SyntaxHighlighter

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

How to disable event firing in custom code


Recently I worked on application page which updates list item, which in turn causes item update event to fire. The goal was to avoid any event execution. I have done this many times before, but had a hard time recalling. This post is a note to myself, so I know where to look for code sample, if I forgot again. :)

If I am writing event receiver, I can use EventFiringEnabled property to disable events temporarily. But in application page I don’t’ have access to SPEventReceiverBase
which exposes this property. So here is the coed I used to temporarily disable event firing.

public class DisableItemEventFiring : SPItemEventReceiver, IDisposable 
{
public ItemEventFiring()
{
this.EventFiringEnabled = false;
}

public void  Dispose()
{
this.EventFiringEnabled = true;
}
}


Now we have defined class for disabling list item event, I can use this class in application page,

using (DisableItemEventFiring disableEvt = new DisableItemEventFiring ())
{
//no event will be fired
item.SystemUpdate();
}

//event firing enabled again
item.SystemUpdate();


Hope this helps.

-Javed

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

JavaScript Frameworks


With arrival of SharePoint 2013 last year and Microsoft push to move your code away from SharePoint server to the client browsers, JavaScript is now considered an important skill. The new SharePoint App model allows developers to use JavaScript to write entire application and in case of SharePoint-hosted app, is the only option. Now it is a good idea to spend some time understanding and learning JavaScript and many freely available Frameworks. If you are writing Single Page Application or just DOM manipulation or implementing user notifications, there are at least couple of open source JavaScript frameworks available. I have been using some of these and below is the list of some of those frameworks.

jQuery I think the most popular and useful library.
AngularJS Recently completed Single Page App on SharePoint using Angular and I love this framework for its powerful bi-directional data binding, routing, REST support and much more.
Knockout.js Great bi-directional data binding framework, but the only thing bothers me is to convert JSON (from server) to observable collection.
Underscore.js Makes life lot easier handling arrays and collection
moment.js Date and time utility functions. Data validation, formatting, international formatting.
noty.js A jQuery plugin to display success/error notification. Highly configurable.
toastr.js Similar to noty.js
Open XML SDK for JavaScript Now you can create Office documents right in the browser with this library. Check out these links for more info:
Introducing the Open XML SDK for JavaScript
Open XML SDK for JavaScript

I will continue adding more libraries and frameworks as and when I get a chance to play with.

Hope this helps.

-Javed

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Change Certificate for Trusted Identity Provider


Many times we are required to update X.509 certificate for Trusted Identity Provider because certificate may have expired or may be we were using self-signed certificate and now wants to replace with commercial CA issued certificates.

Use this PowerShell commands to update certificate for existing Trusted Identity Provider.

$newCert = New-Object System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate2("C:\MyCerts\CA_Issued_Cert.cer")
New-SPTrustedRootAuthority -Name "New CA Issued Cert" -Certificate $newCert 

Set-SPTrustedIdentityTokenIssuer -Identity "My Id Provider" -ImportTrustCertificate $newCert

If you want to remove the old/expired certificate from SharePoint trust root, use this command to delete the certificate.

Remove-SPTrustedRootAuthority -Identity "My Old Cert"

Hope this helps.

-Javed.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Sign Out from STS in ASP.NET web application

This post is related to my last post about Claims Provider from IP-STS. STS was used by ASP.NET web application and require single sign out. But even after calling Session.Abandon() and FormsAuthentication.SignOut(), users were still logged in to STS.

After some looking around I found the answer on stackoverflow. The problem was Session.Abandon() and FormsAuthentication.SignOut() were clearing the user cookies and session state but STS token were never cleaned up. Use this code to complete Sign out process:
WSFederationAuthenticationModule fam =
FederatedAuthentication.WSFederationAuthenticationModule;

string wrealm = string.Format("wtrealm={0}", fam.Realm);

string signOutUrl =
WSFederationAuthenticationModule.GetFederationPassiveSignOutUrl(
fam.Issuer, null, wrealm);

string wreply = Request.Url.AbsoluteUri;

WSFederationAuthenticationModule.FederatedSignOut(
new Uri(signOutUrl), new Uri(wreply));


You can paste this code in your logout handler and should clean up STS token. After logout STS will redirect browser to URL set by “wreply” and can be set to any URL. You don’t need to set this parameter, in case of null, STS will redirect to default application page set during STS configuration.

This routine send “wsignout1.0” command to STS to clean up token for the user. Here is the signout URL:

http://localhost:8888/?wa=wsignout1.0&wtrealm=http%3a%2f%2flocalhost%3a58077%2f&wreply=http%3a%2f%2flocalhost%3a58077%2fdefault.aspx


Hope this helps.

-Javed

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Creating Claims Provider for custom IP-STS


I was recently involved in troubleshooting Claims Provider written specifically for custom IP-STS provider. The STS authenticate external user to access public facing SharePoint site collection. The issue was occurring while adding external users to SharePoint group. After selecting User (through people picker control) and adding them to SP group, users were not able to login to the site.

But if I add external users through PowerShell script (see link below for script), users can login and see everything they are suppose to see. After some initial debugging I noticed, the user identity of user added with PowerShell and user added through people picker control were not matching.

//User identity from people picker control (incorrect identity)
c:0ǿ.c|myprovider|testuser2@rtest.com

//User identity using PowerShell script (correct identity)
i:05.t|my provider|testuser2@rtest.com

I googled and found this nice blog link which describes all parts of claims identity. People picker was generating “other claim type” (denoted by “c”) but SharePoint required “identity claim type” (denoted by “i”). And there was one more issue, the trusted issuer (‘myprovider’ and ‘my provider) were not matching either. “my provider” is name of IP-STS provider and “myprovider” is the name of Claims Provider.

With this information, I took another look at claim provider class and could see the issue with code. Here are all the changes which fixed the issue:

First, the claim provider was offering only 1 claim but STS was providing lot more than that. So I updated FillClaimTypes and FillClaimValueTypes.

protected override void FillClaimTypes(List<string> claimTypes)
{
 if (claimTypes == null)
  throw new ArgumentNullException("claimTypes");

 claimTypes.Add(Microsoft.IdentityModel.Claims.ClaimTypes.Role);
 claimTypes.Add(Microsoft.IdentityModel.Claims.ClaimTypes.Upn);
 claimTypes.Add(Microsoft.IdentityModel.Claims.ClaimTypes.Email);
 claimTypes.Add(Microsoft.IdentityModel.Claims.ClaimTypes.Surname);
 claimTypes.Add(Microsoft.IdentityModel.Claims.ClaimTypes.GivenName);
 claimTypes.Add(Microsoft.IdentityModel.Claims.ClaimTypes.System);
}

protected override void FillClaimValueTypes(List<string> claimValueTypes)
{
 if (claimValueTypes == null)
  throw new ArgumentNullException("claimValueTypes");

 claimValueTypes.Add(Microsoft.IdentityModel.Claims.ClaimValueTypes.String);
 claimValueTypes.Add(Microsoft.IdentityModel.Claims.ClaimValueTypes.String);
 claimValueTypes.Add(Microsoft.IdentityModel.Claims.ClaimValueTypes.String);
 claimValueTypes.Add(Microsoft.IdentityModel.Claims.ClaimValueTypes.String);
 claimValueTypes.Add(Microsoft.IdentityModel.Claims.ClaimValueTypes.String);
 claimValueTypes.Add(Microsoft.IdentityModel.Claims.ClaimValueTypes.String);
}

I am using only String types for all claims, but if you are using other value types, make sure the order of ClaimTypes and ClaimValueTypes matches.

Second, to fix trusted issuer mis-match, I replaced base CreateClaim function with this function.
private SPClaim MyCreateClaim(string myClaimType, 
    string myClaimValueType, 
    string myClaimValue)
{
 SPClaim myClaim = new SPClaim(myClaimType, myClaimValue, myClaimValueType,
     SPOriginalIssuers.Format(
        SPOriginalIssuerType.TrustedProvider, “xxx provider”));

    return myClaim;
}

The base CreateClaim function by default creates claim using Name property of SPClaimProvider class as trusted issuer.

Third, return the correct claim type i.e. identity claim. FillSearch method was creating and returning claim of type “FormsRole” which is good for adding additional claims (claim augmentation) but not identity claim. Here is the updated code:
protected override void FillSearch(Uri context, string[] entityTypes, 
    string searchPattern, string hierarchyNodeID, 
    int maxCount, SPProviderHierarchyTree searchTree)
{
    try
    {
        var ldapServer = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["LDAPConn"];
        var connectionString = ldapServer.ConnectionString;
        var de = new DirectoryEntry(connectionString, 
            LDAPCredentials.UserName, LDAPCredentials.Password,
            AuthenticationTypes.Secure);
        var search = new DirectorySearcher(de);

        search.Filter = 
            string.Format(
                "(&(objectClass=inetorgperson)(|(anr={0})(mail={0}*)))",
                 searchPattern);

        search.SearchScope = SearchScope.Subtree;
        search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("displayName"); 
        search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("mail"); 

        var searchResults = search.FindAll();
        if (searchResults.Count > 0)
        {
          var matches = new List<PickerEntity>();
          foreach (SearchResult profile in searchResults)
          {
            var ups = profile.GetDirectoryEntry();
            var pe = GetPickerEntity(ups.Properties["mail"].Value.ToString(),
               ups.Properties["displayName"].Value.ToString());
            matches.Add(pe);
          }
          searchTree.AddEntities(matches);
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        LoggingService.LogErrorInULS(ex, TraceSeverity.Unexpected);
    }
}

private PickerEntity GetPickerEntity(string claimValue, string preferredName)
{
    PickerEntity pe = CreatePickerEntity();
    //pe.Claim = CreateClaim(myClaimType, claimValue, myClaimValueType);     
    pe.Claim = MyCreateClaim(myClaimType, myClaimValueType, claimValue);
    pe.Description = string.Format( "{1} [{1}]", “My Provider”, claimValue);
    pe.DisplayText = preferredName ;
    pe.EntityData[PeopleEditorEntityDataKeys.DisplayName] = claimValue;
    pe.EntityType = SPClaimEntityTypes.User; // SPClaimEntityTypes.FormsRole;
    pe.IsResolved = true;
    return pe;
}

The change was simple, change EntityType to SPClaimEntityTypes.User from FormsRole and use custom function to create claim.

Build and deploy package to server.

Here are few links which helped me in resolving the issue:
Claims Walkthrough
Claims Encoding
Writing your own Trusted Identity provider for SP2010 (3) (this link has script to create user through PowerShell)

Hope this helps.

-Javed

Friday, January 31, 2014

Configuring Federated Search for SharePoint 2010


In this post I will discuss how to leverage external search engines which supports OpenSearch protocol and display their results in SharePoint environment.

SharePoint 2010 provides 2 ways to search external data sources. The “content crawling”, in this approach the text context and attributes are indexed and stored by SharePoint search server and the “federated search”, the topic of this post. In this approach SharePoint passes search term and other parameters to external search engine and formats/displays the returned results.
The Federated Search approach provides following benefits :
  1. No need for additional storage, as SharePoint does not index the external content.
  2. We can use external system's native search capabilities.

Federated Result Web Parts:


Federated Results Web Part:

This displays result from specific federated search location. You can only specify one search location per web part.

Top Federated Results Web Part:

You can configure multiple federated search locations with priority and the web part returns result from first federated location which returns search result.
To configure new federated location, follow these steps:
  1. Log in to your SharePoint Central Administration site as a SharePoint farm administrator.
  2. Click "Manage service applications" under the "Application Management" heading.
  3. Click "Search Service Application".
  4. Click "Federated Locations" under the "Queries and Results" heading in the left-hand navigation panel.
  5. Click "New Location".
  6. Fill in the information for the new federated location, and then click 'OK'.
Here are some guidelines on the important fields:
Location Type:
Search Index on this Server: The search happens locally and can be customized to return result from specific scope.

OpenSearch 1.0/1.1: This setting uses external search engine which receives and processes parameter from SharePoint and return structured XML result like RSS or Atom.
Query Template:
The URL template called by SharePoint with search term and other configured tokens. At runtime the tokens are replaced by actual values before calling the URL . The URL should return structured XML like RSS or Atom feed.

http://<server url>/_layouts/CCESearchSF/SearchSF.aspx?q={searchTerms}&start={startItem}&count=3&format=rss

Supported Token Description
{searchTerms} Replaced with search term user types in search box
{startIndex} When fetching results in pages, this token replaced with start index of the first result.
{startPage} When fetching results in pages, this token replaced with page number of set of results to return.
{count} Replaced with number of results to display per page.
More Results Link Template:
The html template contains link to external system search result page.
Triggers:
Always: The search query is always forwarded to federated location.

Prefix: A prefix contains specific term which must be prefixed with search term. eg: "office" prefix with search query like "office New York" will match and "New York" search term is sent to federated location.

Pattern: A regular expression pattern must match the search term to trigger the query to be forwarded to federated location.
Display transformations:
The default transformation provided by SharePoint is good enough in most cases and can be left to default values. But if you prefer to customize the result output, you can replace the default XSLT with your customized XSLT.

Restrictions:

The use of federated location can be un-restricted or restricted to few specific sites or domain.
Authentications:
Anonymous: The federated location does not require authentication.

Common: Every connection uses the same set of credentials to connect to federated location.

Per-User: The credentials of the user who initiated the query is used to connect to federated location. If using Per-user authentication type and the resource is located on different machine, make sure to select "Kerberos" as authentication type.

Hope this helps.

-Javed

Welcome to my blog


This is my second attempt to writing and keeping the blog. My last blog post was around early 2010 and this time I hope to write at least one post every month.

This time I am planning to share all kinds of learning and challenges big or small I faced on the field. I am also planning to convert all my notes, tips/tricks and gotchas I have accumulated on OneNote to blog post.

Lately I have been busy playing with Angular JS, specially building single page application for SharePoint 2013 app model using REST API. I love the power and simplicity it brings to client side development. I will start writing my learning and experience with Angular JS pretty soon.

Happy blogging!

-Javed