : “The content type "TestCType123" is part of an application feature”

5. Content Type is NOT removed

Ok, so we have customised the content type in the GUI, deactivated and reactivated the feature and it still won’t go? Remove all References then it will go!

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a Content Type (via Feature and CAML)

2. Reference it in a list

3. Change the “name” of the Content Type in the GUI

4. Delete the Reference From the List

5. Deactivate and Uninstall the Feature

Outcome:

1. Feature is deactivated

2. Content Type is removed

Test Cases – Updating Content Types

A series of tests were conducted to see if updating the underlying CAML (in the 12 Hive) causes changes to the (already) installed content type...

What can we change by simply editing the CAML XML (within the 12 Hive)? A Lot more than you would expect!

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a Content Type (via Feature and CAML)

2. Amend the “Group”, “Description”, “Sealed”, “ReadOnly”, “Name” in the CAML (residing in the 12 Hive)

3. Recycle App Pools

Outcome:

1. The Content Type reflects all the changes appropriately

Is there anything we cannot change in the CAML XML (within the 12 Hive)? Yes, as you would expect its "ID"

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a Content Type (via Feature and CAML)

2. Change the “ID” to something Unique

3. Recycle App Pools

Outcome:

1. The Content Type is no longer available.

2. (Note changing this back to its original ID restores all functionality)

If we corrupt the content type as above (by changing the ID), then what happens if we have list content type depending upon it? The List Content Type gets grandad as his new dad.

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a Content Type (via Feature and CAML)

2. Reference it in a list

3. Change the “ID” to something Unique

4. Recycle App Pools

Outcome:

1. The Content Type is no longer available

2. The List Content Type is still installed

3. The List Content Type gets parented to the grand parent

4. (Note changing this back to its original ID restores all functionality)

If we customise the content type (in the GUI) then what happens if we change the underlying CAML? Nothing at all, which will be a pain for most people!

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a Content Type (via Feature and CAML)

2. Amend the “Group” in the GUI to “GUI Group”

3. Change the “Group” in the CAML to “CAML Group”

4. Recycle App Pools

Outcome:

1. The Content Type is installed

2. The Content Types Group reads “GUI Group”

If we customise the content type (in the GUI) then what happens if we change the underlying CAML and the FORCE Activate the Feature? Nothing at all!

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a Content Type (via Feature and CAML)

2. Amend the “Group” in the GUI to “GUI Group”

3. Change the “Group” in the CAML to “CAML Group”

4. Use “%STSADM% -o activatefeature” (using FORCE)

5. Recycle App Pools

Outcome:

1. The Content Type is installed

2. The Content Types Group reads “GUI Group”

Summary

Here's a summary of my findings:

If a Content Type is not referenced then it can easily be removed by deactivating the Feature that deployed it.
If a Content Type is referenced by a child List Content Type, then you can still remove the Content Type but this will not delete the List Content Type. In this scenario, you effectively change the parent of the List Content Type to the Parent of the Content Type you just deleted.
If a Content Type is updated by the GUI, or Object Model then the CAML (defining the content type) will be moved into the Database and the relationship with the CAML on the File System is over (with regards to updates). (I am going to do some research into how you can reverse this situation).
If you do want to perform updates to Content Types and you can prevent customisations, then CAML and Upgrade Solutions is a pretty nice way to keep your schema changes owned by your development team.

So, having found all that, if you are running a SharePoint application that requires multiple updates (via Features and WSP's), it is recommended that you don't update the Content Type in anyway via the GUI. To prevent GUI updates then perhaps you could make the Content Type read-only and hidden!

As you can understand, this situation isn't ideal as once you have gone live and updated a content type you are on your own (if you customise via the GUI). Hence, Hugo has been working on an Action to add to SAF (to be released next week), that will allow you to create a Content Type, update it and also push the changes to any children. This will act as a direct replacement for the standard CAML we all currently use. This does mean that from birth your Content Type will always be in the database, but maintainable by XML that lives inside your feature. As soon as they are ready, I will update this post with links to the documentation.

Note. To find out where a Content Type is referenced, we have written an Action in the SharePoint Action Framework (SAF) to do this. The Action is called : "SynchroniseContentTypes". This action was designed push down Content Type changes to child Content Types, but, it can also run in Report only mode. When run in this mode it wont do any updating, but will give you an XML report showing the differences.

To solve these problems (and to give you the best of both worlds), why not try the "Ensure Content Type" Action in SAF. This action takes the same CAML (as you would use in a feature), but SAF processes it, instead of the standard Feature provisioning in SharePoint.

Try it out here : http://www.collaboris.co.uk/saf/doc/Collaboris.Saf.Actions.Wss.ContentType.EnsureContentType.html

To download SAF - please read here : http://saf.codeplex.com/

To see a list of all Actions in SAF, go here : http://www.collaboris.co.uk/saf/doc/

Upgrading SharePoint Site Columns (Fields)

2009-07-28T07:35:3201:00:00

Introduction

In a previous post, I explained my findings with "Upgrading Content Types", but now I want to test out a few scenarios with upgrading Site Columns. On the whole, the test results for Site Columns were pretty similar to that of Content Types. Although, I wanted to test what we can do when it comes to updating site columns that contain data. If you don't want to read each test case, please check out the "Summary" at the end of this post.

Test Cases – Removing a Site Column

Can we remove a site column by deactivating the Feature that deployed it? Yes

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a Site Column (via Feature and CAML)

2. Deactivate the Feature

Outcome:

1. Site Column will be removed

2. Feature is deactivated

Can we remove a site column (thats referenced by a List Column) by deactivating the Feature that deployed it? Yes

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a Site Column (via Feature and CAML)

2. Add the Site Column to a List (as a List Column)

3. Deactivate the Feature

4. Recycle Application Pools

Outcome:

1. Site Column will be removed

2. Feature is deactivated

3. List Column still exists

Can we remove a site column (that has been customised) by deactivating the Feature that deployed it? No

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a Site Column (via Feature and CAML)

2. Change the “Column Name” via the GUI

3. Deactivate the Feature

4. Recycle Application Pools

Outcome:

1. Site Column will not be removed

2. Feature is deactivated

3. (Note. Although Deactivating via a Feature doesn’t remove the site column, it can still be deleted via the GUI).

Can we re-parent a Site Column that’s been deleted? Yes

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a Site Column (via Feature and CAML)

2. Add the Site Column to a List (as a List Column)

3. Deactivate the Feature

4. Recycle Application Pools

5. Activate the Feature (put the site column back)

6. Change the “Column Name” (via the GUI)

7. Select “Update all list columns based on this site column”

8. Click Ok

Outcome:

1. List Column is updated with the new name (hence re-parenting a Site Column that’s previously gone AWOL actually works).

Test Cases – Updating Site Columns

Can we update a site column by editing the CAML XML (within the 12 Hive)? Yes

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a Site Column (via Feature and CAML)

2. Change the “Column Name”, “Group” in the CAML

3. Recycle Application Pools

Outcome:

1. Site Column is amended as expected

Can we update a site column by editing the CAML XML, when it has child List Columns? Yes, but changes are NOT pushed down to children.

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a Site Column (via Feature and CAML)

2. Change the “Column Name”, “Group”, in the CAML

3. Recycle Application Pools

Outcome:

1. Site Column is amended as expected

2. List Column (Child) doesn’t change

Can we change a columns type from Text to Choice (when it’s not in use)? Yes

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a “Text” Site Column (via Feature and CAML)

2. Change the Type, from “Text” to “Choice” in the CAML (add some sample the Choices into the CAML)

3. Recycle Application Pools

Outcome:

1. Site Column changes type to "Choice"

Can we change a columns type from “Text” to “Choice”, when it’s in use? Yes, although this worries me!

Test Steps:

1. Deploy a “Text” Site Column (via Feature and CAML)

2. Add the Site Column to a List (as a List Column)

3. Add some test data into the column (from the list)

4. Change the Type, from “Text” to “Choice” in the CAML (add some sample the Choices into the CAML)

5. Recycle Application Pools

6. From the GUI “Push” the changes to the list column

Outcome:

1. The Site Column changes type to Choice

2. The List Column changes to Choice, although the edit form hides it, but no data is lost!

Summary

When changing the type of a column always recycle application pools immediately after. If the CAML for the Site Column is updated, then this will not cascade the changes to any child List Columns. This must be done via the GUI (using “Update all list columns based on this site column?”).

I suspect, though haven't had time to prove it that SharePoint will always allow the type of the column to change. If this change is then propagated to Lists that use it then this “may” result in loss of data, or some weird casting error. E.g. Text > Number.

Once again, this has short comings as once the Site Column is customised, it can no longer be changed by updating the CAML on the file system. (This is because its definition will reside in the database).

To solve these problems (and to give you the best of both worlds), why not try the "Ensure Site Column" Action in SAF. This action takes the same CAML (as you would use in a feature), but SAF processes it, instead of the standard Feature provisioning in SharePoint.

Try it out here : http://www.collaboris.co.uk/saf/doc/Collaboris.Saf.Actions.Wss.Column.EnsureSiteColumn.html

To download SAF - please read here : http://saf.codeplex.com/

To see a list of all Actions in SAF, go here : http://www.collaboris.co.uk/saf/doc/

How to Install SAF

2009-07-28T07:34:1901:00:00

A couple of you emailed and asked how to install SAF, so here's some instructions.

Installing...

If you have never insalled SAF on your SharePoint Farm then you need to install. To do this, you need to use STSAdm commands which I have popped into a batch file. Hence follow the steps below :

Logon to a SharePoint Server in your Farm as a Farm Administrator.
Download "Install.bat" to that server in your SharePoint Farm (right click "Save Target as...")
Remove the '.txt' extension.
Download the latest version of SAF from "http://saf.codeplex.com/".
Extract "SAF.wsp" to the same folder as the batchfile in step 2.
Ensure the path in STSAdm in "install.bat" is correct.
Run "install.bat"

Upgrading...

If you already have a version of SAF on your Farm and want to upgrade to a newer version, please complete the steps below :

Logon to a SharePoint Server in your Farm as a Farm Administrator.
Download "Upgrade.bat" to that server in your SharePoint Farm (right click "Save Target as...").
Remove the '.txt' extension.
Download the latest version of SAF from "http://saf.codeplex.com/".
Extract "SAF.wsp" to the same folder as the batchf ile in step 2.
Ensure the path in STSAdm in "install.bat" is correct.
Run "upgrade.bat"

Early morning news!

2009-07-28T06:25:5101:00:00

Well, the hayfever has got me again! Here I am at 6am with a bunged up nose and itchy eyes wide awake. So I thought I would do the sensible thing and give you a heads up on what’s due in the next release of SAF.

Here’s the Feature list :

New Actions

STSAdm Action. This allows us to call STSAdm commands and pass arguments from a SAF Macro.

Powershell Action. Allows us to to call Powershell “Function” and pass arguments from a SAF Macro.

Adapters

In SAF, we think of “Adapters” as being components that allow a SAF Macro to be run from a particular technology. In the current release we have :

STSAdm Adapter. Allows you to run SAF from an STSAdm extension.

Feature Adapter. Allows you to SAF run from a SharePoint Feature. This is simple as creating a Feature.Xml and a Macro.xml file. Check out the Quick Start for more info.

In the next release here’s what’s coming :

MSBuild Adapter. This will let you hook SAF directly into your MSBuild process. This is going to pretty useful for companies that already have a MSBuild process, but want to hook SharePoint automation in too.

WCF Adapter. This could be one of the most powerful adapters out there. It’s effectively going to allow you to run SAF remotely. eg. if you are working locally on a SharePoint DEV farm and want to push some SharePoint changes to a different farm then (say QA), then this will let you do that. If you mix this concept with the use of Gary LaPoint’s awesome STSAdm extensions, then wow – we have just given you a way to run tons of STSAdm commands (or Powershell scripts) remotely!

Visual Studio DSL

Not sure this will make the next release, but, we are intending to write a GUI in Visual Studio that will allow you to create a Macro using Graphical canvas to do so.

Changes to the SAF Context

If you don’t know – the SAF Context is pretty much a Prop Bag that gets passed between one Action to the next. We have made some changes to make this Serializable. There are good reasons for this which I will cover in a later post.

When’s the next release?

Hugo has booked a few weeks into the diary to work on SAF (and Macro Centre using SL3), so we should see a release late next week once he’s finished it. (But we are close!)

Run STSADM commands from SAF

2009-07-28T06:25:2201:00:00

I am pleased to announce that it’s now possible (with release 1.2.3463.00) , to run STSADM commands from the SharePoint Action Framework (SAF). Hence, if you add the standard STSAdm commands (that ship with SharePoint) to the truly awesome collection that Gary Lapointe has developed, (available on his STSADM Blog), you are looking at over 250 useful SharePoint Actions.

This functionality has been made available by a new Action called “StsAdm”. The Action should be called via an Alias like this “Action.StsAdmin”. (Aliasing is for convenience so that you don’t have to put the full 4 part assembly reference into the Macro).

An example :

This example illustrates how to create a Macro that calls the new Action and executes 2 STSAdm commands to delete a group and also create the group.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> 
 <objects xmlns="http://www.springframework.net"> 
 
  <!-- Defines the main macro to process --> 
  <object id="MacroToProcess" type="Macro" > 
  <constructor-arg name="id" value="{8BB25F02-5E41-4e86-BCA2-E253747354A3}" /> 
  <constructor-arg name="actions"> 
  <list element-type="IAction"> 
 
  <!-- Runs the STSAdm Command--> 
  <object name="RunStsAdminCommands" type="Action.StsAdmin"> 
  <property name="EntityList" ref="StsAdminCommandList"/> 
  <property name="StopOnDoException" value="false"/> 
  </object> 
 
  </list> 
  </constructor-arg> 
  </object> 
 
  <!-- Holds a list of individual list Items to export --> 
  <object id="StsAdminCommandList" type="Entities"> 
  <constructor-arg> 
  <list> 
  <!-- Delete the Group using STSADM --> 
  <object type="Entity.StsAdminCommand"> 
  <property name="Operation" value="deletegroup" /> 
  <property name="Arguments"> 
  <dictionary key-type="string" value-type="string"> 
  <entry key="url" value="${CurrentWeb.Url}"/> 
  <entry key="name" value="SAF Demo Group"/> 
  </dictionary> 
  </property> 
  </object> 
  
  <!-- Create the Group using STSADM --> 
  <object type="Entity.StsAdminCommand"> 
  <property name="Operation" value="creategroup" /> 
  <property name="Arguments"> 
  <dictionary key-type="string" value-type="string"> 
  <entry key="url" value="${CurrentWeb.Url}"/> 
  <entry key="name" value="SAF Demo Group"/> 
  <entry key="description" value="This is a group create by SAF"/> 
  <entry key="ownerlogin" value="${CurrentUser}"/> 
  <entry key="type" value="owner"/> 
  </dictionary> 
  </property> 
  </object> 
  
  </list> 
  </constructor-arg> 
  </object> 
 </objects>

The StsAdmin Action

As can be seen from the example above, it’s pretty straight forward to use the StsAdmin command. You use the Action by adding this line :

The StsAdminCommand Entity

As with every Action, all of the parameter information is passed into the Action via a simple Entity. The Entity in this case is called “Entity.StsAdminCommand”. This entity has 2 properties that need to be passed, the Operation and the Arguments. Please Note! It’s possible to supply as many entities as you like. These will all get executed as separate STSAdm commands.

<object type="Entity.StsAdminCommand">

   <property name="Operation" value="deletegroup" />

   <property name="Arguments">

     <dictionary key-type="string" value-type="string">

       <entry key="url" value="${CurrentWeb.Url}"/>

       <entry key="name" value="SAF Demo Group"/>

     </dictionary>

   </property>

</object>

By supplying the Action (with its entity) this is equivalent to writing :

STSADM -o deletegroup -url http://localhost -name -“SAF Demo Group".

Note! The “${CurrentWeb.Url}” line, shown in the example, is called a Placeholder and will substitute the value with real “url” at runtime.

That’s pretty much it. You can now call any STSAdm command available by supplying a correct “Operation” and dictionary matching the parameters that the command takes.

Download SAF from http://SAF.Codeplex.com.