Thursday, September 23, 2010

SharePoint Server 2010 “System.ServiceModel.EndPointNotFoundException” in OWSTimer.exe

If you get this error on your SharePoint Server 2010 development machine – ""System.ServiceModel.EndPointNotFoundException” in OWSTimer.exe – then you probably need to manually start the ForeFront Identity Manager Service – it did the trick for me …

SharePoint Stef provided the solution (and additional explanation) in his blogpost – SP2010 “System.ServiceModel.EndpointNotfoundException”.

Building a claims viewer webpart for SharePoint 2010

When running through the MSDN article – Claims Walkthrouhgh: writing claims providers for SharePoint 2010 – I noticed that it did not clearly showed how the webparts where build which showed the overview of the claims for a specific request. Reza pointed me in the correct direction by sending me the link to a post from Steve Peschka (a must read blog for people who work with SharePoint and claims) – Figuring out what claims you have in SharePoint 2010.

Some things you should know when you try to build a claims viewer webpart of your own:

The code is actually pretty simple – you can use a Visual Web Part (new in 2010) or a standard webpart – here’s a snippet

IClaimsPrincipal cp = Page.User as IClaimsPrincipal;   
if (cp != null) {
IClaimsIdentity ci = (IClaimsIdentity)cp.Identity;
foreach (Claim c in ci.Claims) {
sb.Append(c.ClaimType + " " + c.Value + "<br>");
}
}



Have fun ….


Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Form Based Authentication in SharePoint 2010 and what it has to do with Claim Based Authentication.

Starting from SharePoint Server 2007 it is possible to use the ASP.NET membership and role provider for authentication purposes (meaning you are not limited to pure windows authentication). SharePoint Server 2010 extends on this model by providing claim based authentication.

For authentication 2010 in SharePoint you can choose between 2 models:

  • Classic mode authentication
  • Claims based authentication mode

Classic mode is provided mostly for legacy purposes since claims is the way forward – take a look at Plan Authentication Methods (SharePoint 2010) on Technet for more details.

If you plan to use anything other then plain windows authentication you have to go for claims based authentication (CBA). Claims based authentication in 2010 supports the following underlying authentication mechanisms:

  • Windows claims (when you log on with NTLM or the Kerberos protocol)
  • Forms-based authentication claims (when you use an ASP.NET membership and role provider – so use a SQL Server or Oracle database as back-end store)
  • Security Assertions Markup Language (SAML) claims -when you log on by using a security token service (STS), such as Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) 2.0.

Claims based authentication in 2010 is implemented on top of Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) – so I recommend that you take a look at this blog post to get you started with a number of resources – Windows Identity Foundation resources for SharePoint 2010 developers.

I wanted to try out Forms-based authentication claims using SQL Server as back-end store and I tried out a number of walkthroughs but this one worked like a charm – Configuring claims and form-based authentication for use with a SQL provider in SharePoint 2010  (Thanks you, Spence for pointing me in the correct direction)

Some additional remarks:

References:

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

BIWUG goes Facebook...

I just started a BIWUG group on Facebook - join us if you are interested in sharing information around the Microsoft Information Worker Community in Belgium and Luxemburg

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Powershell changes from SharePoint 2010 beta to RTM

When testing some SharePoint 2010 Powershell scripts I noticed that there have been some changes in the naming from beta to RTM – for a good overview check out Changes in SharePoint 2010 powershell commandlets (Forums)

Update: Apparently there is also a Technet page which describes the changes – Updates to Windows PowerShell cmdlets (SharePoint Server 2010)

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

10 extra seats available for BIWUG september 2010 session

The number of available seats for the BIWUG session of september 16h has been increased to 45 people (previously 30 people) so 10 people can still register – go quickly to www.biwug.be

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Free Microsoft training sessions available at MIC Belgium

The Microsoft Innovation Center in Belgium organizes a number of interesting events:

  • SharePoint Developers Day  - 15 september
  • Club des experts: BPOS & Office Online & Office Web App – 16 september
  • Testing Visual Studio 2010 – 21  september
  • Silverlight 4 – 7 october
  • Club des experts – SharePoint & gestion documentaire
  • Construire son Mock up en quelgues heurs – 4 november 4t

All sessions are in French – and registration is possible through – www.mic-belgique.be

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

BIWUG IT Pro session on september 16th

BIWUG (www.biwug.be) is announcing another session about SharePoint on September 16th at the Quest offices in Diegem.

Agenda

  • 18:00-18:30 Welcome
  • 18:30-19:30 SharePoint administration and granular recovery (Speaker Quest)
  • 19:30-19:45 Break
  • 19:45-20:45 Upgrading from SharePoint Server 2007 to SharePoint Server 2010 (Speaker – Karine Bosch)

More details and registration on the BIWUG site – www.biwug.be