Jul 272008

Error: Failed to compare two elements in the array

I tried to do an stsadm -o export today on our Production farm and got this lovely error:

[7/28/2008 11:53:56 AM]: FatalError: Failed to compare two elements in the array.
   at System.Collections.Generic.ArraySortHelper`1.QuickSort[TValue](T[] keys, TValue[] values, Int32 left, Int32 right, IComparer`1 comparer)
   at System.Collections.Generic.ArraySortHelper`1.QuickSort[TValue](T[] keys, TValue[] values, Int32 left, Int32 right, IComparer`1 comparer)
   at System.Collections.Generic.ArraySortHelper`1.Sort[TValue](T[] keys, TValue[] values, Int32 index, Int32 length, IComparer`1 comparer)
   at System.Collections.Generic.ArraySortHelper`1.Sort(T[] items, Int32 index, Int32 length, IComparer`1 comparer)
   at System.Array.Sort[T](T[] array, Int32 index, Int32 length, IComparer`1 comparer)
   at System.Collections.Generic.List`1.Sort(Int32 index, Int32 count, IComparer`1 comparer)
   at System.Collections.Generic.List`1.Sort(IComparer`1 comparer)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.WebSerializer.GetDataFromObjectModel(Object obj, SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.DeploymentSerializationSurrogate.GetObjectData(Object obj, SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.XmlFormatter.SerializeObject(Object obj, ISerializationSurrogate surrogate, String elementName, Boolean bNeedEnvelope)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.XmlFormatter.Serialize(Stream serializationStream, Object topLevelObject)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ObjectSerializer.Serialize(DeploymentObject deployObject, Stream serializationStream)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.SPExport.SerializeObjects()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.SPExport.Run()
*** Inner exception:
Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeature.EnsureProperties()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeature.get_TimeActivated()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.WebSerializer.ExportFeatureComparer.System.Collections.Generic.IComparer<Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ExportObject>.Compare(ExportObject exportObject1, ExportObject exportObject2)
   at System.Collections.Generic.ArraySortHelper`1.QuickSort[TValue](T[] keys, TValue[] values, Int32 left, Int32 right, IComparer`1 comparer)

A bit of digging found this on the Microsoft Support page. Not much help if you don't know what Feature is not installed but still in use on a Site Collection! Stefan has an excellent console application you can install on the farm to report directly on this which can be found on MSDN Code site. The reports generated will give you the Feature ID Guid of the Feature that is being referenced that is no longer installed.

To deactivate the rogue Feature you can use:

STSADM -o deactivatefeature -id 945a186c-846e-63ff-bb89-e94098c21943 -url http://localhost -force

Another alternative is Steven Van De Craen's Windows Form version which more or less does the same thing but I found that it couldn't see the Site collection when I put in the URL.

Published: 7/27/2008 9:22 PM | 0 Comments | 0 Links to this post

Jul 242008

SharePoint MSDN Forums and SharePoint Community Trends

I'm really impressed with the new forums that have been migrated to MSDN Forums v3.0, changes are listed here. One thing to note is the "proposed answer" functionality which I think will help people mark answers easier than the last interface. Of interest was the fact that the SharePoint topics balance between Answered and Unanswered Threads. Take these examples:

InfoPath - Answered: 252 Unanswered: 1217 = 17%

BDC - Answered: 0 Unanswered: 530 = 0%

Workflow - Answered: 548 Unanswered: 1705 = 24%

Search - Answered: 305 Unanswered: 937 = 24%

You get the general picture. These are key areas of MOSS Platform and I think it shows the immaturity of the community in these spaces compared to things such as:

Excel Services - Answered: 230 Unanswered: 194 = 54%

Activity

Maybe this is an indication of where the most activity is happening in the SharePoint Pillars...

In terms of custom development, there also appears to be a lot happening in this space.

SharePoint Development - Answered: 4701 Unanswered: 2451 = 65%

As apposed to this section that I'm assuming is about OOTB functionality:

SharePoint Design and Customization - Answered: 4103 Unanswered: 12270 = 25%

I encourage everyone involved in SharePoint to help out where they can. We've all been there and Google'd our way out of trouble by finding forum posts or blog posts on the subjects causing us grief!

I'm currently on level one in the medal talleys but want a full collection pretty soon...which will hopefully lead me to MVP status in SharePoint ;-)

Published: 7/24/2008 12:12 AM | 6 Comments | 0 Links to this post

Jul 162008

Perth SharePoint User Group Presentation Slide Deck: SharePoint Governance

Thanks for those who braved the rain to come and listen to my presentation on SharePoint Governance. I've uploaded the slide deck here.

Some of the key areas that came up during the talk I've noted below:

SharePoint Designer is the Evil
I've mentioned it before, but I finding it's dangerous enough to allow Business Users lose on SharePoint web interface, without letting them loose on SharePoint Designer (SPD). It seems to instill a set of false confidence because "they've used FrontPage for years" and the fact that it's in a UI they're used to using like Word and Outlook.
One of the members pointed out that they deployed it via their SOE with a locked down install that made it easier to control what they can and can't do.
I'd love to hear your feedback on successful/unsuccessful real world deployments of SPD.
Solution Development is uncommon
From the group of people in our user group which appeared to be a mix of Business Owners, Developers and Business Users it appeared that it was only really the Consulting companies that were embarking on custom development.
I am really interested to see how many companies are getting away with button clicking to build applications in the web interface and how many are treating Site releases as full development cycles as outlined in my presentation with the following outputs:

Functional Specification
Technical Specification
Release Plan for UAT and Production
Install + Rollback scripts
Test Plan
End User Training Documentation
Original Source files

Uncontrollable monsters
I think because it is so easy to build these apps in the interface without full governance around releases and moving sites from dev to prod with a few tinkering changes is acceptable...for now. This is not a world that SharePoint "developers" will enjoy forever, and constant flow of "tweaks" to these live apps will become demoralizing and uncontrollable. These small apps turn into monsters very quickly and need to be treated like monsters from the beginning in a governed process to stop leaking scope requirements and business users raising requested functionality as "bugs" that need to be fixed then and there on the spot!

Leveraging the Platform
There was a lot of head nodding when I brought up the point of Business Users stating "SharePoint is easy, I could do it in a few days, so can you do it quicker in your development team?"...and then the follow up..."it's gonna take how long...I'll do it myself". This has brought about a lot of pain for IS teams.
The perception is this stuff is easy, but the reality is that this stuff has boundaries where pointing and clicking can get you so far...but there's a gap to bridge them to some of their functional requirements that does require Developers. This will unfold in future posts.

Published: 7/16/2008 1:30 AM | 0 Comments | 1 Links to this post

Jul 132008

Perth SharePoint User Group Presentation

I'll be doing a presentation at lunchtime in Microsoft's Perth office on Tuesday 15th July 2008 at 12:30 for the Perth SharePoint User Group. Last months presentation by Sezai pulled a big audience and he has put his presentations up on the User Group web site.

My presentation will be on the articles I've been blogging on of late from a End User perspective, IS Owner perspective and also Developer perspective:

Deployment Governance
What to expect for deployment
Risk of non-conformance
End Users vs. Developers
Empowering the end user
Leveraging the platform

I'll be sure to get the three different camps aggravated with my views on who is responsible for what! I'll post up the presentation Tuesday evening...well most likely Wednesday (boys Poker night Tuesday).

Look forward to seeing some of you guys there. Apologies for the lack of posts, I've been on holiday for 3 weeks and caught a nasty Chest Infection on the plane back. I've got a few things to post this week coming based on last weeks dramas coming back to work ;-)

Published: 7/13/2008 4:47 AM | 0 Comments | 0 Links to this post

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Error: Failed to compare two elements in the array

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