Update SharePoint locale of all sites using Powershell

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Al

So I needed to ensure that all sites in my farm were formatting dates in the British format …
Powershell, once again, to the rescue! This is what I ended up with …

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell 
foreach ($app in Get-SPWebApplication)
{
	foreach ($site in $app.Sites)
	{
		foreach($web in $site.AllWebs)
		{
			Write-Host processing $web in site $site in app $app
			If ($web.locale -ne 2057)
			{
				$web.Locale = 2057; 
				$web.Update(); 
				Write-Host UPDATED $web in site $site in app $app
			}
		}
	}
}

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell

foreach ($app in Get-SPWebApplication)

{

foreach ($site in $app.Sites)

{

foreach($web in $site.AllWebs)

{

Write-Host processing $web in site $site in app $app

If ($web.locale -ne 2057)

{

$web.Locale = 2057;

$web.Update();

Write-Host UPDATED $web in site $site in app $app

}

Output SharePoint group memberships with PowerShell

Posted on April 2, 2014April 2, 2014 by Al

So I had a need to get a csv that could tell me who was in which groups in which sites.
Powershell to the rescue! This is what I ended up with …
There may be a better way to do this but the main thing is that it works and it was quick!

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell 

function OutputRow($url, $group, $member) 
{
	$out = new-object psobject
	$out | add-member noteproperty url $url
	$out | add-member noteproperty group $group
	$out | add-member noteproperty member $member
	write-output $out
}

foreach ($app in Get-SPWebApplication)
{
	foreach ($site in $app.Sites)
	{
		OutputRow $site.Url "primary site owner" $site.owner
		OutputRow $site.Url "secondary site owner" $site.SecondaryContact

		foreach($web in $site.AllWebs)
		{
			if (!$web.HasUniqueRoleDefinitions)
			{
				OutputRow $web.Url "Everything Inherited from parent" ""
			}
			else
			{
				if ($web.RequestAccessEnabled)
				{
					OutputRow $web.Url "request access email" $web.RequestAccessEmail
				}

				foreach($group in $web.sitegroups)
				{
					if ($group.users.Count -eq 0)
					{
						OutputRow $web.Url $group.name "Empty Group" 
					}

					foreach ($user in $group.users) 
					{
						OutputRow $web.Url $group.name $user.name
					}
				}
			}
		}	
	}
}

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell

function OutputRow($url, $group, $member)

{

$out = new-object psobject

$out | add-member noteproperty url $url

$out | add-member noteproperty group $group

$out | add-member noteproperty member $member

write-output $out

}

foreach ($app in Get-SPWebApplication)

{

foreach ($site in $app.Sites)

{

OutputRow $site.Url "primary site owner" $site.owner

OutputRow $site.Url "secondary site owner" $site.SecondaryContact

foreach($web in $site.AllWebs)

{

if (!$web.HasUniqueRoleDefinitions)

{

OutputRow $web.Url "Everything Inherited from parent" ""

}

else

{

if ($web.RequestAccessEnabled)

{

OutputRow $web.Url "request access email" $web.RequestAccessEmail

}

foreach($group in $web.sitegroups)

{

if ($group.users.Count -eq 0)

{

OutputRow $web.Url $group.name "Empty Group"

}

foreach ($user in $group.users)

{

OutputRow $web.Url $group.name $user.name

}

Saving electronics

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Al

Quite often things break – sometimes I’m able to fix them.

The way I see it is that if it’s broken and is going in the bin then I’ve got nothing to lose by taking it apart and trying to see if it can be fixed.

Most recently I had the external thermometer of a wireless weather station stop working. I was pretty sure some water had got into it so I dried it in the airing cupboard but it still wasn’t responsive. With nothing to lose I took it apart, saw that there was a fair amount of corrosion on the circuit board and almost gave up. Just on the off-chance that the components were still ok and the corrosion was causing a short I got an old toothbrush and cleaned it up.

Thermometer Board

Miraculously this worked and I’ve saved £35 on a replacement. Result!

To set up a git repository on a server

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Al

So because it’s on a server there is no working directory required – as a result we do a bare initialise in the folder that we want the repo to be in:

git init --bare

1	git init --bare

After that, to allow pushes to the server over http we need to run the following:

git config --file config http.receivepack true

1	git config --file config http.receivepack true

This will then work nicely with a virtual host in apache:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName git.server.com
    DocumentRoot /path/to/my/git/

    SetEnv GIT_PROJECT_ROOT /path/to/my/git/
    SetEnv GIT_HTTP_EXPORT_ALL

    ScriptAlias / /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/
</VirtualHost>

ServerName git.server.com

DocumentRoot /path/to/my/git/

SetEnv GIT_PROJECT_ROOT /path/to/my/git/

SetEnv GIT_HTTP_EXPORT_ALL

ScriptAlias / /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/

</VirtualHost>

Also, make sure the user running apache has write permissions to the git repository folders.

Authentication

To add some basic authentication I have used the following 2 techniques:

To make an entire repository private:

<Location "/private/">
	AuthType Basic
	AuthName "Password Required"
	AuthUserFile /path/to/my/conf/passwd
	Require user username
</Location>

AuthType Basic

AuthName "Password Required"

AuthUserFile /path/to/my/conf/passwd

Require user username

</Location>

To make all repositories public for read and private for write:

<LocationMatch "^/.*/git-receive-pack$">
	Options +ExecCGI
	AuthType Basic
	AuthName "Git Access"
	AuthName "Password Required"
	AuthUserFile /path/to/my/conf/passwd
	Require user username
</LocationMatch>

Options +ExecCGI

AuthType Basic

AuthName "Git Access"

AuthName "Password Required"

AuthUserFile /path/to/my/conf/passwd

Require user username

</LocationMatch>

Web UI

Finally, I have used gitlist to provide a web ui to my repositories – to achieve this I used the standard approach documented here

My final config looks like this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
	<Location "/private/">
		AuthType Basic
		AuthName "Password Required"
		AuthUserFile /path/to/my/conf/passwd
		Require user username
	</Location>

	<LocationMatch "^/.*/git-receive-pack$">
		Options +ExecCGI
		AuthType Basic
		AuthName "Git Access"
		AuthName "Password Required"
		AuthUserFile /path/to/my/conf/passwd
		Require user username
	</LocationMatch>

    ServerName git.server.com
    DocumentRoot /path/to/my/www/gitlist/

    SetEnv GIT_PROJECT_ROOT /path/to/my/git/
    SetEnv GIT_HTTP_EXPORT_ALL

	ScriptAliasMatch \
        "(?x)^/(.*/(HEAD | \
                        info/refs | \
                        objects/(info/[^/]+ | \
                                 [0-9a-f]{2}/[0-9a-f]{38} | \
                                 pack/pack-[0-9a-f]{40}\.(pack|idx)) | \
                        git-(upload|receive)-pack))$" \
        /usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/$1
</VirtualHost>

AuthType Basic

AuthName "Password Required"

AuthUserFile /path/to/my/conf/passwd

Require user username

</Location>

Options +ExecCGI

AuthType Basic

AuthName "Git Access"

AuthName "Password Required"

AuthUserFile /path/to/my/conf/passwd

Require user username

</LocationMatch>

ServerName git.server.com

DocumentRoot /path/to/my/www/gitlist/

SetEnv GIT_PROJECT_ROOT /path/to/my/git/

SetEnv GIT_HTTP_EXPORT_ALL

ScriptAliasMatch \

"(?x)^/(.*/(HEAD | \

info/refs | \

objects/(info/[^/]+ | \

[0-9a-f]{2}/[0-9a-f]{38} | \

pack/pack-[0-9a-f]{40}\.(pack|idx)) | \

git-(upload|receive)-pack))$" \

/usr/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend/$1

</VirtualHost>

A site is born!

Posted on March 25, 2014March 25, 2014 by Al

So I’m starting a blog – we’ll see how long that lasts!

The main types of article I intend to write are:

Technology – this could be something I’ve worked on as part of my profession or something I’ve tinkered with as part of my hobbies. Generally they will be for my own consumption for future reference but may help others out if they get to the 4th page of google.
Beer – I like beer I do. Articles may vary from a simple beer review to my adventures into homebrewing and also may cross over into technology because the only thing better than making beer is making beer and leveraging technology at the same time.
RPG’s – and other assorted games. Everything from D&D through Carcassonne and back to Skyrim. What I’ve been playing, what I want to play etc etc.
Pi – 3.14159 … and the raspberry pi too. I’ve got a couple of these and enjoy tinkering.
Stuff – Anything else that takes my fancy.

The main types of article I intend to avoid writing are:

Personal – anything to do with day to day life. When I see other blogs of that ilk I tend to squirm.
Fan Fiction – I’m not a “writer”.
Humus – It’s not tasty, especially with Jammy Dodgers.

I contemplated having separate blogs for each of the topics that I end up writing about but then I realised it was just too much overhead – I’m a whole person and this blog is for me. Furthermore, I will be using the categories you will see at the right of every page to vigilantly categorise each post – so if you only want my posts about SharePoint there will be a category that niftily filters the posts and shows you only the ones that you’re interested in.

So, finally, erm … Welcome!

Blue Phone Box

A personal site of tech, games, rpg's, pi and stuff

Update SharePoint locale of all sites using Powershell

Output SharePoint group memberships with PowerShell

Saving electronics

To set up a git repository on a server

A site is born!