SharePoint Designer and generate-id

Just wanted to note down a great tip from Marc D Anderson (who derived the idea from a post by Jorge Vasquez) on how to work around the annoyance of SharePoint Designer 2007 inserting generate-id() statements into the ID attributes of HTML tags in customised XSL in SharePoint 2007 or WSS3 pages.

The small steps to applying this fix are as follows:
1. Create an empty dummy variable in the XSL , for example
<xsl:variable name="DummyVar">
2. Append this dummy parameter to any IDs, e.g.
<input id="myid{$DummyVar}" type=......

WCF Data Service "Could not load file or assembly App_Web" Error

The "Could not load file or assembly App_Web_" error was showing sporadically on a small test WCF Data Service site.

In my first attempt to solve the issue, I deleted all files in the site, and copied the site files from a deployment package. The data service magically started working.

Later in the day, the same error returned. After researching on the web, came across one lead that suggested deleting all the ASP.Net temporary files. Other posts mentioned issues with compilation. Therefore, as an experiment I adjusted the Web.Config file of the site so that the Compilation node had the following attributes:

debug="false" batch="false"

And this seems to have solved the issue for me - I think each recycle of the Application Pool was causing an attempt to recompile, which was failing for some reason. Probably relates to the other post with regard to some issue around the ASP.Net temporary files folder.

Batch compilation isn't really necessary for this small app, so game over!

Web Application with Host Header on Port 80 Fails

Adding new SharePoint web applications on port 80 is easy by associating a host header name, but I was unable to view the site collection in the new web application with IE - the login dialog box would show three times, and then just a blank page, even though my account was the primary site collection administrator.

Turns out that in Windows 2008 R2 it is necessary to disable the loopback check. Open the Powershell ISE or console (as administrator to get sufficient registry permissions!) and run the following script:

New-ItemProperty HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa -Name "DisableLoopbackCheck" -value "1" -PropertyType dword

Thanks to Ignacio Montenegro of IGA Systems for that tip.

Where's the "Configure Incoming Email Settings" Link?

If you cannot see the "Configure incoming e-mail settings" link in SharePoint 2010 central administration, and are sure you have all the permissions you require, try right-clicking on an IE icon and selecting "Run as administrator" from the context menu. In that instance of Internet Explorer, you may well see the link you are seeking!

Access Denied for Configure Service Accounts Link

Clicking on the "Configure Service Accounts" link on a SharePoint 2010 server resulted in an "Access Denied" message.

Resolution of this issue is to run IE with Elevated Permissions by right clicking on an IE shortcut and selecting "Run as administrator"

At Last - Tame the Core CSS FIle!

Thanks to the blog of buta no le, I could solve that nasty issue of corev4.css being placed after my custom CSS file when using the SharePoint.CSSRegistration tag.

The reason I want to use that tag is that it allows the use of tokens to derive the actual site collection URL (as opposed to having to hard code the URL, and then editing the masterpage on the client site). In MOSS, SharePoint.CSSRegistration always places the core CSS file at the end of all the registered CSS files, thereby rendering useless any style overrides in your own files.

But SharePoint 2010 adds the "After" attribute to the tag. Nice! Now I can insert the following in the masterpage, and dictate my own styles over the core ones (note that the name actually needs to be enclosed in angle brackets!)

SharePoint:CSSRegistrationName="% $SPUrl:~sitecollection/style library/state.css
    %" After="corev4.css" Runat="server"/>

Where is disco.exe?

Just been searching for this web service tool, so to save the effort of the hunt next time, here's the location of the folder holding the file:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\V6.0A\Bin\disco.exe