Manually deploy SharePoint Integration via SharePoint 2010 UI

 

Deploy Solution

1. Go to SharePoint 2010 Central Administration > System Settings > Farm Management > Manage farm solutions

2. Click on the wsp files, then click on Deploy Solution.

3. Select the Web Application to deploy the solution to, then click OK.

4. Repeat above steps for other solution files.

Activate Feature

1. Goto the SharePoint Site > Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Collection Administration > Site collection features.

2. Click the Activate button for the features below:

a. AgilePoint Configuration List

b. AgilePoint Process Launcher

c. AgilePoint Web Parts

d. AgilePoint ListForm

SharePoint Integration Upgrade

 

There are customers come to me that they are not able to upgrade their AgilePoint Integration for SharePoint.

On their Add\Remove Program, they have the entry for AgilePoint Integration for SharePoint with v5.0. But when they run the v5.0 Service Pack 1 (v5.0 SP1) or v5.0 Service Pack 2 (v5.0 SP2), the upgrade installer gives below error:

“Please install or upgrade to AgilePoint v5.0 before installing this upgrade.”

This is because, the customer first run the SharePoint Integration installer (the MSI file), which will add the entry to the Add\Remove Program. This gives an illusion that it seems SharePoint Integration has been installed correctly. After this, if the customer does not use the SharePointV2IntegrationSetup.exe to deploy the SharePoint solution files (.wsp files), but instead the customer choses to manually deploy the SharePoint solution files (.wsp) using standard SharePoint stsadm tool, then the upgrade installer of v5.0 SP1 or v5.0 SP2 will not be able to detect that the SharePoint Integration has been installed.

To solve this, I recommend the customer to use same approach when SharePoint Integration was first deployed, i.e. use the stsadm tool. The details of using the stsadm tool can be found at the AgilePoint Install Guide, but here is a quick look:

To upgrade the SharePoint machine manually, right-click and extract the installer file to obtain the solution files (.wsp) files at Net20\SharePointv2\. Now upgrade the 4 solution files (Ascentn.SharePoint.SettingsList.wsp, Ascentn.SharePoint.WebParts.wsp, Ascentn.SharePoint.WFIntegration.wsp, Ascentn.SharePoint.ListForm.wsp) individually using the command line example below: stsadm -o upgradesolution -name      Ascentn.SharePoint.SettingsList.wsp -filename      Ascentn.SharePoint.SettingsList.wsp –immediate -allowgacdeployment After upgrading the solution files, run this command: stsadm -o copyappbincontent

 

This situation can easily happened when the person first installed the SharePoint Integration left the company and did not left any documentation about what he had done. I strongly recommend you to keep the documentation and records for each upgrade you have performed, so that you can pass on the info to the person who will be doing the next upgrade.

Hiding AgilePoint Setting List Feature in MySite

 

AgilePoint Setting List is used to stored all the configuration info for AgilePoint Integration for SharePoint. The access to this list shall be limited to SharePoint Administrators only.

There is a case where some end users accidentally activate this feature at their personal site, i.e. Mysite. This adds additional AgilePointSettingUrl entry in the SharePoint web.config, which messes up the configuration for SharePoint Integration.

Here is how you can hide AgilePoint Setting List Feature in MySite, so that the users do not accidently activate or deactivate it. You can add an extra attribute Hidden="TRUE" in the feature.xml file of AgilePoint Settings List Feature to hide the feature from your end users.

The default location of the feature.xml is:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\AgilePointSettingsListFeature\feature.xml

 

Here is the sample content of the feature.xml. Add the Hidden="TRUE" at the Feature node.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<Feature  Id="A379136F-8742-4f0c-9D5A-9310A4D2B80C"

                                  Title="$Resources:Feature_Title"

                                  Description="$Resources:Feature_Description"

                                  ImageUrl="AgilePoint\AgilePoint_Feature_logo.jpg"

                                  Version="12.0.0.0"

                                  Scope="Site"

                                  ReceiverAssembly="Ascentn.SharePoint.SettingsList, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,

PublicKeyToken=f1099b605f3ea558"

                                  ReceiverClass="Ascentn.SharePoint.SettingsList.AgilePointSettingsFeatureReceiver"

                                  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/"

                  Hidden="TRUE">

                <ElementManifests>

                                <ElementManifest Location="ListTemplates\AgilePointSettingsElements.xml" />

                </ElementManifests>

</Feature>

Moving File – Keep the Process Running at Target Library

One of the AgilePoint Integration for SharePoint features is that, the process is cancelled once the document is moved to target library.

In some cases, the users may want to keep the process running even the document is moved to another library. The solution for this is to associate the same process template at the target library.

Adding more fields to List Form Integration

When designing a List Form AgilePoint process, it is common that you will add on more fields along the way building the process model. Here is how you add more fields after the List Form process template is created.

Go to File > SharePoint … > Retrieve Meta Data Schema.

Then select the fields available. You can also specified if you want the field to be editable, read only or hidden on your list form UI.

Centralized Configuration - Sharing one AgilePoint Configuration List among Site Collections

In SharePoint Integration v2, AgilePoint Configuration List is needed at the top level site to store the info for AgilePoint Server (URL, username, password, etc).
With this, you need to configure this list for each site collection you have.

If you have hundreds of site collections, configuring and maintaining hundreds AgilePoint Configuration List for site collections are just not efficient.

Here is a way you can configure a centralized AgilePoint Configuration List that can be shared by all the site collections in a SharePoint farm.

Insert below entries in the web.config file of your SharePoint web application.

<appSettings> 
<add key="APSettingsListName" value="AgilePoint Configuration" /> 
<add key="APSettingsSiteUrl" value="http://demo3:8081" /> 
<add key="APSettingsWebName" value="" /> 
</appSettings> 

Where:

APSettingsListName = The name of the AgilePoint Settings List.

APSettingsSiteURL = The SharePoint SiteURL that contains the common AgilePoint Configuration List. The rest of the site collections will refer to this location and list as long as the individual AgilePoint Configuration list (which is auto-created in the site collection when this feature is activated) is deactivated or removed.

APSettingsWebName = If this field is left blank, this means that the AgilePoint Configuration List is located at the top-level site. A value would indicate the Sub site name.

After this, you might just goes ahead to activate the "AgilePoint Process Launcher" feature, so that process can be triggered for items inserted into the SharePoint. But, you will run into below error:

To fix this, you may remove the ActivationDependencies node (see below) from the feature file of "AgilePoint Process Launcher". The feature file is located at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\AgilePointWFIntegration\feature.xml.

    <ActivationDependencies>


        <ActivationDependency FeatureId="A379136F-8742-4f0c-9D5A-9310A4D2B80C"/>


       </ActivationDependencies>

This shall let you to activate the "AgilePoint Process Launcher" feature without needing to activate the 'AgilePoint Configuration List' feature on each site collections.

 

SharePoint Integration Upgrade - A deployment or retraction is already under way

This is for both of the cases of upgrading SharePoint Integration using the upgrade installer and also manually using the stsadm tool. If you see error below, that means there are previously run command to upgrade the solution files for SharePoint Integration, but the deployment was not completed for certain reason and stuck at that point.

Below is the log of upgrading using the upgrade installer. It's the same error for the case of upgrading manually using the stsadm tool.

1/28/2011 11:05:07 AM>>Updating SharePoint Integration v2... started
1/28/2011 11:05:07 AM>>StartDeployment start
1/28/2011 11:05:07 AM>>SharePoint Integration v2: Information, Upgrading solution Ascentn.SharePoint.SettingsList.wsp in SharePoint ...
1/28/2011 11:05:07 AM>>stsAdmProcess.StartInfo.Arguments: -o upgradesolution -name Ascentn.SharePoint.SettingsList.wsp -filename "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp\ckz_1OML\NET20\SharePointv2\Ascentn.SharePoint.SettingsList.wsp" -immediate -allowgacdeployment
1/28/2011 11:05:23 AM>>SharePoint Integration v2: Error, A deployment or retraction is already under way for the solution "ascentn.sharepoint.settingslist.wsp", and only one deployment or retraction at a time is supported.

You may use the following steps to cancel the uncompleted jobs, then run the upgrade installer again or run the upgradesolution command again if upgrade manually.

Run enumdeployments command to get the job IDs:

stsadm -o enumdeployments

The return string looks like this:

<Deployments Count="4"> 
   <Deployment JobId="71d06ccb-f5d9-4ae5-8caf-7223130c2a70"> 
      <Title>Windows SharePoint Services Solution Deployment for "ascentn.sharepoint.listform.wsp"</Title> 
      <Type>Upgrade</Type> 
      <State>Failed</State> 
      <File>ascentn.sharepoint.listform.wsp</File> 
      <ServerType>Front-end Web server</ServerType> 
   </Deployment> 
   <Deployment JobId="962557ba-21e7-4739-9b6e-3e38446b477d"> 
      <Title>Windows SharePoint Services Solution Deployment for "ascentn.sharepoint.settingslist.wsp"</Title> 
      <Type>Upgrade</Type> 
      <State>Failed</State> 
      <File>ascentn.sharepoint.settingslist.wsp</File> 
      <ServerType>Front-end Web server</ServerType> 
   </Deployment> 
   <Deployment JobId="add88985-159a-493f-a6f3-26f8918f6517"> 
      <Title>Windows SharePoint Services Solution Deployment for "ascentn.sharepoint.webparts.wsp"</Title> 
      <Type>Upgrade</Type> 
      <State>Failed</State> 
      <File>ascentn.sharepoint.webparts.wsp</File> 
      <ServerType>Front-end Web server</ServerType> 
   </Deployment> 
   <Deployment JobId="08fb8dac-a290-4466-966d-b06fab38b465"> 
      <Title>Windows SharePoint Services Solution Deployment for "ascentn.sharepoint.wfintegration.wsp"</Title> 
      <Type>Upgrade</Type> 
      <State>Failed</State> 
      <File>ascentn.sharepoint.wfintegration.wsp</File> 
      <ServerType>Front-end Web server</ServerType> 
   </Deployment> 
</Deployments>

Then, run the canceldeployment command to cancel all the uncompleted jobs related to AgilePoint SharePoint Integration.

stsadm -o canceldeployment -id "GUID jobId"

After this, you may run the enumdeployments command again to check the jobs are canceled.

stsadm -o enumdeployments

At this point, you are good to run the upgrade installer or upgradesolution command again.

SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivilages Error

 

If you are getting the 'SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivilages()' error at SharePoint (see picture below), that means the application pool identity of your SharePoint web application does not have enough privilege to write to the event viewer on your SharePoint machine. Your network administrator shall be able to help you with this. If you need more details, the Pre-Installation Guide and Installation provide you the full details for SharePoint installation. This error is not caused by AgilePoint.

Update InfoPath Activity Suspended

A customer is working with InfoPath form with attachment. When the attachment size grows bigger and bigger, the process is suspended at the Update InfoPath Activity. See picture below.

I usually do not recommend to attach large attachment to InfoPath, because the whole xml of InfoPath is submitted to AgilePoint every time the user completes the task. The larger the attachment, the slower the data transfer between SharePoint and AgilePoint.

For large attachment, I suggest to keep that attachment file in a library in SharePoint, then keep the link of that attachment in the InfoPath form. Then user can still open up the attachment from the InfoPath form.

The other thing can be looked into is the maxRequestlength setting in the web.config of AgilePoint and SharePoint. See this KB. But this will not help much on the speed/performance if the file is too large. The bandwidth of the network actually becomes the bottleneck in this case.

SESSION_STATE_PASCAL_CASED is not configured properly

In this case, the following error appears many times in the Event Viewer. 

InfoPath Forms Services has detected a mismatch between the user's data in the browser and on the server. This may indicate the SESSION_STATE_PASCAL_CASED is not configured properly on a multiple front end farm or that a malicious user is trying to tamper with client data. (User: MYDOMAIN\username123, Form Name: ABCForm, IP: , Request: http://myserverXYZ/_layouts/Postback.FormServer.aspx, Form ID: urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:infopath:ABCForm:-myXSD-2005-10-21T21-12-27)

 

This is a common SharePoint issue that your SharePoint admin would be able to help. This error also happens when the shared service in SharePoint central admin is not configured properly. After creating a new shared service, that error went away.

You may also try the following. Clear browser's cache and try again and if that doesn't solve the problem then run the following command: 

stsadm -o reconvertallformtemplates

See this link for more details.

Your SP admin would be best person to help with this. This is not related to AgilePoint as such.

Where Can I find the error logs?

Knowing the locations of log files comes very useful when you are facing issue and trying to troubleshoot.

AgilePoint Server:

[VirtualServerDirectory]\AgilePointServer\log, e.g. C:\BPMWebSite\AgilePointServer\log

 

SharePoint Integration v2:

1. Check the log file location at the AgilePoint Configuration List in your SharePoint site.

1. AgileConnector logs: [VirtualServerDirectory]\AgilePointServer\log\AgileConnector, e.g. C:\BPMWebSite\AgilePointServer\log\AgileConnector
2. In some extreme cases, some errors will be logged at the Event Viewer.

SharePoint General Error

If you see a general error message at SharePoint, e.g. 'Unknown Error' with a 'Go back to site' link, see pictures below, you can see the full error thrown by SharePoint by modifying a few entries in the web.config of SharePoint web application, i.e. the stack trace, the debug mode and the custom error mode. Search and set following values. It will let you know exactly what failed. Remember to backup your web.config before any changes.

For SharePoint 2010, you need to modify this in two web.config files, i.e. the web.config of SharePoint web application root (e.g. C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\12345YourPortNumber), and also the web.config under the layout folder (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS).

Do this:

1. Set CallStack="true"
2. Set debug="true"
3. Set customErrors mode="Off"

For example:

<SafeMode MaxControls="200" CallStack="true" DirectFileDependencies="10" TotalFileDependencies="50" AllowPageLevelTrace="false">

<customErrors mode="Off" />

<compilation batch="false" debug="true">

 

General error page from SharePoint:

Set SPN

When to set SPN? Here is a quick summary. See AgilePoint Pre-Installation Guide for full details.

	AgilePoint Server	SharePoint Server
NTLM	No need to set SPN	Default to NTLM, No need to set SPN
NTLM & Kerberos	Need to set SPN	Need to set SPN
Kerberos	Need to set SPN	Need to set SPN

 

Further reference:

How to configure IIS to support both the Kerberos protocol and the NTLM protocol for network authentication

ISPOperationQueue Error

 

If you are using AgilePoint Integration for SharePoint and you get an error like this:

2010-12-20 13:11:06.787 >>> UpdateInfoPathFile, System.InvalidCastException: Unable to cast object of type 'Ascentn.Workflow.Base.WFIntegratedApplication' to type 'Ascentn.SharePoint.AgileParts.ISPOperationQueue'.

at Ascentn.AgilePart.SharePoint.SPSAgileParts.DropToQueue(WFProcessInstance pi, WFAutomaticWorkItem w, IWFAPI api, SPOperation operation)

at Ascentn.AgilePart.SharePoint.SPSAgileParts.UpdateInfoPathFile(WFProcessInstance pi, WFAutomaticWorkItem w, IWFAPI api, NameValue[] parameters)

 

That is because you have not set up the AgileConnector info at AgilePoint Server Configuration panel. The assembly, Ascentn.SharePoint.AgileConnector.dll, is located in the bin folder of AgilePoint Server. This dll is available with the installation of AgilePoint Server, but it is not configured by default. See picture below for the configuration example.