preupgradecheck command in Service Pack 2 of Office SharePoint Server 2007

Microsoft has released the Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. The Service Pack can be downloaded from:

Download Service Pack for WSS

Download Service Pack for MOSS

We need to install WSS Service Pack 2.0 first then we should be installing the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Service Pack 2.0.

Once the Service pack is installed the version becomes 12.0.0.6421

A new STSADM command preupgradecheck is included in the release of Service Pack 2 (SP2) of for Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

This command help to check if the farm can be upgraded to upcoming version of SharePoint i.e. SharePoint 2010 by scanning the server farm. When I was running I found that it is giving some very good information. It provides information on the environment, and how to resolve any issues that this command discovers.

Step to run the the the preupgradecheck command:

Type the command: stsadm -o preupgradecheck

There are no parameters required for this command to run.

There are two rule files which this command takes input from. The files are
OSSPreUpgradeCheck.xml
WSSPreUpgradeCheck.xml
and they are available at drive\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\CONFIG\PreUpgradeCheck

The command generates a report which contains good amount of useful information about Farm.
The report is generated at: Drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\CONFIG\PreUpgradeCheck

Some information which is there in the reports is:
1. Search content sources and start addresses:
Shows all the content source where the crawling happens in the farm.

2. Informational rule to list the Office Server Search topology information
Shows the information about SSP and amount of data they have.

3. Servers in the current farm
A list of all the servers that has Sharepoint installed in the current farm.

4. The components from this farm
Shows the version of the SharePoint as well the number of servers, number of Web Application, Content DB and Site Collections.

5. Supported upgrade types
The method which are supported to do the upgrade to SharePoint 2010.

6. Site Definition Information
Site definitions which are either installed on this farm or referenced by the content on the farm.

7.Language pack information

8. Feature Information
The list of features which are either installed or referenced by the content on the farm.

9. Lists and Libraries
The list and number of items in each list.

10. Customized list views that will not be upgraded.

11. Customized field types that will not be upgraded.

12. Modified authorized types for workflow in web.config

13.Informational rule to list the Windows SharePoint Services Search topology information

and then some failed information stating:

"Failed : This server machine in the farm does not have Windows Server 2008 or higher 64 bit edition installed.

Upgrading to Windows SharePoint Services 4.0 requires Windows Server 2008 or higher 64 bit edition."

So this means that for installing SharePoint 2010 we need to Windows Server 2008 64 bit.

All the issues displayed by this command needs to be fixed before planning for the upgrade.

Answers for Devloper Test in SharePoint 2007

Here are the answers for the Developer Test in SharePoint 2007 (Mock Test for SharePoint Certification):

1. B

2. A,B

3. A

4. A,D

5. C

6. B

7. A, B, C, D

8. A, C

9. B,C

10.A, B, D



11.A, D

12.A, C

13.D

14.B

15.A, C

16.A, D

17.C

18.B

19.A

20.B

Inserting the Data into SharePoint List with WebService

We have a design requirement where we need to show a SharePoint form which is fetching data from multiple lists and then the user should be able to insert the data into multiple list. The constraint was not to use SharePoint Object Model. We should achieve this only by OOB functionality.

So showing the data from multiple list is not tough. We have place multiple web parts getting the data from the list. The challenge was to insert the data into multiple list. By default it can update the data into only one list.

To solve this issue we called SharePoint Web Service in the JavaScript Code. This Code will insert the data into SharePoint List with the help of Web Service through JavaScript. So we do not need to use any Object Model Code for this purpose:

The code marked in italics needs to be changed. I am inserting the data into TestList in which there are two columns ID and Title.

Here is the code:

function SaveListItem()
{
var soapRequest = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>' +
'<soap12:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soap12="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope">' +
' <soap12:Body>'+
' <UpdateListItems xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/">'+
' <listName>TestList</listName>'+
' <updates>'+
'<Batch OnError="Continue">'+
' <Method ID="1" Cmd="New">'+
' <Field Name="ID">New</Field>'+
' <Field Name="Title">TestData</Field>'+
' </Method>'+
'</Batch>'+
' </updates>'+
' </UpdateListItems>'+
' </soap12:Body>'+
'</soap12:Envelope>';

xmlHttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
xmlHttp.open('post', 'http://ServerName/SiteCollection/_vti_bin/Lists.asmx', true);
xmlHttp.setRequestHeader('Content-Type','application/soap+xml; charset=utf-8');

xmlHttp.send(soapRequest);
}


You can call the above code from a button with the following code:

<input type="button" value="Save List Item" onclick="javascript:SaveListItem();">

Get the code from:

Training Material On Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

I have put many posts on the free training material (Ebooks, Videos/ScreenCast, Links etc) which is available on SharePoint. Consolidating all this material to one post for easy usage. I will be updating this post with the new links frequently:

If you are interested in instructor lead online training on SharePoint Development and Administration please check here

1. Videos on Enterprise Search:

Videos On Enterprise Search

2. SharePoint Videos on YouTube:

Videos On YouTube

3. Video on Solution Architecture, Appearance, BDC, FormServices and Excel Services:

Misc Videos on SharePoint

4. Videos On SharePoint Designer:

SharePoint Designer Videos

5. Developer Screen Cast on Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007:

Developer Screen Cast on SharePoint

6. Demos on SharePoint:

Various Demos on SharePoint

7. Various best practice docs on SharePoint:

Best Practice Docs on SharePoint

8. Free Ebooks on SharePoint:

Ebooks on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

9. Links to Learn SharePoint Step-By-Step

Learn SharePoint Step By Step

10. Video Tips on SharePoint Designer

Video Tips on SharePoint Designer

11. Free Online Courses on SharePoint 2007

Courses on SharePoint

12. Developer Screen Cast on SharePoint using VSeWSS

Videos for SharePoint Developers

SharePoint developer Screencast on Channel 9

Got some very useful videos by Kirk on Channel 9 on SharePoint describing how to use Visual Studio Extension on WSS to develop solution quickly:

SharePoint for Developers Part 1: Introducing VSeWSS 1.3

SharePoint for Developers Part 2: Working with Features

SharePoint for Developers Part 3 - Expression Blend and Silverlight

SharePoint for Developers Part 4 - Calling SharePoint Web Services from Silverlight

SharePoint for Developers Part 5 - Custom content types, fields, and lists