SecureStore Provider default implementation for SharePoint 2013

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From time to time,  you need to add some credentials to the SharePoint secure store. Depending on the type of credentials you enter, you also need to provide the SecureStore Provider implementation. If you are simply using the default implementation, you also need to provide a value because SharePoint does not allow you to leave that field empty. Just enter the following value for the SecureStore default implementation:

Microsoft.Office.SecureStoreService.Server.SecureStoreProvider, Microsoft.Office.SecureStoreService, Version=15.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c

Setting up TFS Build Server for SharePoint 2013

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Having a build server to compile all checked in code is a very useful thing but preparing the build server for SharePoint 2013 projects requires a few steps (applicable for TFS 2010 and TFS 2012). In order to complete it, you need to have a SharePoint development machine to copy the assemblies from.

  1. Run the SharePoint Prerequisites Installer in order to install all dependency (like Windows Identity Foundation etc.)
  2. Open the GAC on the development machine (C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_MSIL\ ) and copy the following assemblies:
    • Microsoft.Office.SecureStoreService
    • Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint
    • Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.Commands.Implementation.V5
    • Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.Designers.Models
    • Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.Designers.Models.Features
    • Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.Designers.Models.Packages
    • Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.ProjectExtensions.CodeGenerators
    • Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.Remote
    • Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.Wsp
  3. Copy all SharePoint related assemblies from C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\ISAPI to C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\SharePoint\ on the build server
  4. Open the registry path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.5.50709\AssemblyFoldersEx and add the following key: SharePoint15]@=”C:\Program Files\Reference  Assemblies\SharePoint\”
  5. Copy the folders SharePointTools,Web, WebApplications from C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0  to the corresponding path on the build server
  6. Copy the file C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\15\TEMPLATE\XML\appManifest.xsd to the corresponding path on the build server (only necessary if you want to build SharePoint 2013 Apps)

Hint: This tutorial assumes that the TFS binaries are installed and the build server is already connected to a TFS. The required steps are listed here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh395023.aspx

Suppressing Code Analysis warnings in Entity Framework generated code

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When using Entity Framework Database First it can happen that the code generated by the edmx file causes Code Analysis errors. This happens due to the fact that the t4-template misses the GeneratedCode attribute. It is pretty easy to modify the template to contain the necessary attributes.

Modify the context template

  1. Add using System.CodeDom.Compiler; at the right position in the using directives
  2. Add [GeneratedCode("EntityModelCodeGenerator", "4.0.0.0")] above the class declaration line

Modify the template of the model classes

  1. Find EntityClassOpening and modify to the return a string starting with the GeneratedCode attribute
  2. Find <#=codeStringGenerator.UsingDirectives(inHeader: false)#> and add  below using System.CodeDom.Compiler;

Unable to access T-SQL components & An incompatible DacFx version is installed

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After trying to view data from within Visual Studio to error messages appear:

Unable to access T-SQL components

An incompatible DacFx version is installed

Some might have seen this error before and the reason is quite simple. The installed Data-Tier Application Framework version and SQL Server Data Tools do not match the ones required by the database.

Just install the latest version from here:

SSDT: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/hh297027

DacFx: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35756

And everything is working fine again.

External Content Type does not appear in External Content Type Picker

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Today I was working on some data integration issues and was creating a BDC model. So as always, I created the model, added a finder method and modeled my entity. Then I deployed the solution and tried to creating an external list to test my finder method. So far so good, but when opening the External Content Type Picker the following error appeared: External Content Types are not available. Contact your system administrator.

ExternalContentTypeNotFound

What is that? Did my deployment fail? I opened the BCS service application to check if the model was correctly deployed. But it was there. My next idea was that something with the permissions was wrong, but everything was as usual.

So, what could be wrong?  After a few minutes of staring onto the BDC model, I discovered it. My model was simply missing the specific finder method. After adding it, the external content type appeared in the picker. So, lesson learned for today: always add finder and specific finder method before deploying the model.

The default web application could not be determined.

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Recently I was trying to deploy a BDC model to a SharePoint 2013 Farm. Creating the model was quite straight forward as known from the previous version. Then I hit Deploy and the deployment started. But suddenly this error appeared:

DeployFehler

This solution for this problem was so easy that it took a few minutes until I figured out what the problem was. The Feature.Template.xml file was not correctly prepared. I simply added

<Properties>
 	<Property Key='SiteUrl' Value='http://portal/' />
</Properties>

And that was it. The installation went without problems. For sure you have to replace ‘http://sharepoint’ with the url of your SharePoint.