All Posts

All Posts (529)

• 

  Published on

  2019-02-20 11:21 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  ms-sql-serversql-query

  Easily querying all the database and log file sizes on SQL Server

  Quite often you get the need to simply quickly query all the database sizes on MS SQL Server. Most typically, for me, this need arises when a development machine gets low on disk space, and I need to check if some database's log size has been growing, or if something else is wrong. In my daily work, I rarely encounter this requirement anymore. Azure has almost entirely obliterated the need for such diagnostics, since it's so easy to spin up or scale up new development resources when need be.

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• 

  Published on

  2019-02-13 10:18 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  aspnetcoreentityframeworkcore

  Fixing "An assembly specified in the application dependencies manifest [projectname].deps.json was not found"

  This post describes one no-brainer fix to the error "An assembly specified in the application dependencies manifest [projectname].deps.json was not found." I ran into this while running Update-Database for my ASP.NET Core web project , that's using EntityFrameworkCore 2.1.1 . I hadn't seen this one before, but the error was quite interesting: Error: An assembly specified in the application dependencies manifest (Koskila.[projectname].AzureFunctions.deps.

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• 

  Published on

  2019-02-06 1:10 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  modernsharepointsharepointsharepoint-onlinetelemetry

  What is "fp.js" - and why is it snooping on your SharePoint usage?

  Microsoft is gathering all kinds of telemetric data out of the usage of SharePoint. I ran into an interesting JavaScript file, fp.js , on SharePoint Online doing just that and gathering data. It loads on pretty much every single page request, so it's something you'll bump into any time you open your developer tools! Your customer's IT might even inquire about it - perhaps wanting to disable it for performance or information security gains. But what is fp.js and what does it do?

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• 

  Published on

  2019-02-04 11:59 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  asp-netaspnetcoregoogleoauthoauth

  Google Plus is shutting down - fix your .NET OAuth flow!

  Google is shutting down their Facebook killer, Google+. While I'm sure there are at least 10 end-users that are sad to see the ill-fated not-that-social-medium go, the implications for Software Developers actually could be far more far-reaching. A lot of implementations of Google's OAuth seem to rely on Google Plus's APIs to get gather information about the user. When Google Plus goes down, so will the APIs .

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• 

  Published on

  2019-01-29 12:45 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  powershellsharepointsharepoint-online

  Solving yet another "Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ServerException: Unknown Error"

  There are a thousand possible things that can throw a "Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ServerException", but fewer things, that are ambiguous enough to be called "Unknown error". This post describes one fairly usual fix for this issue! But let's get back to the beginning for a second - you get what and when now? When running any code, that provisions new sites (much like https://www.koskila.

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• 

  Published on

  2019-01-28 10:44 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  chromespeditorhacktoberfest

  #Hacktoberfest 2018 - a fun way to encourage Open Source contributions!

  This post is about the Hacktoberfest event in 2018. I contributed to Microsoft's repositories and a couple of other ones - and it was a lot of fun! Wow - I'm quite behind on this post, but thought it's worthwhile to give credit where credit is due. Even if that credit comes woefully slowly! In 2018, Microsoft took part in DigitalOcean's Hacktoberfest -challenge.

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• 

  Published on

  2019-01-24 11:54 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  azureazurermpowershell

  Oh no! PowerShell cached my Azure credentials and I messed up wrong customer's environment!

  Whoops. This could happen to anyone since the Azure PowerShell (approximately) version 6.3.0 will cache your credentials between sessions without warning you. It's really easy to run your commands with cached accounts and end up executing your scripts against the wrong environment. In less serious cases, this means that you'll end up running commandlets twice against the test environment, while you think you're running them first against the test, and then production.

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• 

  Published on

  2019-01-17 11:48 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  powershellsharepointsharepointwebservicessoap

  Fixing "-2147024891, System.UnauthorizedAccessException" when accessing SharePoint SOAP Web Services

  This article explains how to fix error 2147024891 (or sometimes -2147024891), "System.UnauthorizedAccessException" when accessing functionality in SharePoint that's built on top of SOAP Web Services. In a sense, we're delving into some legacy stuff - Microsoft has still kept SOAP-based SharePoint Web Services included in the product, since a lot of functionality has been built on top of them.

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• 

  Published on

  2019-01-15 9:26 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  phpwordpress

  "500 Internal Server Error" after updating a WordPress site to PHP 7.3

  Now for something totally different - for a change, I got to fix an issue with my own blog, so I had the chance to delve into PHP and WordPress configurations... :) PHP is an ever-evolving language - even if it might not always feel that way. The old workhorse has been powering most of the internet for a couple of decades, and weirdly enough, doesn't really show signs of going anywhere.

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• 

  Published on

  2019-01-09 8:52 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  azureazurefunctions

  Azure Functions failing on "OPTIONS" call? Quick fix!

  I recently ran into an issue when developing Azure Functions locally. My SPFx webpart was configured to request information from my locally running Azure Function but suddenly started ending up in error. Browser only showed 404 for the first request (OPTIONS) the SPFx webpart was sending - although I knew the function was up and running! So what to do?

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• 

  Published on

  2018-12-28 10:58 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  bloggingwordpress

  Thanks for an amazing 2018!

  The year 2018 is drawing to an end, and it's a good time for some reflection on what an interesting year it's been! Personally, quite a few things have happened in the last 12 months - I moved to Canada, started a new/old job, became a father, spoke at awesome events, and met a lot of cool people - just tons of awesome stuff. But personal things aside, 2018 has been an interesting and rewarding time to be writing this blog ! 2018 was the year when the site kind of took off.

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• 

  Published on

  2018-12-18 11:02 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  licensingmicrosoftoffice-365onedrive

  The Scary Anatomy of a Microsoft License Fraud

  Note : While this was originally posted around the Christmas of 2018, and some company or seller names might not be relevant as scammers come and go, the principles in this blog post seem to be valid from the early 2000s to probably until 2038 (when the Internet ends due to the Epochalypse). For those of you, who don't want to read any extra fluff, let me just offer you this extra-short version of my article in FAQ form: Is Office 365 lifetime subscription a scam? Yes.

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• 

  Published on

  2018-12-11 11:40 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  pnppowershellpowershellsharepointsharepointadminsharepointappcatalogsharepoint-online

  How to fix Add-PnPApp failing with an Access Denied error

  This was a peculiar case! An issue I hadn't run into before, and luckily a disturbingly simple fix. But first, let's set up the scene: We were running a long-ish PowerShell script using a Global Administrator account. One part of the script was supposed to add and deploy a couple of SharePoint apps. But while running Add-PnPApp , we ran into errors: Add-PnPApp -Path $path -Scope $app.Scope -ErrorAc… , Error: {"error":{"code":"-2147024891, System.

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• 

  Published on

  2018-12-05 2:42 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  classicsharepointpermissionssharepointsharepoint-online

  Subsite creation in SharePoint fails with error 0x80070005 for any user (even global/farm admins!)

  This issue seems to pop up bafflingly often, so I thought that it was finally time to document it for future generations. Granted, it mainly considers Classic SharePoint (which is very tightly built around Publishing features) - but Classic is going to be part of our lives for quite a while still, especially for those of us still primarily on SharePoint Server!

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• 

  Published on

  2018-11-29 9:59 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  pnppowershellpowershellsharepoint

  New-PnPSite fails with "SiteStatus" : 3?

  While running " New-PnPSite " (or actually any other site creation method in PowerShell or programmatically), the site creation fails, and instead you get back an error like the one below: New-PnPSite : {"d":{"Create":{"__metadata":{"type":"SP.Publishing.CommunicationSiteCreationResponse"}, "SiteStatus":3, "SiteUrl":""}}} Ouch! Where does this come from?

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• 

  Published on

  2018-11-27 11:40 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  sharepointsharepoint-2013sharepoint2016sharepoint-onlinesharepoint-search

  Issues with User Profile Property visibility in Search-powered functionalities

  This article applies to a lot of different issues you might be having with your SharePoint-powered site or even custom functionality like mobile apps using SharePoint's search index.

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• 

  Published on

  2018-11-21 11:12 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  microsoftsharepointsharepoint-search

  Bug: "PictureThumbnailURL" always null in SharePoint Online Search results

  This post describes the status of an ongoing issue in SharePoint Online, where the Managed Property "PictureThumbnailURL" will return null no matter what you do. This Managed Property is used for a few different use cases - most notably, Delve blog post's hero or header photo's URL is mapped to this property, as it's meant to be used as a thumbnail picture in a number of rollups.

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• 

  Published on

  2018-11-14 9:11 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  exchange-onlineoffice-groupspowershell

  How to fix an Office Group with no Owners

  This post explains how to add new Owners to your Office Groups using PowerShell. If your group has ended up without any owners, PowerShell might even be the only option, since the graphical user interfaces for Office Groups management are not that good. Background The hype around Office Groups kind of died down a little bit a while back, since their role wasn't that clear - they didn't really do much, and were confusing for end users.

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• 

  Published on

  2018-11-07 10:12 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  sharepointsharepoint-online

  Help! My "Content and Structure" page in SharePoint Online is gone!

  First of all: you're right and your eyes are serving you well. It has indeed disappeared. Starting in October, it'll be hidden from end users. Microsoft is retiring the "Site Content and Structure" tool in SharePoint Online. Which kind of makes sense, since it's quite an old feature - albeit, a very useful one.

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• 

  Published on

  2018-10-20 5:21 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  sessionsspsspsne

  Thanks for coming to my session at SPS New England, 10/20!

  I had the privilege of speaking at SharePoint Saturday New England in Burlington (near Boston) on the 20th of October. Thanks for the super-active crowd! A lot of difficult (e.g. good) questions and great conversations.

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• 

  Published on

  2018-10-17 7:01 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  sessionsspsspsne

  Speaking at SPS New England on 10/20/2018!

  I have another exciting announcement to make - I'll be speaking at SharePoint Saturday New England on 20. of October in Boston! My session about Microsoft Flow, Azure Functions, and a bit of Cognitive Services was accepted for the developer track. I'll be presenting at 9:00 - 10:15 AM in room Cranmore.

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• 

  Published on

  2018-10-16 12:27 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  azureazurefunctions

  Ignite 2018 recap: What's new for Azure Functions?

  Ignite 2018 is done and dusted, and it's a good time to quickly recap what's new for Azure Functions in the coming months. They've certainly been getting a lot of love from Microsoft, which is GREAT! New features for Azure Functions There were a bunch of exciting new things announced! Not all of the things in this blog post are necessarily completely new - but instead reached General Availability . Let's go through them one by one...

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• 

  Published on

  2018-10-10 7:35 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  classicsharepointsharepointsharepoint-2013sharepoint2016

  Problematic behavior of web.AddSupportedUILanguage(int lcid) in SharePoint 2013 and 2016

  Every now and then, an API or a method call comes along, that you need to be very careful with. "Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Web.AddSupportedUILanguage()" seems to be one of them. In this post, I'll try and document my findings and workarounds for said method! Issues and solutions

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• 

  Published on

  2018-10-02 6:49 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  azureazurefunctionsc

  Fixing the "The following functions are in error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object." error in Azure Functions

  Let me start this article, by reminding everyone that Azure Functions are awesome, and you should use them despite some hiccups. Having said that, let's fix some errors! At the beginning of September 2018, Microsoft started pushing out breaking changes to Azure Functions 2.x. They had announced this a full month in advance, so they expected everyone in the world to update their Azure Functions to avoid the functions from breaking. I guess, however, that in real life, a month is not that much.

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• 

  Published on

  2018-09-26 12:34 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  azureazurefunctionsc

  How to get application settings for your Azure Function App using C#?

  This article explains how you can access an Azure Function's Application/Environment settings/variables from your C# code. Different versions of Azure Functions have different ways to access the Azure Function settings, but this page should explain the easiest way to get your application setting values for each Azure Functions version! While this is something I need often, it has been another little thing, that I always forget - so better document it somewhere.

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