I kept getting this error while trying to install WSS v3/Project Server 2007 side by side on a machine running WSSv2/Project Server 2003. in this instance i was trying to install the products without upgrading WSS v2 content dbs, hence i did not run the pre-scan tool prior to installing wssv3. in this case when running the psconfig tool after finishing the isntalltion of wssv3 i kept getting an error that .PostSetupConfigurationTaskException has thrown an exception.

 to workaround it, i uninstalled wssv2, project server 2003, rebooted the machine and tried again, now it all works well.  

error details:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard
Event Category: None
Event ID: 100
Date:  2/10/2008
Time:  10:09:15 AM
User:  N/A
Computer: PESM101
Description:
Configuration of SharePoint Products and Technologies failed.  Configuration must be performed in order for this product to operate properly.  To diagnose the problem, review the extended error information located at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\LOGS\PSCDiagnostics_10_2_2008_10_8_59_799_1112662755.log, fix the problem, and run this configuration wizard again.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard
Event Category: None
Event ID: 104
Date:  2/10/2008
Time:  10:09:15 AM
User:  N/A
Computer: PESM101
Description:
Failed to initialize SharePoint Products and Technologies upgrade.
An exception of type Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.PostSetupConfigurationTaskException was thrown.  Additional exception information: The initialize command is invalid or a failure has been encountered.
A previous attempt to upgrade SharePoint Products and Technologies has failed.  For more information about this failure, review the upgrade log on server pesm101 or review the SharePoint Timer service upgrade job status using the Central Administration Web Application.  To retry upgrade, run psconfig.exe and specify the force parameter along with the upgrade command on server pesm101.
Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.PostSetupConfigurationTaskException: Exception of type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.PostSetupConfigurationTaskException' was thrown.
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskCommon.CheckIfUpgrading(TaskBase task)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.InitializeTask.Run()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

cheers,

- mutaz

the new MOSS SDK 1.4 and WSS SDK 1.4 are now released and can be downloaded here:

• Download the MOSS SDK 1.4
• Download the WSS SDK 1.4

see the blog post of Randall Isenhour for more details on this SDK release.

- mutaz

they're here, under Site Collection Administration in site settings:

Can not see it there? well that is because you need to turn on the Office SharePoint Server Publishing site features.

cheers,

- mutaz

use these RSS feeds to keep up to date with the newly published content on technet:

  Newly published Office SharePoint Server topics list RSS feed (http://services.community.microsoft.com/feeds/feed/SharePointServerNewContent)

Newly published Windows SharePoint Services topics list RSS feed (http://services.community.microsoft.com/feeds/feed/WindowsSharePointServicesNewContent)

Newly published Project Server topics list RSS feed (http://services.community.microsoft.com/feeds/feed/ProjectServerNewContent)

Newly published PerformancePoint Server topics list RSS feed
(http://services.community.microsoft.com/feeds/feed/PerformancePointServerNewContent)

Newly published Search Server topics list RSS feed
(http://services.community.microsoft.com/feeds/feed/SearchServerNewContent)

- mutaz

the error in the event view is:

The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
{61738644-F196-11D0-9953-00C04FD919C1}
to the user MOSS\spservice SID (S-1-5-21-296829991-1532536763-3691781843-1015).  This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

Error Source: DCOM, Event: 10016

to resolve the error, grant the service account local activation permissions on the "IIS WAMREG admin Service", the instructions to do so are:

1. Start "Component Services" in the Administrators Tools
2. Navigate in the structure as follows; Console Root\Component Services\Computers\My Computer\DCOM Config
3. Select the component: "IIS WAMREG admin Service" and view its properties
4. Click the Security tab
5. Edit "Launce and Activation Permissions"
6. Add the service account shown the error and grant it "local activation" permissions

- mutaz

When creating content deployment paths on MOSS you need to make sure that the site collection designated as the Destination Site Collection is based on a Blank site template. The Blank site template is the only template able to import content from other site template types.

the best way to create the site collection this purpose is by using the following stsadm command line:

STSADM.EXE -o createsite -url http://sitecollectionurl -ownerlogin domainname/username -owneremail owner@email.net

If the destination site collection is based on other site templates then expect to receive a series of warnings in the job history followed by the errors below:

The specified name is already in use. A list, survey, discussion board, or document library cannot have the same name as another list, survey, discussion board, or document library in this Web site. Use your browser's Back button, and type a new name. at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.CreateListOnImport(String bstrUrl, Guid& pguidListId, String bstrTitle, String bstrDescription, Int32 lTemplateID, String bstrFeatureId, Guid guidRootFolderId, Int64 llFlags, Int32 iVersion, Int32 iAuthor, String bstrFields, String bstrContentTypes, String bstrImageUrl, String bstrEventSinkAssembly, String bstrEventSinkClass, String bstrEventSinkData, Guid guidDocTemplateId, String bstrViews, String bstrForms, Boolean bCompressedSchema) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ListSerializer.CreateList(SPWeb parentWeb, Dictionary`2 listMetaData, Boolean usingPublicSchema) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ListSerializer.SetObjectData(Object obj, SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context, ISurrogateSelector selector) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.XmlFormatter.ParseObject(Type objectType, Boolean isChildObject) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.XmlFormatter.DeserializeObject(Type objectType, Boolean isChildObject, DeploymentObject envelope) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.XmlFormatter.Deserialize(Stream serializationStream) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ObjectSerializer.Deserialize(Stream serializationStream) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ImportObjectManager.ProcessObject(XmlReader xmlReader) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.SPImport.DeserializeObjects() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.SPImport.Run()

Content deployment job 'Remote import job for job with sourceID = 07a2e1bb-ee87-437d-b759-482e5c3f36a9' failed.The exception thrown was 'Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException' : 'The specified name is already in use. A list, survey, discussion board, or document library cannot have the same name as another list, survey, discussion board, or document library in this Web site. Use your browser's Back button, and type a new name.'

- mutaz

In this one, I will demonstrate how to use SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) to pull data from a Windows

SharePoint Services List using the web services interface. I have seen many reporting implementations whereby the developers opt to connect to the WSS content database directly and read their data using TSQL statements. this approach is not recommended for many reasons, the most obvious are that its not supported, also it poses scalability limitations in case you decided to scale out and use multiple content dbs, in such scenario you will need to modify your queries to connect to the correct content dbs. The database schema of WSS tables are not self descriptive and developers end up hard coding the mapping of WSS list columns to database table columns.

Using the WSS Web Service interface will encapsulate the knowledge of content dbs schema and location, the challenge with this approach is to get SSRS to learn how to connect to a WSS list.

To get SSRS designers to consume WSS Web Service there are a number of available options:

1. Use a commercial product such as Enesys RS Data Extension (http://www.enesyssoftware.com/Products/EnesysRSDataExtension/Overview/tabid/72/Default.aspx) , this one will install a new data extension that connects and retrieves data from SharePoint list.
2. Use the RS data extension developed by Teun Duynstee (http://www.teuntostring.net/blog/2006/03/update-reporting-over-sharepoint-lists.html), I find this extension very helpful and it is available in source code as well.
3. Try to use the XML Web Service data source in SSRS Designer. this approach is explained on the MSDN web site (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa964129.aspx#repservxmlds_queryws) but it does not clearly show how to use it to query WSS Web Service.

For this example, I am going query the "Style Library" list from the SharePoint site http://sharepoint/sites/mutaz

Start by creating a new data source, select type: XML and for the connection string use something similar to: http://sharepoint/sites/mutaz/_vti_bin/Lists.asmx, here I am using the Lists web services to retrieve the list items.

the connection string is two parts:

1. the site URL: http://sharepoint/sites/mutaz

2. the web service asmx file path: /_vti_bin/Lists.asmx

then in the data set query, the query string should specify the following information:

• SoapAction (Web service method): use the GetListItems method to retrieve list items
• Parameters, the first parameter will be the list name. for full list of supported parameters by the web service method you need to refer to the Lists methods documentation on MSDN (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-au/library/lists.lists.getlistitems.aspx) .. here the GetListItems method can use all the following parameters: listName, viewName, query, viewFields, rowLimit, queryOptions, webID

the Data Query XML will be:

<Query>
<SoapAction>http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/GetListItems</SoapAction>
<Method Namespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/" Name="GetListItems">
<Parameters>
    <Parameter Name="listName">
       <DefaultValue>Style Library</DefaultValue>
    </Parameter>
</Parameters>
</Method>
</Query>

executing the above data set query will retrieve the list items.

things become more challenging if you try to use this method to query multiple web sites or to change the website name at run time. for that I suggest to consider using a custom data extension.

cheers,

- mutaz