Published Content Types not replicated to subscribing SharePoint 2010 blank site template site collection

I discovered an issue which was documented in a blog by Wictor Wilen regarding using a blank site template and fell into this trap myself as there seems no point turning on lights on a site collection that will only be used as a content type hub (Turning on lights would allow anyone to think it was somewhere to put content right?).

As I’d already created the site collection with a blank site I wanted to understand what exact feature was missing.

So the problem is that if you create a subscribing site collection blank root site then published content types aren't replicated to the newly created blank site collection. I’d made sure all the timer jobs related to the content hub we’re run but no luck.

I stumbled across a post which didn't specifically relate to the issue to but I had a feeling I was in the right place.

The feature is called TaxonomyFieldAdded and by querying a blank site you will notice this is not enabled whereas on a Team Site it is.

So I enabled the feature by running the following command from PowerShell:

Enable-SPFeature -Url "<enter url here>" -Identity "73EF14B1-13A9-416b-A9B5-ECECA2B0604C"

Almost instantly the published content types appeared in the blank site collection.

Why after I enable the Document ID Service Feature do I not see Document ID's on my documents?

I got caught out when enabling the Document ID service for SharePoint 2010 trying to understand why instantly after enabling the feature my documents did not have unique ID's so I thought I'd write a quick blog on how to do this.

Navigate to the site collection that you require the Document ID Service to run on and activate the Site Collection Feature as shown below.

Again from Site Collection Administration navigate to Document ID settings as highlighted in red below:

From this section you can provide a predefined document ID naming prefix to suit.

If you have existing documents in the documents in the site collection there is also the option to reset all the document ID's with the new naming prefix.

So at this stage you would assume that the document ID's are there when you visit a document center after enabling the

settings above? Wrong! Although this feature has been activated the process of assigning the ID's to documents has not yet been run and this is carried out via a SharePoint Timer Job.

Navigate from Central Admin to monitoring then click Review Job Definitions.

From the list here make sure the correct web application is selected in the top right.

Then run the Document ID enable/disable job. This basically propagates changes to content types across all sites after the Document ID feature has been reconfigured.

Once this Timer Job has run (depending on how many content types you have created should not take long) you then need to run the Document ID assignment job which will assign document ID's to all items in that specific Site Collections.

SharePoint 2010, Administrator Pro 70-668 Exam Passed

I passed another SharePoint exam Monday and I’m now a MCITP – Microsoft Certified IT Professional.

Again I had a few people ask how did I study for this and the same material applied as to my 70-667 blog.

So my next steps are to take the SharePoint 2010 dev exams – yes you read right! I think PowerShell has refreshed my memory of my days of coding C for DOS (That sounds old!) and thought I’d delve into the dark side.

Good luck if you’re taking yours!

SharePoint and Exchange – better together?

I just wanted to share some thoughts I have had since attending TechEd back in 2009 and have been meaning to blog about this ever since.

Walking around the exhibition hall I stopped by the Exchange stand and had a quick demo of some of the new features of Exchange 2010 which had been released at TechEd during the Keynote. I was interested to see that the Exchange product had functionality for users to update their AD information which had been something that had been lacking from SharePoint functionality. I asked how this was achieved and it was by directly writing back to AD.

Roll on to the SharePoint 2010 release back in April this year and was pleased to find that SharePoint also has update AD functionality although this works in a different way as it replicates the AD information into a SQL DB then writes back the information from SQL to AD via FIM (Forefront Identity Manager).

It made me think ‘why don’t the Exchange team and SharePoint team work together to provide a consistent solution?’. Possibly due to internal competition who knows.

So why Exchange and SharePoint better together? Well as SharePoint now has service applications I see no reason why Exchange can’t be one. Previously there was talk of Exchange mailstore edb files becoming SQL DB’s but this never materialised, possibly due to performance of SQL compared to hosting on the file system. Well now SharePoint 2010 / SQL 2008 has RBS functionality along with service apps this should go some way to addressing the performance of using SQL whilst still keeping the mailstore files on a file system.

With email tightly integrated into SharePoint all the same rich functionality can be applied to email management whilst retaining a single centralised web based management tool.

So will it happen, we’ll have to wait and see…

SharePoint 2010 Configuring 70-667 Exam Passed!

This is the first blog I’ve wrote in a while and long overdue! I’ve been a little busy over the past couple of months. One of the reasons for being busy was studying for my SharePoint 2010 exam.
I sent out a tweet after passing my exam and was asked if I had any tips. Unfortunately due to my NDA I can only point you to the exam page where a full list of the skills measured can be seen.
How did I study I hear you ask?
Well firstly I installed SharePoint 2010 a few times and got to know the user profile service very well! Which led me into the new Service Apps layout and functionality nicely. This led to lots of playing with central admin and SharePoint generally.
Following on from this I ran through all the virtual labs some were very good, some were not so good. The labs can be found here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/bb512933.aspx.
I also read a lot of articles on TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303422.aspx. Now that SharePoint 2010 has been released a few months content is starting to become populated with the right level of detail.
I’ve now become addicted to podcasts as well. I drive to work or sit on the train and radio in the morning just irritates me (I wont get personal). I listen to a couple of excellent podcasts and would strongly recommend if you are a SharePoint enthusiast you do the same. The podcasts are:

• Todd Klindt’s Weekly Net cast – Shares some good experiences on week to week issues encountered
• SharePoint Pod Show – Some great guys on here interviewing various SharePoint people on the road

Finally I purchased the book SharePoint 2010 Administrator's Companion from the Book Repository as Amazon kept delaying my order.
Taking the exam
Currently Prometric / Microsoft are running a free second shot offer if you buy a pack of 2 or more exams http://www.prometric.com/microsoft/certpacks. This offer runs until June 2011 so there's plenty of time. I’d highly recommend this as it gives you that extra security and takes the pressure off you to pass first time round without having to put your hand in your pocket again.
Additional resources
After running through all these virtual labs I found a heap of other resources which you may find useful:

SharePoint 2010 Advanced IT Admin Virtual Labs
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff420396.aspx – (Videos can be downloaded to view offline here)
SharePoint 2010 Developer Virtual Labs
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/cc707678.aspx
SharePoint 2010 Advanced Developer Labs and more
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff420377.aspx

Also SharePoint user groups are a great way of people interested in SharePoint getting together and sharing experiences.
The UK SharePoint user group can be found here http://suguk.org/ or search for ‘SharePoint User Group’ to find one in your country / area.
(Updated 19/05/11) Sample exam questions for the exam can be found here http://www.accelerated-ideas.com/aiMExamsChoose.aspx
Conclusion
Just to conclude exams do help in benchmarking skills against recognised accreditation, however the real skill with SharePoint is knowing when to use what you know and where. Unfortunately exams can only teach you so much the rest is down to real world experience.
With thanks to Marc Molenaar for sharing his thoughts and views on passing the exam.