Tag Archive for: SharePoint

User Access Control (UAC) is a feature of Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 that prevents you from running applications with administrator rights even if you are a local admin on the box. Although I have to admit I hate UAC, I am convinced that it’s better to have it around especially after my home desktop got infected a few months ago with a rootkit virus so badly that I had to restore the disk from a backup. So, UAC is a necessary evil. But since it’s relatively new, not many application developers test for UAC and this can get you as it happened in the following story.

A coworker complained that Reporting Services SharePoint integration doesn’t work on a distributed environment where SharePoint is installed on the front end Windows 2008 server and the SharePoint configuration database is installed on a separate database server. As usual, my first stop for troubleshooting SharePoint integration with Reporting Services was to examine the log file which gets generated after installing the Reporting Services Add-in for SharePoint, as I explained in this blog. On Windows Server 2008, the log file is located in the Temp folder of the user running the add-in setup, such as C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp. To make the quest even more interesting, the AppData folder is actually hidden by default on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista/7 (another security gotcha), so you have to use Folder and Search Options to enable hidden files so you can see it. Are you having fun yet?

In this case, the log file showed an error:

User: SYSTEM

Installing Report Server feature.

Calling copyappbincontents command.

copyappbincontents command completed successfully.

Adding Report Server feature to farm.

Install error: The EXECUTE permission was denied on the object ‘proc_putObject’, database ‘IWSharePointCluster_Config’, schema ‘dbo’.

So, SharePoint can’t connect to the database server. What’s interesting is that the log file reported that the user is SYSTEM and not the logon of the interactive user. Luckily, Prash Shirolkar from the SSRS team blogged about this and provided a workaround for this issue which will get fixed in R2 RTM. Gotta love UAC…

As I mentioned in a previous blog, one very important SSRS enhancement in the recently released SQL Server 2008 SP1 is Report Builder 2.0 ClickOnce. This lets you reconfigure the native and SharePoint integration modes to let the user use Report Builder 2.0 instead of Report Builder 1.0.

Note that in SharePoint integration mode, installing SP1 only is not enough. That’s because there are actually two instances of RB2.0 ClickOnce. If you install SQL Server 2008 SP1, this will provide an update for native mode only. For SharePoint integration mode, you must refresh the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Add-in for Microsoft SharePoint Technologies. This is necessary because the ClickOnce bits must reside on the SharePoint server. The April 2009 version of the add-in can be downloaded from here.

A common issue when setting up Reporting Services integration with SharePoint is that the SharePoint add-in is not installed properly although the setup program doesn’t indicate any issues. More than likely, the culprit is that the person who installed the add-in is not SharePoint Web farm administrator and Site Collection administrator.

As a first stop for troubleshooting SharePoint integration issues, you should examine the add-in log after the add-in setup completes to verify if it was installed successfully. You’ll find the log file (RS_SP_<N>.log) in your temp folder, such as \Documents and Settings\<login>\Local Settings\Temp. Specifically, check that all activation tasks have completed successfully and that there are no errors. If all is well, the log files should look as follows:

User: <userid>

Installing Report Server feature.

Calling copyappbincontents command.

copyappbincontents command completed successfully.

Adding Report Server feature to farm.

Installed Report Server feature.

Activating Report Server feature to root level site collections.

Activating feature in web app ‘SharePoint – 80’

Activating feature to root site collection: http://<server>

Activated feature for root site collection: http://<server>

Activating Report Server feature in all admin site collections.

Activating feature in web app ”

Activating feature to root site collection: http://<server>:35000

Feature already activated in site collection http://<server>:35000

SharePoint always has a trick up its sleeve to surprise the innocent. I have to admit that I continue to be baffled by this technology. Not that I know too much about it, of course. But this thing is like the Pacific Ocean – web applications, site collections, sites, oh my. The further you go, the deeper it gets. Things that still escape my mind include how to get the default Office Server web site (with the Report Center, etc.) after upgrading from WSS 3.0, why I cannot implement custom SharePoint filter provider web parts in WSS given that the interfaces are in WSS, and the mother of all questions, why WSS supports Windows Server OS only.

One thing, however, I managed to figure out (of course, after hours of experimenting, installing, and head-scratching since documentation is, shall we say, wanting) is how to get the Report Server content types to show in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. If you installing a new MOSS installation, after installing the Reporting Services Add-in, the Report Server content types should show up in the site settings. However, if you are upgrading from WSS, they may not show up. The issue could be that the Report Server Integration Feature is not activated. To check:

1. Open the site, expand the Site Actions and go to Site Settings, Modify All Site Settings.
2. Under Site Collection Administration, choose Site Collection Features. If this is not a top-level site, you need to select the link for the Top Level Site Collection Features.
3. Check the Report Server Integration Feature. If it is deactivated, click Activate. Isn’t this tricksy?

That should do it. You should be able to add the Report Server content types to the site.