Enable Silverlight 2 Beta 1 with a SharePoint Solution

2008-05-08T13:27:46Z

You are probably saying, "Whaaaaaat???" after reading my last post. There are quite a number of configuration changes and components to install to get Silverlight up and running in your SharePoint environment. Here's an alternative. I've put together a SharePoint solution which will make all the necessary web.config changes for you. That's right! Just install this solution, activate the feature on the web application you want to wreck (Silverlight'ify) and presto.

Please don't forget that you need to have the following installed on your server for Silverlight to work:

SharePoint SP1 (don't forget wss sp1 and office server sp1 both need to be installed)
The Silverlight plugin
Silverlight 2 Beta 1 SDK
System.Web.Silverlight.dll in the GAC (not sure why the SDK install doesn't do this automagically when you choose to install the server components)

Here's the link to the solution file:

IWWebConfigSolution

IMPORTANT

Don't forget to register the MIME type for the .xap extension or you'll be scratching your head looking at a blank screen.

Bug Found

Unfortunately, this solution has a small bug. In the httpHandlers section the following line gets added at the end of the section, and it needs to appear before the other added entries.
<remove verb="*" path="*.asmx"/>
I have not found a way around this issue. So, after the solution deployment, this entry will need to be moved by hand.

Enabling Silverlight 2 Beta 1 on SharePoint

2008-05-08T12:52:30Z

For those of you would-be SharePoint developers who want to dabble with Silverlight, here's a post that describes how to get your environment up and running.

First, check out this great blog post I found. This will cover the steps that you need to do to get things working.

http://www.u2u.info/Blogs/Patrick/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=1794

If you don't want to spend an hour or two comparing web.config files, I will detail what needs to be changed and where.

Find the <configSections> group under <configuration> and add the following before the closing </configSections> tag.

   1: <sectionGroup name="system.web.extensions" type="System.Web.Configuration.SystemWebExtensionsSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">   2:     <sectionGroup name="scripting" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">   3:         <section name="scriptResourceHandler" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingScriptResourceHandlerSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" />   4:         <sectionGroup name="webServices" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingWebServicesSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">   5:           <section name="jsonSerialization" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingJsonSerializationSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="Everywhere" />   6:           <section name="profileService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingProfileServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" />   7:           <section name="authenticationService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingAuthenticationServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" />   8:           <section name="roleService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingRoleServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" />   9:         </sectionGroup>  10:     </sectionGroup>  11: </sectionGroup>

Next, find the <SafeControls> section under <configuration><SharePoint> and add the following safe control entry.

   1: <SafeControl Assembly="System.Web.Silverlight, Version=2.0.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" Namespace="System.Web.UI.SilverlightControls" TypeName="*" Safe="True" />

Then, add the following section to the <configuration><system.web><httpHandlers> section immediately before the closing </httpHandlers> tag.

   1: <remove verb="*" path="*.asmx" />   2: <add verb="*" path="*.asmx" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />   3: <add verb="*" path="*_AppService.axd" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />   4: <add verb="GET,HEAD" path="ScriptResource.axd" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptResourceHandler, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" validate="false" />

Add this next entry to the <httpModules> section under <configuration><system.web>.

   1: <add name="ScriptModule" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptModule, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />

In the <configuration><system.web><compilation><assemblies> section, add these entries.

   1: <add assembly="System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089" />   2: <add assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />   3: <add assembly="System.Data.DataSetExtensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089" />   4: <add assembly="System.Xml.Linq, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089" />   5: <add assembly="System.Web.Silverlight, Version=2.0.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />

Now, add these entries to the <configuration><system.web><pages><controls> group.

   1: <add tagPrefix="asp" namespace="System.Web.UI" assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />   2: <add tagPrefix="asp" namespace="System.Web.UI.WebControls" assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />

Finally, to the <configuration><runtime> section add the following to the <assemblyBinding> group before any other <dependencyAssembly> entries.

   1: <dependentAssembly>   2:     <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Extensions" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />   3:     <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-1.1.0.0" newVersion="3.5.0.0" />   4: </dependentAssembly>   5: <dependentAssembly>   6:     <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Extensions.Design" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />   7:     <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-1.1.0.0" newVersion="3.5.0.0" />   8: </dependentAssembly>

There are some additional configuration changes that will need to be made if you are using Windows Server 2008 or IIS 7. My test environment is running Windows Server 2003 with IIS 6 and therefore does not require them. Creating a new Silverlight web project in Visual Studio will create a web.config file with the required entries for IIS 6 and IIS 7.

IMPORTANT FINAL STEP

Please pay special attention to step 7 in the referenced blog post above. This step is critical and your Silverlight apps will not work unless you register this MIME type correctly.

Edit button sometimes disabled on custom layout pages

2008-01-14T13:34:00Z

Recently, I was working with a client to convert their public web site from CMS to a MOSS Publishing Portal. All of the layout pages are customized to create a very non-SharePoint look and feel. I noticed that on some of the pages the "Edit" button was available and on others it was disabled. After checking with the usual suspects (page checked out by another user, missing content placeholders, etc...) and a little side-by-side comparison, I found out that the pages with a disabled "Edit" button did not include any publishing content placeholders on the page when in the normal display mode. These pages only included "hidden" page fields in an edit mode panel that I wanted to become visible when the user was editing the page. For some reason, SharePoint was not able to detect that these pages were editable.

To resolve the issue, I included a hidden web part zone on the layout page. Even though it is hidden, SharePoint thinks that the page should now be editable.

Phil Jirsa

Enable Silverlight 2 Beta 1 with a SharePoint Solution

IMPORTANT

Enabling Silverlight 2 Beta 1 on SharePoint

IMPORTANT FINAL STEP

Edit button sometimes disabled on custom layout pages