The SharePoint Search Story ...........

This is the story of the columns (list columns/site columns) in SharePoint sites.
once the columns are created and added to the list with some values and search crawler , crawls these list items  , crawl properties are generated automatically in Search schema (Search service Application-->Search Schema -->in Crawl properties.)

Then we can perform search , by mapping it to managed properties  and configuring it in Search Web parts.

story is not completed yet.. it is just the beginning.. :)
 

How OOB approval workflows work ?

For beginners it may appear complex to use existing OOB approval workflow
But if we understand entire structure of approval workflow and about how it works, it would be easier to build the complex workflow on the top of OOB structure with least customization.
here is the high level view.

also high level view of OOB workflow

Cross-Site Collection Navigation with Content Search Webpart

1)Configure Search Service Application with sufficient  privileges (Full Control at Webapplication level) to Search crawl log account.
2)Run full crawl making sure that , there are no crawl log errors  (in crawl history in Search Service  Application).
3)Create a Search Center site collection and edit the Content Search Webpart.
4)Add Keyword property filter (Query Text) contentclass:STS_Site and Test the query.
   You may further add, filters for  Webtemplate or Url specific results.

Branding SharePoint 2013 Master Page with NotePad++

Whenever it is thought about branding master pages,It is required  enliven dummy html to functionally working SharePoint pages.
In SP 2013 , any plain html file can be turned in to SP 2013 master page.This is so cool..
This is to keep the distance in html and SharePoint master page controls in master page
Any change made to html is synced to masterpage without actually modifying the masterpage (will write a post on this soon..)
To work with Notepad++
1)Open up the SP site in Internet Explorer and Login with required credentials other wise mapping of the network drive would not be possible
2)In server,Click on Computers Icon-->Map network drive-->provide url to SP site
   Once the drive is successfully created , you can open any files in site in any editor like notepad++/notepad/Visual studio etc
3)Under Design Manager -->Edit Master pages , upload any plain html file (initially I would suggest to create html file just having head and body tag in it)
4)You would observe that corresponding master page is automatically created, open both html and corresponding master page (but do not modify anything is master page)
Any change saved to html, will prompt you to reload the master page, (for the first time if it doesn't ask, then in notepad++-->Files-->Reload from disk)
Now your playground is ready , you could learn about how branding works in SharePoint 2013 with this.If you would like to share your leanings , please update it in comments.
Once this works fine try this with some freely available html5, css 3 templates and turn it to SP Master page in few minutes
Please comment your queries under this blog post

SharePoint Apps /Solutions with Odata External Content Type

These days Odata protocol  has gained popularity and importance due to its powerful feature of being platform independent or  interfacing across different  boundaries.
You might have read about different posts which speaks about the forming the External Content Type with OData Urls such as
a)SharePoint 2013: Business Connectivity Services – Consuming OData in BCS using an App External Content Type
b)How to: Use ListData.svc as a External Content Type through BCS
1)As of now Odata External content types can not be created through SharePoint  Designer 2013 and in Visual Studio 2012/2013 it is limited to SharePoint Apps Project
But there is workaround for this ,
i)Create Odata External Content Type using SharePoint Apps Project
ii)Open this project in windows explorer and search for .bdcm files ,which gives BDCMetadata.bdcm
ii)Browse to Central Administration -->Service Application --> BCS  -->Import BCS model   
 On  Import (even after setting the required permission to bdc model)you may come across  the errors saying
 The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a receive.
 or
LobSystem (External System) returned authentication error. Error was encountered at or just before Line:

iii)All you have to do is , Create Secure Store Target application and edit the .bdcm file to update the credentials as described in below articles

a)Consuming an External OData service from an SharePoint 2013 App

b)Troubleshooting Tips for Hybrid BCS Connections Between Office 365 and SharePoint 2013 On Premises

Debugging Class Libraries with Call Stack window and Symbol store

Hey Readers!!

After a long time I thought of writing something.

Though the current versions of SP , emphasizes on using Client OM or REST API etc so that on change code compilation can be avoided.  Still in somewhere there is no option other than using the Managed Code.

In a VS solution, including bunch of projects and having complex flow to execute , seems to time sucking and that too validate just a small piece of code.

Here's the solution !! . Write a test app (may be console/web app) and add the dll reference of project needs validation.

1)In Visual Studio-->Tools--->Options-->Debugging-->Symbols-->add the path to pdb files.

2)Each time referenced Project is modified --> Copy the dlls to gac (may be using wsp builder).As when debugging starts, debugger gets the symbols from  c:\windows\assembly\gac_msil

3)If you find that you are unable to step into the referenced project , this is because , pdb files in gac_msil folder and in compiled dlls are not matching

4)When debugging starts --> Look for Call stack window while debugger step into referenced objects--> If it shows dissembly message -->right click call  stack --> get the symbols that is added in step 1 

5) If it is unable to add the symbols which means dll is not copied to gac and pdb files are not macthing in gac_msil folder

Hope this could save the time for people struggling to debug class libraries

How to: Convert an HTML file into a master page in SharePoint 2013?

How to: Convert an HTML file into a master page in SharePoint 2013?
This seems to be easier way to convert  design html file to master page.
 I think , this is introduced to integrate html elements like header, footer, main contents into respective SharePoint elements like different content placeholder ids , SharePoint controls etc  in html file itself , so that this file is editable in any Non-SharePoint html editors . This is great. but for beginners this may be a little tricky.
I would suggest , rather than converting entire html file into master page , one should  start with startermaster.html.
To do so
1)Download startermaster.html from Master Page gallery.Open startermaster.html in browser and inspect header and footer elements in Developer tools
2)Now copy html elements like topnavigation div , logo div , search div etc from original html  file to
  startermaster.html (also rename this file to suitable name) at appropriate place.
3) This startermaster.html  is now ready for converting to master page .In this way , the html validation errors also can be avoided .Now embed SharePoint snippets at appropriate place.