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My SharePoint 2007 Custom Membership Provider Adventure

31 May 2011 • by Bob • SharePoint

Sometime last year I wanted to set up a SharePoint 2007 website for my family members to exchange information. That being said, I was using a custom membership provider, and I ran into a few issues while I was setting things up. I had kept detailed notes while I was configuring my server and troubleshooting the problems that I encountered, and with that in mind, I thought that I would share my experiences. ;-]

Getting Started

Specifying My Environment

My web server is only an older 32-bit Windows Server 2008 computer, so I couldn't install SharePoint 2010 (which is 64-bit only) and I had to install SharePoint 2007. Taking that into account, there were a few additional considerations that I had for my environment:

Researching My Scenario

With my specific considerations in mind, I took a look at the following article to get started:

That being said, I did not use the following articles, even though they are related to my scenario and they looked interesting:

Creating the SharePoint Website

Here are the brief details on how I created my SharePoint website:

  1. I followed the steps in the following walkthrough in order to create and register the read-only XML membership and role providers with IIS 7:
  2. I created the following physical paths for my website:
    • Website root folder: C:\Inetpub\SharePointSite\wwwroot
    • Application data folder: C:\Inetpub\SharePointSite\wwwroot\App_Data
  3. I created the following user/role XML file for my website:
    • I created an XML file in the location: C:\Inetpub\SharePointSite\wwwroot\App_Data\MyUsers.xml
    • I added the following XML to the file: 
      <Users>
   <User>
      <UserName>Alice</UserName>
      <Password>P@ssw0rd</Password>
      <EMail>alice@contoso.com</EMail>
      <Roles>Admins</Roles>
   </User>
   <User>
      <UserName>Bob</UserName>
      <Password>P@ssw0rd</Password>
      <EMail>bob@contoso.com</EMail>
      <Roles>Authors</Roles>
   </User>
</Users>
  4. I opened the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager and created a new website; I used the C:\Inetpub\SharePointSite\wwwroot folder for the home directory.
  5. I opened SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration to convert my website into a SharePoint 2007 site:
    1. I clicked the Application Management tab, then clicked Create or extend Web application, and then clicked Create a new Web application:
      • In my case I chose Use an existing IIS web site because I had already created the website that I wanted to use.
      • I chose Create new application pool, I used "Network Service" for the identification, and then I specified all of the requisite database information.
    2. When that completed, I clicked the Application Management tab, and then clicked Create site collection:
      • I specified all options, and I used a valid Active Directory account as the administrator for now.
    3. Once the site was created, I modified the web.config file for the website and the SharePoint Central Administration web.config file. (See the following notes for the details.) Note: The SharePoint Central Administration website needs to know the information about your membership provider in order to add administrators.
    4. After that, I clicked the Application Management tab, and then clicked Authentication Providers:
      • I verified that I was using the correct "Web Application" in the drop-down menu.
      • I clicked on the Default zone.
      • I set the Authentication Type to Forms.
      • I specified the appropriate Membership provider name and Role manager name.
    5. When that completed, I needed to restart IIS before continuing. (NOTE: I used "iisreset" from a command line.)
    6. After IIS had restarted, I clicked the Application Management tab, and then clicked Site collection administrators:
      • I added a user (like Alice or Bob) from the membership provider.

Web.Config Entries

There are a few additions that you have to make to your website's web.config file, as well as the SharePoint Central Administration web.config file for SharePoint 2007:

IMPORTANT!!!

SharePoint Central Administration needs to be able to find the MyUsers.xml file, so I created an App_Data folder under physical path of the SharePoint Central Administration website, and I added a symbolic link in that folder that pointed to the physical MyUsers.xml file. Here's how I did that:

  1. I opened a command prompt.
  2. I changed directory to the path where my SharePoint global web.config file was located; for example: 
    cd C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\6087
  3. I created a symbolic link to the physical path of the XML file; for example: 
    mklink MyUsers.xml C:\Inetpub\SharePointSite\wwwroot\App_Data\MyUsers.xml
  4. I closed the command prompt.

Note: I could have copied the XML file, but I preferred to use the symbolic link instead of having to manage two copies of the file.

Optional People Picker Settings

If you were installing a membership provider that can perform lookups, you could add an additional entry to your SharePoint Central Administration web.config file:

<PeoplePickerWildcards>
  <clear />
  <add key="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" value="%" />
  <!-- added on 05/31/2011 -->
  <add key="ReadOnlyXmlMembershipProvider" value="%" />
  <!--/added on 05/31/2011 -->
</PeoplePickerWildcards>

Problems that I Encountered

Okay - I admit that I everything that I did so far was probably making things harder that they needed to be, but I love a good challenge. ;-]

That being said, I ran into some problems that I thought would be worth mentioning, just in case someone else ran into them.

HTTP 403 Errors

When browsing to my SharePoint website, I received several HTTP 403 errors. I used Process Monitor to troubleshoot the problem, and I discovered that IUSR could not access the "bin" folder in my website. (I'm still not quite sure why it was trying.) To resolve these errors, I used the following steps:

  1. I opened a command prompt.
  2. I changed directory to the SharePoint website's path; for example: 
    cd C:\Inetpub\SharePointSite\wwwroot
  3. I changed permissions for the "bin" folder; for example: 
    icacls bin /grant IIS_IUSRS:r
  4. I closed the command prompt.

In my situation the problem was for IUSR, but if you are using a different anonymous identity or your application pool is running as a unique identity then it might be a different user. In any case, Process Monitor will let you know who needs permissions.

Later I discovered the following blog post by John Powell:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/johnwpowell/archive/2008/05/23/sharepoint-intermittent-403-forbidden-errors.aspx

In that blog, John suggests adding the following permissions for the "bin" folder:

icacls bin /grant users:r

I'm not sure if that's necessary, but it's worth pointing out.

HTTP 404.8 Errors

When browsing to my SharePoint website, I received several HTTP 404.8 errors. Those errors mean that the built-in IIS 7 Request Filtering feature was blocking something, so I did the following:

Note: This removes all of the hidden segments from the global IIS 7 Request Filtering settings, which may be overkill. I have a lot of custom global request filtering settings, and I didn't want to go through each individual setting to see which setting was blocking files that I needed, so I used settings for my website that cleared the inherited request filtering settings and added the default settings.

Annoying Message: "The Web site wants to run the following add-on: 'Name ActiveX Control'"

When browsing to my SharePoint website, the information bar in Internet Explorer kept prompting me with the following message:

The Web site wants to run the following add-on: 'Name ActiveX Control' from 'Microsoft Corporation'. If you trust the Web site and the add-on and want to allow it to run, click here...

This message was highly frustrating, so I did some digging around the Internet and discovered that I could hack the INIT.JS file for SharePoint to suppress this message. Here's how I did that:

I should note that this solution is unsupported; and a few months I hacked my INIT.JS file, Microsoft published the following Knowledge Base article with a couple of different methods:

KB 931509: Message in the Information bar in Internet Explorer 7 when you browse to a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site or to a SharePoint Server 2007 site: "The Web site wants to run the following add-on: 'Name ActiveX Control'"

That being said, I like my solution better. ;-]

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) Color Negatizing Script

31 May 2011 • by Bob • IIS, Scripting, SharePoint

The Customer Scenario

I ran into an interesting situation recently - I host a website for a friend of mine, and he was shopping around for a new website template. He found one that he liked, but he didn't like the colors. In fact, he wanted the exact opposite of the colors in the website template, so he asked what I could do about it.

I looked at the website template, and thankfully it was using linked Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) files for all of the color definitions, so I told him that changing the colors would probably be a pretty easy thing to do. However, once I cracked open the CSS files from the website template, I found that they had hundreds of color definitions. Changing every color definition by hand would have taken hours, so I decided to write some Windows Script Host (WSH) code to do the work for me. ;-]

Negatizing a CSS File

With the above scenario in mind, here's the script that I wrote to negatize every color in a CSS file - all that you need to do is replace the paths to the input and output files and run the script to create the negatized version of the input CSS file.

Option Explicit

Const strInputFile = "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\style-dark.css"
Const strOutputFile = "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\style-light.css"

' ------------------------------------------------------------

Dim objFSO
Dim objInputFile
Dim objOutputFile
Dim strInputLine
Dim strLeft, strMid, strRight, strArray
Dim blnFound

' ------------------------------------------------------------

Const strTempRGB = "[|[TMPRGBSTR1NG]|]"
Const strTempHEX = "[|[TMPHEXSTR1NG]|]"

' ------------------------------------------------------------

Set objFSO = CreateObject("scripting.filesystemobject")
Set objInputFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strInputFile)
Set objOutputFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile(strOutputFile)

Do While Not objInputFile.AtEndOfStream
    strInputLine = objInputFile.ReadLine
    blnFound = True
    
    Do While blnFound
        If InStr(1,strInputLine,"rgb(",vbTextCompare) Then
            strLeft = Left(strInputLine,InStr(1,strInputLine,"rgb(",vbTextCompare)-1)
            strMid = Mid(strInputLine,InStr(1,strInputLine,"rgb(",vbTextCompare)+4)
            strRight = Mid(strMid,InStr(strMid,")")+1)
            strMid = Left(strMid,InStr(strMid,")")-1)
            strArray  = Split(strMid,",")
            strMid = InvertOctet(CInt(strArray(0))) & _
                "," & InvertOctet(CInt(strArray(1))) & _
                "," & InvertOctet(CInt(strArray(2)))
            strInputLine = strLeft & strTempRGB & "(" & strMid & ")" & strRight
        Else
            blnFound = False
        End If
    Loop
    
    strInputLine = Replace(strInputLine,strTempRGB,"rgb")
    
    blnFound = True

    Do While blnFound
        If InStr(strInputLine,"#") Then
            strLeft = Left(strInputLine,InStr(strInputLine,"#")-1)
            strMid = Mid(strInputLine,InStr(strInputLine,"#")+1)
            If Len(strMid)>6 Then
                strRight = Mid(strMid,7)
                strMid = Left(strMid,6)
            ElseIf Len(strMid)>3 Then
                strRight = Mid(strMid,4)
                strMid = Left(strMid,3)
            Else
                strRight = ""
            End If
            
            If IsHexString(strMid) Then            
                If Len(strMid) = 6 Then
                    strMid = Right("0" & Hex(InvertOctet(CInt("&h" & Left(strMid,2)))),2) & _
                        Right("0" & Hex(InvertOctet(CInt("&h" & Mid(strMid,3,2)))),2) & _
                        Right("0" & Hex(InvertOctet(CInt("&h" & Right(strMid,2)))),2)
                Else
                    strMid = Hex(InvertByte(CInt("&h" & Left(strMid,2)))) & _
                        Hex(InvertByte(CInt("&h" & Mid(strMid,3,2)))) & _
                        Hex(InvertByte(CInt("&h" & Right(strMid,2))))
                End If
            End If

            strInputLine = strLeft & strTempHEX & strMid & strRight
        Else
            blnFound = False
        End If
    Loop
    
    strInputLine = Replace(strInputLine,strTempHEX,"#")
    
    objOutputFile.WriteLine strInputLine
Loop


' ------------------------------------------------------------

Function IsHexString(ByVal tmpString)
    Dim blnHexString, intHexCount, intHexByte
    blnHexString = True
    If Len(tmpString)<>3 and Len(tmpString)<>6 Then
        blnHexString = False
    Else
        tmpString = UCase(tmpString)
        For intHexCount = 1 To Len(tmpString)
            intHexByte = Asc(Mid(tmpString,intHexCount,1))
            If (intHexByte < 48 Or intHexByte > 57) And (intHexByte < 65 Or intHexByte > 70) Then
                blnHexString = False
            End If
        Next
    End If
    IsHexString = blnHexString
End Function

' ------------------------------------------------------------

Function InvertByte(ByVal tmpByte)
    tmpByte = tmpByte And 15
    tmpByte = 15 - tmpByte
    InvertByte = tmpByte
End Function

' ------------------------------------------------------------

Function InvertOctet(ByVal tmpOctet)
    tmpOctet = tmpOctet And 255
    tmpOctet = 255 - tmpOctet
    InvertOctet = tmpOctet
End Function

' ------------------------------------------------------------

Negatizing a SharePoint 2007 Theme

After I wrote the above script, I found myself using it for a bunch of different websites that I manage for other people. One of the websites that I host is based on SharePoint 2007, so I wondered how difficult it would be negatize a SharePoint 2007 theme. As it turns out, it's pretty easy. The following steps will walk you through the steps that are required to create a negatized version of the built-in "Classic" SharePoint 2007 theme.

(NOTE: The steps in this section do not work with SharePoint 2010 or office 14; SharePoint 2010 and Office 14 store their themes in a different format, so these steps will not work.)

  1. Copy the folder:
    "%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\THEMES\CLASSIC"
    To the following folder:
    "%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\THEMES\CLASSICNEGATIVE"
  2. Rename the file:
    "%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\THEMES\CLASSICNEGATIVE\CLASSIC.INF"
    To the following:
    "%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\THEMES\CLASSICNEGATIVE\CLASSICNEGATIVE.INF"
  3. Open the following file:
    "%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\THEMES\CLASSIC\CLASSICNEGATIVE.INF"
    • Replace all instances of "Classic" with "Classic Negative".
    • Save and close the INF file.
  4. Open the following file:
    "%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033\SPTHEMES.XML"
    • Add the following entry to the <SPThemes> collection: 
      <Templates>
<TemplateID>classicnegative</TemplateID>
<DisplayName>Classic Negative</DisplayName>
<Description>Classic Negative</Description>
<Thumbnail>images/thclassic.gif</Thumbnail>
<Preview>images/thclassic.gif</Preview>
</Templates>
    • Save and close the XML file.
  5. Edit the color negatizing WSH script from earlier in this blog for each of the following files and run it:
    • theme.css
      • Input File:
        "%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\THEMES\CLASSIC\theme.css"
      • Output File:
        "%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\THEMES\CLASSICNEGATIVE\theme.css"
    • mossExtension.css
      • Input File:
        "%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\THEMES\CLASSIC\mossExtension.css"
      • Output File:
        "%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\THEMES\CLASSICNEGATIVE\mossExtension.css"

That's all it takes to negate the colors that are defined in the CSS files for a SharePoint 2007 theme. (NOTE: This does not modify the colors of the images in the SharePoint theme; you will need a graphics program to update the colors in the images.)

Closing Thought

Before I receive any comments, I am perfectly aware that "negatize" is not an actual word in the English language, but it seemed appropriate, and new words have to start somewhere. ;-]

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/