Scott's blog

We have recently enabled the email functionality for libraries.  I am sure that there are much more advanced applications of this functionality in use by others, but I wanted to document our first attempt for others that may benefit.Our Situation: We use SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)to auto-produce a series of reports on a regular schedule. We wanted to have those reports be automatically uploaded into a SharePoint Document Library, then build a Web Part Page to automatically display the latest set of reports.Below are the steps we used to do this:

1.  Ensure that SharePoint's journaling feature has been enabled.
2. In SharePoint, create a Picture Library to store the report images.
3.  In SSRS, create and deploy the reports.
4. Create email subscriptions in SSRS for each of the reports to be emailed to the new picture library with an attachment in PNG format.
5. Set up the picture library with a category field. Specify category values for each of the unique report types coming into the library.  In our case we have four unique report types and four corresponding categories.
6. In order to preserve a history of the reports, we created a workflow to append the date to each report's file name to make each file unique. We outlined this process in an earlier blog post:  Change a Filename using a Workflow.  Do not finish the workflow yet.
7. In the workflow, add another step.
8. Create a branch in the workflow for each category.
9. Add a condition to “Compare <picture library> field” in each branch.
10. Set the field to Title or Name, change Equal to Contains, and specify a keyword in the filename that identifies the category.
11. Add an action to “Set Field in Current Item” to each of the branches.
12. Set the field to your category field, and set the value accordingly for each branch.
13. Click “Finish.”

We then created a Web Part page to display the images.  We added the picture library web part to the page four times and made the following modifications to each one:

1. In the drop-down for the web part, select Modify Web Part and make the following changes:
1. Change the name to reflect the report being displayed.
2. Click on “Edit the current view” and make the following changes:
1. Uncheck the checked fields and check the Preview field.
2. Order by the create date in descending order.
3. Set a filter on the category field equal to the appropriate category.
4. Change the Item Limit to 1. 
5. Click Ok.

We had users running Vista and Office 2007 working with documents stored in a document library on SharePoint 2007.  When they attempted to check the documents in, they received the error “Word did not save the document.”  Excel files appeared to go through fine, however the file never closed and the document was still checked out.  I discovered a workaround that solved the issue for us.  Below are the steps to follow from the machine running Vista:

1.       With the file open, click the Save button.

2.       Close the file without checking it in.

3.       In the document library click Upload.

4.       Navigate to Documents > SharePoint Drafts and select the saved file.  Click Open.

5.       Make sure the check box for “Add a new version to existing file” is selected.

6.       Modify the Title if necessary and click Check In.

This procedure updated the file, and we were then able to open any other file in the document library, save it, and check it in without any problems.

After cleaning up permissions on our sites, I encountered a problem trying to access a site using the Data Source Library.  I received an error: “The web <site url> cannot be opened.”  When I opened the site in SPD the Data Source Library was grayed out.  With the help of the Dean we found the problem.  Somehow in my permissions cleaning the fpdatasources permissions were altered.  I corrected the problem using the following steps:

1.       Open the problem site in SPD

2.       In the Folder List navigate to _catalogs/fpdatasources

3.       Right-click fpdatasources and click the Security tab

4.       Click “Manage permissions using the browser.”

5.       Add the appropriate permissions.

You may have to refresh or restart SPD to see the change, but the Data Source Library should no longer be grayed out.

I recently ran into this problem when trying to either create a new workflow or open an existing workflow.  With help from The Dean I was finally able to find a solution that worked. I navigated to C:Documents and Settings<my user name>Application DataMicrosoftSharePoint DesignerProxyAssemblyCache and deleted the existing folder (12.x.x.xxxx).  I then opened SharePoint Designer, created a new workflow, and it opened just fine.  I posted this solution on the forums with the question, but it doesn't hurt to get the information out to as many places as possible.  J

One of the questions that has arisen in our use of SharePoint is this: “How can we automatically change the filename of a document added to a document library?”  We have PDF files that are automatically created in SQL Server Reporting Services, and we want to take advantage of the ability of SSRS to create the files and email them and SP 07 lists to receive emails and add attached documents to the list.  Unfortunately we have not been able to figure out in SSRS how to append a date to the filename, so we turned to SP Workflows to find a solution.

Through knowledge gained in training along with a lot of head scratching, we came up with a solution.  It may not be the best solution, but it works for us.

1.       Create a column in the target library, name it “Text Date” (or whatever you prefer), set it as single line of text, and calculate the value using the following expression:

=Text([Today], “yyyymmdd”) 

2.       Create a workflow.

3.       Give it a name and select the checkbox for “Automatically start this workflow when a new item is created.”

4.       Click Next.

5.       Add the Action to “Set Field in Current Item.”

6.       Click Field and select “Title.”

7.       Click Value, click the function button, and in the Field drop-down select “Name (for use in forms)”.  This will set the title as the current filename without the file extension.

8.       Add the Action to “Build Dynamic String.”

9.       Click “Dynamic String” and create it as follows using “Add Lookup” (Documents is the name of my target library):

     [%Documents:Title%]_[%Documents:Text Date%].[%Documents:Type%]

10.   Click “Variable: variable1″, “Create a new variable.” and give it a name.  I called mine “FileName”.

11.   Add the Action to “Set Field in Current Item” again.

12.   Click Field and select “Name (for use in forms).”

13.   Click Value, click the Function button, change the source to “Workflow Data”, and change the field to “Variable: FileName”.

14.   Click Finish.

Once the Title field has been used to build the FileName variable, it can be rebuilt using any method you see fit.  The “Text Date” field can also be calculated using any date format you wish, however special characters such as / and : cannot be used in a file name.

A little information about me:  I work for a software company in the support department.  We are implementing SharePoint as our department intranet, and this blog will be a way for me to post solutions to problems that I have been unable to find online.  The solutions may not be the best, but at least they'll hopefully work.  What was the phrase I recently heard in our SharePoint Bootcamp?  Ah yes, “if it works, it's `elegant'.” – Dustin Miller