A while ago a friend a my promoted ELMAH via Live messenger, since then I am a FAN! ELMAH (Error Logging Modules and Handlers) is an application-wide error logging facility that is completely pluggable. It can be dynamically added to a running ASP.NET web application, or even all ASP.NET web applications on a machine, without any need for re-compilation or re-deployment.

Exceptions caught by ELMAH can be stored in memory, loose xml, VistaDb, Access, SQLLite, Oracle, MS Sql, or directly send by email. Storage- & mail configuration is done via the web.config.

The source of ELMAH is available and under the Apache License 2.0.
More info @: http://code.google.com/p/elmah/

In this post I’ll do an new implementation of the ELMAH Errorlog class to facilitate the MS SQL error logging with MOSS elevated privileges to solve the following problem.

The RunWithElevatedPrivilegesmethod will executes the specified code with Full Control rights even if the user does not otherwise have Full Control. In the MOSS environment it will execute the code under control of the the Application Pool Identity User. Implementing this method is really easy:

SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
{
   // put your code in here :)
});

The first step is to setup a class in Visual Studio (my example SqlErrorLogWEP (Sql ErrorLog With Elevated Privileges) and implement the abstract Errorlog class.

namespace Elmah
{
    using System;

    class SqlErrorLogWEP : ErrorLog
    {
        public override string Log(Error error)
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }

        public override ErrorLogEntry GetError(string id)
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }

        public override int GetErrors(int pageIndex, int pageSize, IList errorEntryList)
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }
    }
}

Because our SqlErrorLogWEP looks really for 99,9% like the classic SqlErrorLog class. In fact our class will act as a wrapper to implement the MOSS elevated privileges functionality for the SqlErrorLog class. To do this our constructor will initialize the (classic) SqlError log class and use the private sqlErrror object to perform the database logging. The above methods which still need to be implemented will use the sqlError object to do the work.

Our new class will look like this:

namespace Elmah
{
    using System;
    using System.Text;
    using System.Collections;
    using Microsoft.SharePoint;
    

    class SqlErrorLogWEP : ErrorLog
    {
        SqlErrorLog sqlErrorLog;

        public SqlErrorLogWEP(IDictionary config)
        {
            sqlErrorLog = new SqlErrorLog(config);
        }

        public SqlErrorLogWEP(string connectionString)
        {
            sqlErrorLog = new SqlErrorLog(connectionString);
        }

        public override string Log(Error error)
        {
            string retVal = String.Empty;
            SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
            {
                retVal = sqlErrorLog.Log(error);
            });

            return retVal;
        }

        public override ErrorLogEntry GetError(string id)
        {
            ErrorLogEntry retVal = default(ErrorLogEntry);

            SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
            {
                retVal = sqlErrorLog.GetError(id);
            });

            SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
            {
               // put your code in here :)
            });
            return retVal;
        }

        public override int GetErrors(int pageIndex, int pageSize, System.Collections.IList errorEntryList)
        {
            int retVal = -1;

            SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
            {
                // put your code overhere 
            });

            return retVal;
        }
    }
}

Pro’s  / Con’s
Pro’s: Implementation in 2 minutes, completely ELMAH proof, extendable.
Con’s: Instead of only deploying the ELMAH assembly you will have an extra reference to the Microosoft.SharePoint assembly.

After part 1, part 2 has just been release before the weekend. I have to admit that I’m not completely ready with part one yet :)

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The following five SharePoint tracks for Developers are available at Ramp Up – Part 2:

Level 1: Page Navigation
Did you know that you can integrate your application into SharePoint’s navigation? This topic looks at how SharePoint pages are arranged into web sites. Menus such as the site actions menu, the top navigation bar menu and the edit control block menu are explained. It shows how the menus in SharePoint can be updated so that a web site built on SharePoint can be customized.

Level 2: Page Branding
Did you know that you can completely brand a SharePoint site to look like your existing web? Web applications need design and SharePoint allows for this using master pages, cascading style sheets and themes. This topic walks through how to apply these artifacts to a SharePoint site and covers the process for modifying them to achieve a web site design in SharePoint.

Level 3: Web Services
Did you know that SharePoint developers have access to SharePoint list data using built in Web Services? SharePoint allows access using code running on the SharePoint server machine and also access using web services. This topic covers use of some of the simple web services provided by SharePoint and it also shows how to create a new web service on a SharePoint machine.

Level 4: Custom Content Types
Did you know that SharePoint developers can implement different behaviors for different document types? Content types define what documents or other content types are used in SharePoint document libraries. Content types can have several SharePoint aspects associated with them including custom menus and custom processing. This topic shows how to create a custom content type and how to associate an event handler with the new content type to do data validation.

Level 5: User Management
Did you know that you don’t have to write code to manage web site users in SharePoint? SharePoint allows for end user site creation and when a user creates a site they can also manage the user permissions on that site. This topic shows how some aspects of user management are handled in SharePoint including how you can audit activities that users do and show different data depending on the role a user belongs to.

Btw: Next week MOSS Administration training in U2U  Brussels, anybody else?

At this moment I'm building different kind of webparts for MOSS 2007. Some of these webparts are using the nice new fancy .Net 3.5 stuff. Because webparts are running in the SharePoint context you need to upgrade SharePoint to .Net .5 to get it to work.

Thanks to Jan Tielen I found an easy way to do this, hereby the 6-step tutorial:

• Start Visual Studio 2008.
• Create a new dummy ASP.NET Web Application Project, and make sure you target the .NET Framework 2.0 (upper right dropdown of the New Project dialog). The name of this project is not important; you won’t need it anymore when we’re done.
• Copy the web.config of your SharePoint 2007 site, into the dummy Web Application project in Visual Studio.
• Open the Project Properties in Visual Studio (right click on the Project node in the Solution Explorer, and choose Properties; or in the Project menu, select WebApplicationX Properties).
• Select .NET Framework 3.5 in the Target Framework dropdown (select Yes in the confirmation dialog).
• Copy the web.config from the Web Application Project back to SharePoint.

After doing this I did some testing inside SharePoint. Everything seemed to work. Until the next day...

The day after I needed to some things with my 'favorite tool' "SharePoint designer". I connected to my test-machine and try to open a aspx-file inside the designer (the application tree was shown as normal). I got the following error:

The server sent a response which SharePoint Designer could not parse. If you are trying to connect to a Windows SharePoint Services server, check with the server's administrator to make sure Windows SharePoint Services is installed properly.

Because I just upgraded the to .NET 3.5 , I knew the cause would be somewhere in the web.config file. After some digging  found out that inside the httpHandlers something went wrong:

<httpHandlers>
    <remove verb="GET,HEAD,POST" path="*"/>
    <add verb="GET,HEAD,POST" path="*" type="Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationRuntime.SPHttpHandler, ....."/>
    <add verb="OPTIONS,PROPFIND,PUT,LOCK,UNLOCK,MOVE,COPY,GETLIB,PROPPATCH,MKCOL,DELETE,(GETSOURCE),....."/>
    <add verb="*" path="Reserved.ReportViewerWebControl.axd" type="Microsoft.Reporting.WebForms.Http....."/>
    <add verb="*" path="_vti_bin/ReportServer" type="Microsoft.ReportingServices.SharePoint.Soap.RSP....."/>
    <add verb="*" path="Reserved.ReportViewerWebPart.axd" type="Microsoft.ReportingServices.SharePoi....."/>
    <add verb="*" path="*.asmx" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFacto....."/>
    <add verb="*" path="*_AppService.axd" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHa....."/>
    <add verb="GET,HEAD" path="ScriptResource.axd" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptResourceHandler, ....."/>
    <remove verb="*" path="*.asmx"/>
</httpHandlers>

 

The <remove verb="*" path="*.asmx"/> key is removing the ScriptHandlerFactory (3 lines above) registration.

Solving is easy, move the <remove verb="*" path="*.asmx"/> key up to the top just below the <remove verb="GET,HEAD,POST" path="*"/> key. In this example your httpHandler section would look like this:

<httpHandlers>
    <remove verb="GET,HEAD,POST" path="*"/>
    <remove verb="*" path="*.asmx"/>            
    <add verb="GET,HEAD,POST" path="*" type="Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationRuntime.SPHttpHandler,....."/> 
    <add verb="OPTIONS,PROPFIND,PUT,LOCK,UNLOCK,MOVE,COPY,GETLIB,PROPPATCH,MKCOL,DELETE,(GETSOURCE)....."/> 
    <add verb="*" path="Reserved.ReportViewerWebControl.axd" type="Microsoft.Reporting.WebForms.Htt....."/> 
    <add verb="*" path="_vti_bin/ReportServer" type="Microsoft.ReportingServices.SharePoint.Soap.RS....."/> 
    <add verb="*" path="Reserved.ReportViewerWebPart.axd" type="Microsoft.ReportingServices.SharePo....."/> 
    <add verb="*" path="*.asmx" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFact....."/> 
    <add verb="*" path="*_AppService.axd" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptH....."/> 
    <add verb="GET,HEAD" path="ScriptResource.axd" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptResourceHandler,....."/> 
</httpHandlers>

 

Making changes in the Web.config will cause the application pool to restart, don't do this in a live productional system during working hours, restartig SharePoint takes ages :)

Ever heard about TypeMock?? TypeMock is a tool which simplifies unit testing. As a not proffie unit testing I can tell that TypeMock is pretty easy to learn....

TypeMock has a pretty cool tool now for unit testing SharePoint, it´s called Isolator For SharePoint. It´s the only tool that allows you you unit test your SharePoint application without SharePoint.

I do not have any experience with the tool yet, I´ll keep updates posted on this topic... Did you btw know that you can get a license for free??

So how do I get the Free License?J ust make a post on your blog or site about the latest Typemock product, that includes the below text:Typemock are offering their new product for unit testing SharePoint called Isolator For SharePoint, for a special introduction price. it is the only tool that allows you to unit test SharePoint without a SharePoint server. To learn more click here. The first 50 bloggers who blog this text in their blog and tell us about it, will get a Full Isolator license, Free. for rules and info click here.

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Trusted Experts Guide Your Way
Ramp Up is a program built by expert developers for developers. Each learning plan comprises of premium technical content developed by renowned experts—famous authors, MVPs, and developer community leaders.

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At the moment they have a nice SharePoint 2007 developer and a Visual Studio 2008 course... go check it out!

The MSSharePointDeveloper site has been around for a while right now.There have been some nice new releases around.

Here's the new stuff you can find there. The VM's have been updated to Visual Studio 2008, which is awesome!

• Downloadable WSS Dev VPC Image
  • Updated to Visual Studio 2008 (previously Visual Studio 2005).
  • Smaller download at about 1.8Gb to download in 4 files now.
  • The Virtual PC image includes:
    • Windows Server 2003 (expires on 29th September 2009)
    • Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1
    • Visual Studio 2008
    • Visual Studio 2008 extensions for Windows SharePoint Services
    • 10 Hands on Labs for learning SharePoint in C# and VB.NET
• SharePoint Developer Introductory Hands on Labs
  • All updated to Visual Studio 2008.
  • They are included on the VM image.
  • They are also available for separate individual downloads from the site.
• SharePoint Developer Introductory Web Cast PPTs and Demos
  • 10 webcast PPTs with transcripts.
  • Previously 2 of the webcasts were missing transcripts.

All three of these downloads and online MSDN Virtual Labs are available at MSSharePointDeveloper