SharePoint Forums... go get 'em
I’m very happy to say that the SharePoint Forums Web Part is ready for you to install. I cleaned a few things up from the last week with the testers but most people reported no problems and only suggestions (which is always a good thing). There were a couple of problems with permissions however if you follow the installation instructions below you should be golden.
I do apologize for not putting together an MSI or something. I did go down that path using WPPackager, however two problems. One is I couldn’t get the permission setup correct and the second thing is that the Forums uses a common library that I’m giving out which needs to go into the GAC but the Forum Web Part assemblies can go into the bin directory. I couldn’t find a way to split this up and then couldn’t get WPPackager to just package a regular file so it either meant doing it by hand (which is what I did) or building a two installers using two different tool sets.
In any case, installation does require a bit of configuration but it’s painless. If some adventurous soul out there wants to put together an installer I’ll throw you a cool SharePoint prize.
You can download version 1.0.0.0 of the Web Part from here. For those that have previous versions installed, please remove them and delete your forums. If you really want to retain the old forums I can tell you how to do this but email me privately as it involves some extra steps.
Here are the web part installation instructions. These instructions are also in the zip in a text file called DRINKME.TXT.
Step 1
Install “BilSimser.SharePoint.Common.dll” to the GAC
Step 2
Copy "BilSimser.SharePoint.WebParts.Forums.dll" and "BilSimser.SharePoint.WebParts.Forums.Core.dll" to your SharePoint web site bin directory (if it's the default, it's c:\inetpub\wwwroot).
Step 3
Add the following SafeControl entries to your web.config file:
<SafeControl Assembly="BilSimser.SharePoint.WebParts.Forums, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e516dadc23877c32" Namespace="BilSimser.SharePoint.WebParts.Forums.Controls" TypeName="*" />
<SafeControl Assembly="BilSimser.SharePoint.WebParts.Forums, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e516dadc23877c32" Namespace="BilSimser.SharePoint.WebParts.Forums" TypeName="*" />
<SafeControl Assembly="BilSimser.SharePoint.WebParts.Forums, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e516dadc23877c32" Namespace="BilSimser.SharePoint.WebParts.Forums.Controls.Common" TypeName="*" />
<SafeControl Assembly="BilSimser.SharePoint.WebParts.Forums, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e516dadc23877c32" Namespace="BilSimser.SharePoint.WebParts.Forums.Controls.Base" TypeName="*" />
Step 4
Add the following to a custom policy file (PublicKeyBlob split for clarity but needs to be one line):
<CodeGroup
class="UnionCodeGroup"
version="1"
PermissionSetName="FullTrust">
<IMembershipCondition
version="1"
class="StrongNameMembershipCondition"
PublicKeyBlob="0024000004800000940000000602000000240000525341310004000001000100F15CA89A
80D45C052CC5003DDAD661CEA98168E5B12A7BEC2A8B455D1E7D043C9248BC192A16B02B4D1CCF41738C31797
CFFED01C70EE6247222243FA3B10706368EDE73C57BAF586582F83CB9391DA711DFF5B8169A9AD6169D6023B5
C6572136233AC331010CE4C808143B2E2AB18FE59A872340DB76F71180623789336DAB">
</IMembershipCondition>
</CodeGroup>
IMPORTANT!
This entry needs to go AFTER the FirstMatchCodeGroup and BEFORE the ASP.NET UnionCodeGroup!
Step 5
iisreset (or recycle your AppPool)
Step 6
Import SharePointForums.dwp onto a WSS site or SPS area page where you are an Administrator.
Step 7
Configure, and have fun!
I’ll post a quick set of docs (somewhere) on doing basic stuff but watch for blog entries on various tricks you can do. Email me at bsimser@shaw.ca if you have problems, questions, suggestions, small marsupials, concealed logging chains, etc.
