Enter the Page Viewer web part (aka the iFrame web part). How does this technological wonder better our lives? Watch and learn.

1. Find a YouTube Video. Ricky Gervais’s opening monologue from the 2012 Golden Globes should do nicely. Once you’ve located your target video, click Share, followed by Embed. Leave the window/tab open, we’ll come back to it in a moment..
2. Go to the page in your SharePoint site where you want to add the video (I’m using a publishing page).
   
3. Add a Page Viewer Web Part (located in the Media and Content category).
4. Open the tool pane. We’ll need to fill in the values for the Link, Height, and Width fields.
5. Back to our YouTube window/tab, select the embed options you would like to use (480×360 video in my case).
6. Locate the embed HTML code and copy the URL. It should look like the following:

   <iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/h_OnK0SrtC8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
   

7. Back in the window/tab containing your SharePoint page, paste the url to the YouTube video in the Link field in your web part. Adjust the Height and Width fields accordingly. Save your web part options. Your web part should render with the video inline.
8. Publish/Save/Stop Editing your page and bask in the glory of your embedded YouTube video (without the use of a content editor or any external text file).

Gallery

In it’s default configuration, SharePoint (2007 and 2010) will delete workflow associations after 60 days (e.g. the information found on the Workflow Status page). There are times when you may want to alter this functionality and retain the association for a longer period of time.

In SharePoint 2007, the recommendation from Microsoft (per TechNet), is to disable the Workflow Auto Cleanup timer job. The Workflow Auto Cleanup timer job is a web application scoped timer job. As such, disabling the job is often not the optimal solution; as disabling the job will ensure that cleanup is not occurring for all of the site collections within the web application for which the timer job was disabled.

The Solution

Thankfully, there is a property (SPWorkflowAssociation.AutoCleanupDays) that is exposed with the workflows associated with a given list/content type. And once again, PowerShell comes to the rescue, giving us the ability to manipulate the cleanup days at a more granular level. This ensures that we do not disable the timer job for an entire web application.

Presented as two functions, we can manipulate the workflow association settings for either the workflows associated with a list or the workflows associated with a content type attached to a list.

Set-SPListWorkflowAssocationCleanup

The following function allows us to set the AutoCleanupDays for all of the workflows associated with a given list.

Set-SPListWorkflowAssocationCleanup -WebUrl "http://intranet" -ListName "Shared Documents" -CleanupDays 365 -ReportOnly:$false

function Set-SPListWorkflowAssocationCleanup {
    param (
        [string] $WebUrl = $(Read-Host -prompt "Enter a Url"),
        [string] $ListName = $(Read-Host -prompt "Enter a List Name"),
        [int32] $CleanupDays = $(Read-Host -prompt "Enter the number of Cleanup Days"),
        [switch] $ReportOnly = $true
        )        

    $web = Get-SPWeb $WebUrl;
    if ($web -eq $null) {
        Write-Error -message "Error: Web Not Found" -category InvalidArgument
    } else {
        $list = $web.Lists[$ListName];
        if ($list -eq $null) {
            Write-Error -message "Error: List Not Found" -category InvalidArgument
        } else {
            [Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowAssociation[]] $wfaMods = @();
            foreach ($wfa in $list.WorkflowAssociations) {
                $message = "Found Workflow Association for " + $wfa.Name + " with AutoCleanupDays set to " + $wfa.AutoCleanupDays
                Write-Verbose -message $message -verbose

                if ($ReportOnly -eq $false) {
                    $wfa.AutoCleanupDays = $CleanupDays;
                    $wfaMods = $wfaMods + $wfa;
                }
            }

            if ($ReportOnly -eq $false) {
                foreach ($wfa in $wfaMods) {
                    $message = "Setting AutoCleanupDays for " + $wfa.Name + " to " + $CleanupDays
                    Write-Verbose -message $message -verbose
                    $list.WorkflowAssociations.Update($wfa);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Set-SPListContentTypeWorkflowAssocationCleanup

The following function allows us to set the AutoCleanupDays for all of the workflows associated with content type for a given list.

Set-SPListContentTypeWorkflowAssocationCleanup -WebUrl "http://intranet" -ListName "Shared Documents" -ContentTypeName "Document Content Type" -CleanupDays 365 -ReportOnly:$false

function Set-SPListContentTypeWorkflowAssocationCleanup {
    param (
        [string] $WebUrl = $(Read-Host -prompt "Enter a Url"),
        [string] $ListName = $(Read-Host -prompt "Enter a List Name"),
        [string] $ContentTypeName = $(Read-Host -prompt "Enter a Content Type Name"),
        [int32] $CleanupDays = $(Read-Host -prompt "Enter the number of Cleanup Days"),
        [switch] $ReportOnly = $true
        )        

    $web = Get-SPWeb $WebUrl;
    if ($web -eq $null) {
        Write-Error -message "Error: Web Not Found" -category InvalidArgument
    } else {
        $list = $web.Lists[$ListName];
        if ($list -eq $null) {
            Write-Error -message "Error: List Not Found" -category InvalidArgument
        } else {
            $ct = $list.ContentTypes[$ContentTypeName];
            if ($ct -eq $null) {
                Write-Error -message "Error: Content Type Not Found" - category InvalidArgument
            } else {
                [Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowAssociation[]] $wfaMods = @();
                foreach ($wfa in $ct.WorkflowAssociations) {
                    $message = "Found Workflow Association for " + $wfa.Name + " with AutoCleanupDays set to " + $wfa.AutoCleanupDays
                    Write-Verbose -message $message -verbose

                    if ($ReportOnly -eq $false) {
                        $wfa.AutoCleanupDays = $CleanupDays;
                        $wfaMods = $wfaMods + $wfa;
                    }
                }

                if ($ReportOnly -eq $false) {
                    foreach ($wfa in $wfaMods) {
                        $message = "Setting AutoCleanupDays for " + $wfa.Name + " to " + $CleanupDays
                        Write-Verbose -message $message -verbose
                        $ct.WorkflowAssociations.Update($wfa);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Conclusion

By manipulating the workflow associations for a list at the list/content type level the default configuration of a SharePoint farm can be retained (e.g. Workflow associations removed after 60 days) and in those cases where there is a business need, the workflow associations can be maintained for a longer period of time.

Reference

• SPWorkflowAssociation.AutoCleanupDays Property
• SharePoint Timer job reference (Office SharePoint Server)
• Timer job reference (SharePoint Server 2010)
• SharePoint Workflow History “Disappears”

Tokens

Microsoft.SharePoint.SPCustomActionElement.ReplaceUrlTokens

internal static string ReplaceUrlTokens(string urlAction, SPWeb web, SPList list, SPListItem item)
{
	if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(urlAction))
	{
		return urlAction;
	}
	if (item != null)
	{
		int d = item.ID;
		string str1 = d.ToString(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
		if (list.HasExternalDataSource)
		{
			str1 = item["BdcIdentity"] as string;
		}
		urlAction = urlAction.Replace("{ItemId}", str1);
		urlAction = urlAction.Replace("{ItemUrl}", item.Url);
		string recurrenceID = str1;
		if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(item.RecurrenceID))
		{
			recurrenceID = item.RecurrenceID;
		}
		urlAction = urlAction.Replace("{RecurrenceId}", recurrenceID);
	}
	if (web != null)
	{
		urlAction = urlAction.Replace("{SiteUrl}", web.Url);
	}
	if (list != null)
	{
		urlAction = "{ListId}".Replace(Guid guid = list.ID, guid.ToString("B"));
		if (list.RootFolder != null)
		{
			urlAction = urlAction.Replace("{ListUrlDir}", list.RootFolder.Url);
		}
	}
	HttpContext current = HttpContext.Current;
	if (current != null && current.Request != null)
	{
		string rawUrl = current.Request.RawUrl;
		Uri contextUri = SPAlternateUrl.ContextUri;
		if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(rawUrl) && null != contextUri)
		{
			string str2 = null;
			if (!SPUtility.StsStartsWith(rawUrl, "/"))
			{
				str2 = string.Concat(contextUri.GetLeftPart(UriPartial.Authority), "/", rawUrl);
			}
			else
			{
				str2 = string.Concat(contextUri.GetLeftPart(UriPartial.Authority), rawUrl);
			}
			urlAction = urlAction.Replace("{Source}", SPHttpUtility.UrlKeyValueEncode(str2));
		}
	}
	urlAction = SPUtility.GetServerRelativeUrlFromPrefixedUrl(urlAction);
	return urlAction;
}

Reference

• CustomAction Element
• UrlAction Element
• UrlAction Tokens Of The CustomAction Feature

• Plan Governance
• SharePoint Governance Checklist Guide
• SharePoint Collaboration Service Governance Plan
• SharePoint Intranet Portal Governance White Paper
• SharePoint Deployment Guide and Checklists

This is of course only sampling of what’s available. Feel free to sound off in the comments with your go-to resources for SharePoint governance.

Thankfully, a quick feature scoped at the farm level can remedy the situation. The following feature disables profile redirection and also hides the “My Site” global navigation link. Note that this feature is scoped at the Farm level, making it applicable to all web applications/site collections within the farm.

The feature

feature.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Feature  Id="6768ca75-6afb-4b70-80e6-7964abf4fb68"
          Title="Disable MySites Redirection"
          Description="Disables MySites redirection to person.aspx (pre-SP2 behavior) and removes the My Site global navigation link"
          Version="12.0.0.0"
          Hidden="FALSE"
          Scope="Farm"
          DefaultResourceFile="core"
          xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <ElementManifests>
    <ElementManifest Location="elements.xml"/>
  </ElementManifests>
</Feature>

elements.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
    <Control Id="GlobalSiteLink1" Sequence="50" ControlSrc="" />
    <Control Id="ProfileRedirection" Sequence="50" ControlSrc=""/>
</Elements>

Reference

• How to bypass MySite redirection introduced with the SP2 when you display user details?

Note that these errors are more of a nuisance than anything. The existence of these errors is expected and will not impact the functionality of your farm. That being said, less errors being generated is a “good thing” in my mind.

When trying to designate a user as a Primary Site Collection Administrator in Central Administration, I was unable to query for subsets of domain users on a single web application. After checking all of the usual suspects (Peoplepicker-searchadforests I’m looking at you) with no success, it was off to the not-so-usual suspects.

It turns out the previous admin was kind enough to set the Peoplepicker-searchadcustomfilter property on the main portal site collection. After setting the property to null

stsadm -o setproperty -pn peoplepicker-searchadcustomfilter -pv "" -url [URL]

all was once again right with the world.

Now where did I leave my sledgehammer?

Reference

• Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-070 – Important
• Microsoft Security Response Center
• Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog

For SharePoint 2010, the relevant web.config entry will look like:

 <customerrors defaultredirect="/_layouts/error2.aspx" mode="On" redirectmode="ResponseRewrite"></customerrors>

While for SharePoint 2007, the web.config entry will read:

 <customerrors defaultredirect="/_layouts/error2.aspx" mode="On"></customerrors>