Warning: PowerShell Won’t Throw An Error When You Are About to Kill Your Web Application

Here is a little gotcha that PowerShell and SharePoint hit me with.

PowerShell will not return an error when you assign a user account to a SharePoint web application if the user does not exist or has been entered incorrectly. However, after an IIS reset, your SharePoint site fails and returns an error.

Symptom:  SharePoint will not serve any content when you browse a site.  Instead, the site displays the following error:

Error: The user does not exist or is not unique.

Background:

Warning messages appeared in the server logs indicating that the web cache is not configured correctly:

Convert .ppt to .pptx Using PowerShell

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve been working a lot with PowwerShell recently.

Since I am just learning my way around, I have been doing a lot of really cool but really derivative scripts, or the scripts have been too requirements-specific to be of much general use and, in my opinion, to be worth posting.

But we had a requirement to upgrade Office 2007 files to the Office 2010 formats that there wasn’t a specific template that I could find with Google.

Say Yes – A Success Story

Another success story, again about stepping out of our comfort zones: I heard from one of my readers, Stephanie, that she just got a new job. Yay!

Even better is the story of how she got the job. I’ll let her tell the story…

Get Out Of That Comfort Zone – A Success Story

I have a success story to share with you.  While I played a role in this story, it was Brigitta that made it happen.

She wrote this to Launch Pad Job Club:

I wanted to share a truly amazing success story!  I am still pinching myself and find this story quite unbelievable…

Quick Fix – Where’s My “Allow users to edit data in this field” Option?

In InfoPath 2010, when adding a form field to be available as a column on the SharePoint form library (File >> Advanced Form Options >> Property Promotion >> Add), the option to make the field editable from the library is missing. Instead of a checkbox with the message “Allow users to edit data in this field by using a datasheet or properties page”, there is a message “Some options are hidden when publishing to SharePoint Portal Server 2003.”

The solution is pretty simple. Re-publish the form (File >> Publish >> SharePoint Server (Publish form to a SharePoint library). Do not use Quick Publish!).  As you go through the Publishing wizard, keep the selections the same to update your published file. The fourth screen will look identical to the Property Promotion dialog, but when you click Add (or Modify), the option to “Allow users to edit data in this field by using a datasheet or properties page” will be there.

You Don’t Have To Be Crazy To Be A SharePoint Expert, But Sometimes It Helps

Just for fun.

SharePoint folks (at least the ones I know) tend to have a sense of humor and are entertaining to be around. Perhaps it is the intelligence needed to work with the complexity of SharePoint (a quality you share, of course), or maybe SharePoint drives people who work with it too much a bit nuts.

As Exhibit A, I give you SharePint. By dropping the “o” in SharePoint, we have a social event to follow the technically focused events like the user group meetings, SharePoint Saturdays, and other conferences. And while “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas“, what happens at SharePint ususally ends up posted all over Twitter. This year’s SharePoint Saturday San Antonio was followed by a particularly raucous SharePint. Fun times.

By contrast, Exhibit B can be experienced in the privacy of your own home (or wherever you are browsing from).

SharePoint Saturday San Antonio 2012

I have been busier of late than I could have imagined, so there has been a distinct lack of updates around here.  But I did want to let you know that I will be speaking at SharePoint Saturday San Antonio this weekend, presenting SharePoint Group Therapy (A SharePoint Governance Workshop).  This is the fourth time I’ve run this session – I’ve done it at SharePoint Satuday in Austin and Houston this year, as well as on SharePoint ShopTalk.

As in Houston, my session is right after lunch, so my challenge will be keep everyone awake.  Since the session is interactive, that shouldn’t be a problem!

See you in San Antonio!