Code Eater (Wael A. Kabli) : MOSS

Workflow "Failed on Start (retrying)"

Wael A. Kabli — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:12:44 GMT

Oh!! its SharePoint again :). One of these small things in this beast which makes you bang your head and pull your hear again and again if you don't get it right. Now lucky you you can search this issue and find the solution.

Debugging in SharePoint is very tricky sometimes because you get all of these levels to run around (GAC + IIS + Deployment Folder under the feature + Feature.xml + Workflow.xml + SharePoint itself + InfoPath the main form template + InfoPath the workflow forms and Web Services) so after this, it is not strange that you would start pulling your hear after a while.

Problem Description:

if you try any workflow (including OOB WF and Custom WF) and when you try to start it, it will show the message Workflow "Failed on Start (retrying)". You may also see that some tasks in the WF are created and even so it fails.

Tip: whenever you are stuck with your custom workflow, try having the OOB, if it doesn't run, its not your problem. (i spent one complete day almost 20H just to discover its not my fault).

One Proof that this thing its not your custom code problem, if you attach the WF process to Visual Studio, it will not catch any exception.

Reasoning:

In WSS/MOSS the workflow engine will report back 'a workflow failed to start' even if the workflow did start.

The reason why is that - the workflow will be sent the 'OnWorkflowActivated' event (start command) and essentially as far as MOSS is concerned - it's starting.

When the workflow for e.g. writes a task item and then waits (handleExternal Event) for the OnTaskChanged event. At this point if it failed - a different error other than 'failed to start' would be reported.

Resolution:

First and importantly check all your correlation tokens. make sure that each task (Creation, Updating and Completing) has its own Token not the workflow token.
Then compare the dll you have with theone in the workflow.xml and the one in the GAC. simply they all should be the same.
Try this on the command prompt: Lodctr "c:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v3.0\Windows Workflow Foundation\perfcounters.ini"
And if it doesn't work for you try: Lodctr /R "c:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v3.0\Windows Workflow Foundation\perfcounters.ini"

Some Links might Help:

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2268844&SiteID=1

Some errors you might see in logs:

The requested Performance Counter is not a custom counter, it has to be initialized as ReadOnly.
Failed on Start (retrying).
Unexpected Load Workflow Class: System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.InvalidOperationException: The requested Performance Counter is not a custom counter, it has to be initialized as ReadOnly. at System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter.Initialize() at System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter..ctor(String categoryName, String counterName, String instanceName, Boolean readOnly) at System.Workflow.Runtime.PerformanceCounterManager.CreateCounters(String name) at System.Workflow.Runtime.Hosting.DefaultWorkflowSchedulerService.OnStarted() at System.Workflow.Runtime.Hosting.WorkflowRuntimeService.HandleStarted(Object source, WorkflowRuntimeEventArgs e) at System.EventHandler`1.Invoke(Object sender, TEventArgs e)...
01/11/2008 03:33:24.79* w3wp.exe (0x12B4) 0x0E9C Windows SharePoint Services Workflow Infrastructure
Unexpected    ...     at System.Workflow.Runtime.WorkflowRuntime.StartRuntime()     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOeHostServices..ctor(SPSite site, SPWeb web, SPWorkflowManager manager, SPWorkflowEngine engine)     --- End of inner exception stack trace ---     at System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeConstructor(Object[] args, SignatureStruct& signature, IntPtr declaringType)     at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeConstructor(Object[] args, SignatureStruct signature, RuntimeTypeHandle declaringType)     at System.Reflection.RuntimeConstructorInfo.Invoke(BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture)     at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceImpl(BindingFlags bindingAttr, Binder binder, Object[] args, CultureInfo culture, Object[] activationAttributes)     at System.Ac...
01/11/2008 03:33:24.79*    w3wp.exe (0x12B4)                           0x0E9C    Windows SharePoint Services       Workflow Infrastructure           72fu    Unexpected    ...tivator.CreateInstance(Type type, BindingFlags bindingAttr, Binder binder, Object[] args, CultureInfo culture, Object[] activationAttributes)     at System.Reflection.Assembly.CreateInstance(String typeName, Boolean ignoreCase, BindingFlags bindingAttr, Binder binder, Object[] args, CultureInfo culture, Object[] activationAttributes)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowManager.LoadPluggableClass(String classname, String assembly, Object[] parameters)
01/11/2008 03:33:24.80     w3wp.exe (0x12B4)                           0x0E9C    Windows SharePoint Services       Workflow Infrastructure

Roadmap to using SharePoint Server 2007

Wael A. Kabli — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 16:54:56 GMT

Finally we have END USERS TRAINING :D finally

Use this roadmap as a starting point to learn about the broad capabilities of Office SharePoint Server 2007 and how to complete common tasks as a contributor to a SharePoint site. You can also find links to site owner tasks, such as setting up permissions and doing some basic customization.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA102486841033.aspx

Attachments in InfoPath Form that is a Task Workflow

Wael A. Kabli — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 11:49:56 GMT

Woho, here is a nice one :), one of the small things that gets you sometimes bang your head for long long time till you find out what's the problem...

Symptoms:

So if you are having a workflow that uses InfoPath forms for tasks and you have attachment controls in it, then you probably faced this error: "The Selected file was not found"!!

Solution or Workaround:

Locate the ASPX page that your workflow form opens up in the _layouts directory on your server.

e.g., %Program Files%Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\
most probably you want WrkTaskIP.aspx --> this page is the one that loads your InfoPath form to be as a task form.

in this aspx page, locate the reference to MasterPageFile. This will look something like

MasterPageFile="~/_layouts/application.master"

Go to the masterPage file you found

In this case go to the application.master in the folder "%Program Files%Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\"

Look for the Form Tag

<form runat="server" onsubmit="return _spFormOnSubmitWrapper();">

Add the attribute enctype="multipart/form-data" to this tag and save.

<form runat="server" onsubmit="return _spFormOnSubmitWrapper();" enctype="multipart/form-data">

iisreset and try your workflow with file attachment again.

Few things to Note:

as you can see, this is a product issue and hopefully it might be fixed in the SP1. But don't get frustrated, that's why we are blogging so you can find such information.

Have fun,,, :)

SharePoint @ CodePlex !!!

Wael A. Kabli — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 10:31:00 GMT

many were asking me wehre to find free features, web parts, solutions, kits and different experiences,,,

also they want to share thier parts too with the community!!

here you go all of you :)

http://www.codeplex.com/Project/ProjectDirectory.aspx?TagName=Sharepoint

its from the open source site from microsoft www.codeplex.com ,,,,

till the time i have posted thisd post the library contains 81 projects!!

What is CodePlex?

CodePlex is Microsoft's open source project hosting web site. You can use CodePlex to create new projects to share with the world, join others who have already started their own projects, or use the applications on this site and provide feedback. A word about Microsoft’s role: Microsoft does not control, review, revise, endorse or distribute the third party projects on this site. Microsoft is hosting the CodePlex site solely as a web storage site as a service to the developer community.

How to change the view from userdisp.aspx to MySite View?

Wael A. Kabli — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:58:00 GMT

This is fairly simple and easy,,,

you need your MySite URL, e.g. mysite url is http://sharepointserver:8085

now, go to your site collcetion --> site actions --> modify all site settings --> under Site Collection Administration: Portal site connection

here go and paste your URL and give it a name,,,

result: whenever you click on user, it will redirect you to mysite

enable proxy settings in SharePoint web.config to view RSS Viewer Web Part

Wael A. Kabli — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:57:00 GMT

Open your web.config on the site you want

to do this just tell the web.config that you have an internet access with a proxy:

Kit Kai's Tech Blog:

http://community.sgdotnet.org/blogs/kitkai/archive/2007/04/04/Consuming-RSS-Feeds-using-RSS-WebPart-.aspx

i have few notes here:

- you cannot have authenticated RSS feeds unless you enable Kerberos

- if you have your proxy as IP address like 192.168.1.3 and port 8080, your node still looks like

- you need to retart iis

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 - Arabic edition

Wael A. Kabli — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:56:00 GMT

if you are seeking for an Arabic Implementation for MOSS or WSS, you need to read this document first,,,

http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/arabicdev/office/office2007/SharePoint.aspx
Introduction

What is the Arabic language support?

Adding Arabic support to the Environment

3.1 Adding Arabic language support to Windows XP/2003 server

3.2 Adding Arabic language support to Internet Explorer

3.3 Adding Arabic support in SQL Server

3.4 Office SharePoint Arabic language pack

Arabic support Level in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

4.1 Central Administration page "الادارة المركزية"

4.2 Shared Services Administration page "ادارة الخدمات المشتركة"

4.3 Create page "أنشاء"

4.4 Create New Site page "أنشاء موقع جديد"

4.5 The Site Settings page "اعدادات الموقع"

4.6 Regional settings available for Office SharePoint Server 2007 sites

Adding more items to the site

5.1 Discussions "المناقشات"

5.2 Calendar "التقويم"

5.3 Documents "المستندات"

5.4 Tasks "المهام"

5.5   Search Feature in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

5.6   What are the system requirements for SharePoint Server?

6.6   Q & A

if you want some instructions to deploye Language Packs on MOSS, read the following article:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/26c07867-0150-463d-b21a-a6d42aecf05a1033.mspx?mfr=true

• About language IDs and language packs

• Preparing your front-end Web servers for language packs

• Installing language packs on your front-end Web servers

Start Learning Workflows!!

Wael A. Kabli — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:32:00 GMT

Wow such an exciting topic to learn!! its nice and fun yet its a bit difficult to grasp easily,,,

Workflow Concepts:

Developer Introduction to Workflows for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and SharePoint Server 2007

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms406057.aspx

Hands On Practise:

This is a very good course that our colleage of us Eilene Hao, he works as a Program Manager for SharePoint Workflows....

hear is an outline:

"So You Want to Develop Custom Workflows in Visual Studio..." - The Blog Series

Developing Workflows in VS: Part 1 - Workflow Objects and A Crash Course on Mechanics

Developing Workflows in VS: Part 2 - Planning Your Workflow: Two Things to Keep in Mind

Developing Workflows in VS: Part 4 - Design and Bind Your Forms

Developing Workflows in VS: Part 5 - Code Your Workflow

Developing Workflows in VS: Part 6 - Deploy and Debug your workflow

Developing Workflows in VS: Part 7 - Summary and Final Thoughts

Learning MOSS!!

Wael A. Kabli — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:22:00 GMT

i am trying to summarize a page that will include good materials for MOSS,,,

so if aqny body find cool things you may add it in the comments part :)

allow me to start:

TechNet: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/traincert/virtuallab/office.mspx

• What's New in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Feature Walkthrough

• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Installation and Configuration

• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Records Management Deployment and Configuration

• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise Features Administration Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

• What's New in Windows SharePoint Services Feature Walkthrough

• Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Installation and Configuration

MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/virtuallabs/office/default.aspx

• Creating Workflows for Windows SharePoint Services

• Introducing Content Types for Windows SharePoint Services

• Understanding the 2007 Microsoft Office System User Experience and Interface Design

• Programmatic Manipulation of the Microsoft Office Open XML Formats

Learning: https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning

Course 5386: Working with Server and Site Objects in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Course 5387: Programmatically Securing Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Sites

Course 5388: Programming Lists and List Events in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Course 5389: Managing Documents and Libraries in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Course 5390: Working with List Metadata and Content Types in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Course 5391: Customizing Navigation and Layout in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Excel Services and Excel 2003

Wael A. Kabli — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 14:03:00 GMT

--------------------------------provided by Kalid Al - Hadlaq (Ms Saudi consultant) ----------------------------------------------------------------------

* Excel 2003 cannot be published on Excel Services,,,

* Only excel 2007 can be published on Excel Services,,,

if you have a file with excel 2003 format the web feature is not enabled for it and thus, cannot be view on excel service,

--------------------------------provided by Kalid Al - Hadlaq (Ms Saudi consultant) ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Workarounds:

if you want to view your excel file on excel service just save it on xlsx format and deltete the old format,,,

now you can publish it on excel services,,

for big amount of files, you can just write a code that:

- Access all the desiered sites...

- Connect to all xls files

-Convert them to xlsx,,

-Publish them again

cannot start search service Help

Wael A. Kabli — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 10:26:00 GMT

AhHhHh,,,,

this is my favorate,,,

once i tried to start the help search service which is a service that will enable you to search in the help files in MOSS,,,

when you try to create it, you get the most annoying and meaningful error message which is :) File Not Found !!!!

oh my god! that kept me staring at the screen for hours,,

anyways the log of this error is:

The BLOB property does not exist in the database; skipping import. - File:d:\office\source\search\search\gather\gthrsvc\gthrapp.cxx Line:3597

02/04/2007 19:36:53.38 mssearch.exe (0x0A08) 0x0948 Search Server Common Exceptions 0 Monitorable <Exception><HR>0x80040d06</HR><eip>600AD224</eip><module>d:\office\source\search\search\gather\gthrsvc\gthrapp.cxx</module><line>3598</line></Exception>

02/04/2007 19:36:53.38 mssearch.exe (0x0A08) 0x0948 Search Server Common GatherSvc 0 Monitorable Application 'c6d65cb8-d20a-4cf3-b285-1d7659622ef1' - Registry BLOB not imported; continue initialization. Failed in CGatherApplication::CGatherApplication::Init. Error = 0x80040d06 - File:d:\office\source\search\search\gather\gthrsvc\gthrapp.cxx Line:258

after i don't know how many hours, i discovered this line: Registry BLOB not imported; continue initialization

directly i relized that enven i am an administrator on the box, i have some GroupPolicy issues that preventing me from editing regedit and hens, creating the search...

this classic problem for any installation :(

please be careful out there ...

MOSS has no indexers

Wael A. Kabli — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 10:17:00 GMT

one of the problems you might face during MOSS installation is missing a role such as Search indexing service...

when you try to create a new SSP, you'll get an error saying that "no indexers" and the drop down list for the indexers is disabled!!!

The solution simply is when you installed MOSS on the box, you forgot to install the search indexings,

so as a solution, you need to either uninstall MOSS (don't delete the DBs) then reinstall with the indexing service again...

another solution is to add another box to the farm that will hold the indexers...!!!!

Note: uninstalling MOSS will not remove your configurations....

[Content Deployment] Authering, Staging, Deploying

Wael A. Kabli — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 14:39:00 GMT

I found a nice article on it (http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2006/05/02/588140.aspx) written by (Tyler Butler, Program Manager for WCM) and I’ll try to summarize here.

“Basically there is something called Content Deployment which supports multi-topologies and its main purpose is enabling Authoring and Staging. The main idea here is Content Deployment usually goes from site collection to site collection. Through the “Central Administration Site”, Content Deployment can be configured to run and to be monitored. So you create a Job Object which is – an object that holds information of the contents needed to be deployed and a schedule (time and recurrence) – and associate a Path Object with it which is –an object contains source, authentication methods and distention. You can associate as many Jobs to a Path and the Content Deployment will deploy whatever changes were made since the last successful deployment even the dependant packages and layouts will be deployed too. The interesting part is having something called “Quick Deploy” which can be enabled on a job and then it will give the site owner to deploy a site instead of being the job of an administrator. Finally, a custom deployment can be written using the APIs.

Resources for learning Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

Wael A. Kabli — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 14:37:00 GMT

ok from now on you should know that Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 is MOSS 2007!! ok...

many people wnat to know much about MOSS it claim not find anything helpfull regarding it,,,

i'll try to list some materials and recources on Microsoft sites and others....

This Page is a great recource on MOSS: "Resources for learning Microsoft Office SharePoint Server"

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA101756051033.aspx?pid=CH100948731033

Resource	Description
Office SharePoint Server 2007 Developer Portal on MSDN	Information about planning, coding, building, deploying, and migrating solutions for Office SharePoint Server.
Office SharePoint Server 2007 Developer Map	Downloadable poster that shows the architecture of Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Developer Center on MSDN	Technical articles, SDK information, screencasts, and community resources for SharePoint developers.
2007 Microsoft Office system Learning Portal	Training, e-learning, books, and skills assessments for 2007 Microsoft Office system products, including Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Office SharePoint Server TechCenter on TechNet	Technical articles, highlights, communities, and blogs about Office SharePoint Server.
Office SharePoint Server Technical Library on TechNet2	Additional technical resources for Office SharePoint Server.
Windows SharePoint Services TechCenter on TechNet	Technical articles, highlights, communities, and blogs about Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

[part 1] Upgrade Your Old Customized Templates from WSS2.0 to WSS3.0

Wael A. Kabli — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 22:21:00 GMT

Read this before you start: [Customization] from Wss2 to WSS3

By now you know you need an upgrade file or mapping file..

keep in mind this is an expesive option to choose and somehow it might involve a lot or effort...

Goal:

A site upgrade definition provides a means to transform sites customized in the previous version of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services so that they take advantage of features in the new version. An upgrade definition file maps the files and list data of one build or version to a subsequent build or version, as well as specifying additional items that should be placed within upgraded Web sites.

Why Develop one?

The aim here is to upgrade you customized templates from WSS2.0 to WSS3.0. and when i say customized, i mean either you created a customized definition files or you created a customized templates.

Lets Go Step By Step!

Generaly, you need to :

- to have a customized site definition on Wss2 or a cutomized template

- create a new site definition on Wss3 based on the most related WSS3.0 template or definition to your custmized one.

- create an upgrade mapping file.

- run the config wizard

- migrated the site definition to 3.0

- do all modification I need

- All new functionalities works fine

- saved the template as .stp as Wss3 template

- registere the template in Wss3

i'll keep giving details on each one..

Recourses:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms439232.aspx