Adding new property bag item in SharePoint Online

In SharePoint online when you try to add a property bag via pnp powershell, you will notice that you get the following error

Set-PnPPropertyBagValue : Site has NoScript enabled, and setting property bag values is not supported
At line:1 char:1
+ Set-PnPPropertyBagValue -Key "KEY_XYZ" -V ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (SharePointPnP.P...ropertyBagValue:SetPropertyBagValue) [Set-PnPPropertyBagValue], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NoScriptEnabled,SharePointPnP.PowerShell.Commands.SetPropertyBagValue

As the error says, we need to disable NoScript property by running the following command

Connect-PnPOnline Site Collection URL

Set-PnPTenantSite -Url Site Collection URL -NoScriptSite:$false     

After running the above command you should be able to add your new property bag item using the following command:
         Set-PnPPropertyBagValue -Key "" -Value "" 

PLEASE NOTE : Connect-PnPOnline command is very important, without this even you were already logged in the NoScript property cant be set to false. It sounds strange but that is what i experienced.

Consuming Microsoft Graph in SharePoint Framework(SPFx)

In this blog I am sharing my experience of working with SPFx and Microsoft Graph API. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to get going with Microsoft Graph and I will show you with a demo how to consume Microsoft Graph from SharePoint Framework (SPFx) web part.

SPFx has now become the preferred way to create custom experiences on SharePoint online as well as On-Prem. I am not going to cover details on how to create and deploy SPFx web parts. If you are looking to get started on SPFx first go to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/spfx/set-up-your-developer-tenant and then look up the SharePoint Developer Community channel on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_mKdhw-V6CeCM7gTo_Iy7w.

Microsoft Graph as I understand is a common API layer on top of all Microsoft Office 365 services like One Drive, SharePoint, Excel, Planner, Teams, Outlook, Azure Active Directory etc. It is just awesome because as an Office developer you can interact with all the above mentioned services and more with a common schema and a single access token. To know more graph API get started here https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/blogs/30daysmsgraph-day-1-why-you-should-learn-the-microsoft-graph/

Now that we have seen what is SPFx and Microsoft Graph, let me briefly explain the problem statement we will use to explore SharePoint framework and Microsoft Graph. Many organization like to manage access to SharePoint sites, Network folders, One drive documents etc. using Active Directory groups because these groups can be centrally managed and reused across applications. Usually it is not easy for business or power users to know exactly who are the members of these Active Directory groups. Our solution is to create a SPfx web part that can be used to display members of an Azure Active Directory Group. Power users can just add this web part to their SharePoint online site and view the members of the Azure Active Directory Groups.

If this if the first time you are building a SPFx web part then please first install the required tools, refer this: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/spfx/set-up-your-development-environment

Lets build our solution, I am going to start with creating an SPFx web part by using the following command:

yo @microsoft/sharepoint

and I am going to select the option for  React JS

Lets open this folder using VS Code and you will see the typical SPFx folder structure created for you.

First Step: Dependencies

Since we know we are going to use query SharePoint site and Graph ensure dependencies for pnp graph and pnp sharepoint are included in the package.json file. You can get the dependencies from my code sample. Link to my code is available at the end of this blog.

Second Step: Graph Permissions

In our example we know we would like to read Azure AD groups and Users hence we will use Directory.Read.All permission scope. For identifying what permission scope is required you should always refer this article: 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/permissions-reference

In our project, open the config/package-solution.json and include the following permissions under the solution object:

"webApiPermissionRequests": [

     {

       "resource": "Microsoft Graph",

       "scope": "Directory.Read.All"

     }

   ]

Third Step: Get SP Context in the web part class file

Getting SPContext is a must without this you will not be able to access Graph.

We can get SPContext created this way

export default class AzureAdGroupViewerWebPart extends BaseClientSideWebPart<IAzureAdGroupViewerWebPartProps> {

  public onInit(): Promise<void> {

    pnpSetup({

      spfxContext: this.context

    });

    return Promise.resolve();

  }

  public render(): void {

Fourth Step: Component class

Now under the components folder you will find your component file as .tsx file

Here we need to make sure we import 

import { graph } from '@pnp/graph';

import { sp } from "@pnp/sp";

In my example I am using the Details List component from Office UI Fabric to display local SharePoint user groups and also members of a Azure Active Directory group. I strongly recommend using Office UI Fabric components because the look and feel matches with SharePoint theme and also it has been vetted by Office Developers community.

import {

  DetailsList,

  DetailsListLayoutMode,

  IColumn,

  IDetailsList

} from 'office-ui-fabric-react/lib/DetailsList';

To query SharePoint user group I have used pnp sp object. I am doing an ajax call to get a specific group using its name and the getting all users who are part of that group and saving that in the local state.

public componentDidMount(): void {

    sp.web.siteGroups.getByName(").users.get().then(users=>{

      this.setState({

        groups: users  

      });       

    }); 

  }

and the resulting grid looks like this:

You can see that this example SharePoint user group has many Azure AD groups as members. Now when we click on the button, we will query the Graph API and get users who are members of that Azure AD group, to do that we will call a function on button click:

1 onClick = (item,event) => {      

2    let gid = item.LoginName;

3    gid = gid.substr(gid.lastIndexOf("|") + 1, gid.length - gid.lastIndexOf("|"));

4    graph.groups.getById(gid).members.get().then(members => {   

5      this.setState({

6        grpMembers:members

7      }) 

8    });

9    event.preventDefault();   

10  }

In lines 2 and 3 in the above code snippet I am extracting the Azure Group's GUID and then using that to query graph API, once I get the members I save them to local state and I have another grid to display these users:

Code is available here : https://github.com/mahesh2005/SPFxWithGraph

MOSS 2007, WSS 3.0 Service Pack 3 (SP3)

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team announced the release of service pack 3 for MOSS and WSS 3.0.

They will make the SP3 available for download in Q4 of 2011. That is a huge relief. I was going to start applying the cumulative patches. Now I will just wait for the SP3 to made available.

You can refer to their blog for details:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2011/10/06/announcing-service-pack-3-for-office-2007-and-sharepoint-server-2007.aspx

This implementation is not part of the Windows Platform FIPS validated cryptographic algorithms

I was installing SharePoint 2010 Foundation on a Win 2008 server SP2 (NOT R2) and got the following error when I ran the config wizard:

Failed to create the configuration database.

An exception of type System.InvalidOperationException was thrown. Additional exception information: This implementation is not part of the Windows Platform FIPS validated cryptographic algorithms.

System.InvalidOperationException: This implementation is not part of the Windows Platform FIPS validated cryptographic algorithms.

at System.Security.Cryptography.SHA256Managed..ctor()

at Microsoft.SharePoint.UserCode.SPSolutionValidatorCollection.ComputeHash()

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPUserCodeService.UpdateValidatorsHash()

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedChildCollection`1.Add(T newObj, Boolean ensure)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedChildCollection`1.Add(T newObj)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.UserCode.SPSolutionValidatorCollection.Insert(SPSolutionValidator validator, Int32 index)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.UserCode.SPSolutionValidatorCollection.Add(SPSolutionValidator validator)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPUserCodeService.Update()

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedChildCollection`1.Add(T newObj, Boolean ensure)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedChildCollection`1.Ensure(T newObj)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPUserCodeService.EnsureService(SPFarm farm, Boolean upgrading)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm.CreateBasicServices(SqlConnectionStringBuilder administrationContentDatabase, IdentityType identityType, String farmUser, SecureString farmPassword)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm.Create(SqlConnectionStringBuilder configurationDatabase, SqlConnectionStringBuilder administrationContentDatabase, IdentityType identityType, String farmUser, SecureString farmPassword, SecureString masterPassphrase)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm.Create(SqlConnectionStringBuilder configurationDatabase, SqlConnectionStringBuilder administrationContentDatabase, String farmUser, SecureString farmPassword, SecureString masterPassphrase)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ConfigurationDatabaseTask.CreateOrConnectConfigDb()

at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ConfigurationDatabaseTask.Run()

at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()

I checked out few blogs and KB articles, but was not able to resolve the issue.

In my case

1.) The FIPS settings was already disabled in local security policy settings.

2.) The accounts had required access to the hive, inetpub and all the other folders.

3.) We didn't have access to change the machine.config files.

After running the process monitor tool as the config wizard was running, we found that there were other Reg Keys that were showing up in the procmon logs.

On further analysis we found that there are FIPS related keys in three locations

1.)HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\LSA\FipsAlgorithm

2.)HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\LSA\FipsAlgorithm

3.)HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\LSA\FipsAlgorithm

Only the 3rd key had the value as 0 i.e. disabled, but the other two had values as 1 i.e. enabled. I changed the values to 0 for the other two and then ran the PSCONFIG again. This time the installation was successfully completed. ISSUE RESOLVED.

SharePoint 2010 Installation Error - FIPS cryptographic algorithm

*****************************************************************************************

UPDATE October 13th, 2010- ISSUE RESOLVED- I had to make changes to few more reg keys!

Details are available here

http://collaborationsharepoint.blogspot.com/2010/10/this-implementation-is-not-part-of.html

*****************************************************************************************************************************

I was installing SharePoint 2010 Foundation in standalone mode on a Win 2008 server SP2 (NOT R2) and got the following error when I ran the config wizard.

Failed to create the configuration database.

An exception of type System.InvalidOperationException was thrown. Additional exception information: This implementation is not part of the Windows Platform FIPS validated cryptographic algorithms.

System.InvalidOperationException: This implementation is not part of the Windows Platform FIPS validated cryptographic algorithms.

I checked out few blogs, but was not able to resolve the issue.

These were the blogs/links I referred to:

Amol's blog:

http://sharepointknowledgebase.blogspot.com/2009/04/this-implementation-is-not-part-of.html,

this pointed me to this KB article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/911722. The KB article talks about adding a section to your web.config, but in my case, the central admin site is also still not created so there is no web.config.

I also referred to another link which suggested to disable the FIPS compliance related Local security policy, but in my case it was already disabled.

I will troubleshoot this further and keep updating this post.

Update Oct 11th,2010.

We re-imaged our virtual server, basically got a new server and tried again, same problem again.

I have posted a question in technet

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010setup/thread/81e1b564-c722-4aea-b7a1-788ff35e055d

*****************************************************************************************

UPDATE October 13th, 2010- ISSUE RESOLVED- I had to make changes to few more reg keys!

Details are available here

http://collaborationsharepoint.blogspot.com/2010/10/this-implementation-is-not-part-of.html

*****************************************************************************************************************************

SharePoint Item Level Permission

I am working on a requirement to secure a SharePoint list item and when I was reading about it on MSDN for the first time, I got very confused because of the class names associated with SharePoint security. SO I thought let me post a very basic article explaining how to change item level permission.

From the SharePoint UI this can be done by breaking the permission inheritance at item level and then by changing everybody's permission to read only. Go to Item Level Permission>Actions>Edit Permissions>Break Inheritance>Select all the user groups/users and give them the required permissions, in my case I am giving them read access, so that no one can change the list item once it has been submitted.

So how to change list level permission programmatically? Well, we need to make use of object model and this is one way of doing it.

The basics for getting permissions programmatically right are RoleAssignment and RoleDefinition. Users, User Groups are synonymous to RoleAssignments in the object model and permissions (Read, contribute, Owner etc) are synonymous to RoleDefinition.

So let's get started

1.) Break Inheritance

SPItemObject.BreakRoleInheritance(false);

The parameter false indicates that after breaking inheritance don’t copy any of the users from the list level, if you select true then users will get copied over to the item level.

2.) I selected false in first step because I don’t want to copy the users directly from the list level.

I will loop through all the users and user groups at the list level and add them with only read access to item. Here is the code for that, I was using this from inside a workflow, that why you see workflowProperties, workflowProperties.Item is just a SPListItem object.

//create a roledefinition for read access
SPRoleDefinition oRoleDefinition_Read = workflowProperties.Web.RoleDefinitions["Read"];
//loop through the user and groups at list level
foreach (SPRoleAssignment oRoleAssignment in workflowProperties.List.RoleAssignments)
{
//Remove all definitions(permissions)associated with the Role Assigments(Users and group)
oRoleAssignment.RoleDefinitionBindings.RemoveAll();
//Add the read only definition to role assignment
oRoleAssignment.RoleDefinitionBindings.Add(oRoleDefinition_Read);
//bind the the new role assignment to the item.
workflowProperties.Item.RoleAssignments.Add(oRoleAssignment);
}
3.) Then update the item and you are done.

We are using SharePoint WSS 3.0, MS SQL 2008, and Visual Studio 2005.

Anonymous access for a list

I was trying to enable anonymous access for a SharePoint survey list but was not able to allow anonymous users to edit/add list items. Later I found that it was because I had selected an option in my list which allowed users to see only the items created by them. This post talks about how I enabled anonymous access and then troubleshooted this problem.

I had followed these steps to resolve the issue:


1.) Navigated to CA ->Application Management ->Authentication Providers

Enabled anonymous access in the right zone.

2.) Went to the site were my survey list is and navigated to
Site Settings-> Advanced Permissions->Settings>Anonymous Access
selected the option List and Libraries


3.) Then I navigated to my Survey List->Settings->Permission for the List->Actions Edit permission, broke the inheritance, then navigated to Settings->Anonymous Access

But the Anonymous user options were greyed out.

So I verified all the above steps again .But found no mistakes.

Then I went to Survey List -> Settings -> Advanced Settings

Since I selected the option which allows users to view only their response, the anonymous user options in the list setting was greyed out. Once I changed this option to "All Responses", I was able to check the appropriate box in the survey list anonymous settings page.