The Dean's Office Just another VSPUG – Virtual SharePoint User Group weblog

Having problems installing the latest 20 sample SharePoint applications?

(UPDATED 2/23: Added -allowgacdeploy to step 2.  I didn't need it, but more than one person posted/contacted me and said that they did, so there it is)

I bet you are! Something slipped by, and if you follow my help here, you should be back on the right track.

What, you haven't heard about these great sample applications?  Lawrence blogged about them, and we're hosting working copies of them (you actually have contributor access on our hosted samples, so check it out!).  It's a must-see!

Anyway, back to the topic and hand: Troubles with installation.  Follow these instructions, and you should be golden.  These steps assume that you've already opened a command prompt and navigated to the directory where your WSP files are (and that all of them are in the same directory).  It also assumes that stsadm.exe is in your path.  Finally, these steps assume you downloaded the package that contains all of the server admin templates, since there is a required WSP, applicationtemplatecore.wsp, that seems to be missing from some of the individual downloads.  Unfortunately, you need to register to download the correct package (BOO!).

1. stsadm -o addsolution -filename applicationtemplatecore.wsp
2. stsadm -o deploysolution -immediate -allowgacdeployment -name applicationtemplatecore.wsp
3. (I'm doing these first because they are dependencies, though honestly, you could probably get away with skipping down to step 7, and coming back to step 2 before you run step 9.  If that's not clear, just move on to step 4. )
4. Open your browser to Central Administration, click the Operations tab, and then click "Solution management" on the right site, under "Global Configuration"
5. Verify that the "applicationtemplatecore.wsp" solution is marked as "Deployed".  If it's not, wait ten more seconds or so, and refresh again to see if it's finished.  Once it's "Deployed", move on.
6. Back to the command prompt!
7. for %f in (*.wsp) do stsadm -o addsolution -filename %f
8. You'll see an error when it tries to add the applicationcoretemplate.wsp solution (since it's already there) -- ignore it.  Once it's done, move on to step 9.
9. for %f in (*.wsp) do stsadm -o deploysolution -allowgacdeployment -immediate -name %f
10. And wait.  Go get a cup of coffee.  This can take anywhere from a minute or so with super-fast hardware to ten or more minutes with slower boxes.  When you come back, go back to your browser and refresh that Solution Management page.  Once the timers are finished running -- you might have to refresh a few times over a few minutes to verify this -- you may find some solutions that didn't deploy, or that had an error deploying.  You can re-run the command line in step 9 if you want (you'll just get quick errors on the ones that are already deployed, it's safe to ignore them), or manually deploy the solutions using your browser.

That SHOULD get you rocking. If it doesn't, you can post back here, but please don't use the "Contact" link for tech support.

I was tagged (over a month ago)

Last month, Mark Kruger tagged me to respond to that "five things you didn't know about me" meme.  The task to respond to that post has been sitting in my task list since then, and I've finally gotten a breather, and have a moment to answer.  And, since it's been a while since that meme passed around, I'll let this particular thread die with me.

1) I'm a musician. Mostly ambient and new age-y music, sequenced on keyboard and virtual instruments like Atmosphere, but a little techno action slips in every now and then, along with trance, tribal and downtempo.

2) Mark Kruger got me hooked on Texas Hold'em some years back, and I've been playing regularly ever since.  My last trip to Vegas involved a sinus infection, though, so I've been missing live poker action for a while.  (I wonder if having the word "poker" in this thread will get the spambots commenting faster than normal)

3) I have a robot lawn mower.

4) Running this site and SharePoint University take up, surprisingly, an average of 45 minutes a day.

5) Historically speaking, I stink at delegating tasks to other people. I built my company from the ground up years ago, and it's hard to let someone else take over for any part of it.  I've focused considerable mental energy over the past few months to restructure my life (to simplify it) and my business (to delegate responsibilities more appropriately) in an effort to make the time to focus on the community and on training.  I have high hopes for 2007!

Nothing too ground-shaking, I know.

And thus, this thread ends.