Search Service Application Error: The search service is not able to connect to the machine that hosts the administration component. Verify that the administration component in search application is in a good state and try again.

Jan 10, 2013 6:05 PM, - Posted by Tommy Segoro

INTRODUCTION

 

Hi guys, I just tried to install Search Service Application today but whenever I went to the administration page I get the following error message:

 

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The search service is not able to connect to the machine that hosts the administration component. Verify that the administration component ‘bae8d161-c132-4570-aa0d-57baf6cf9d9b’ in search application ‘Search Service Application’ is in a good state and try again.”

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Please note that the GUID may be different from yours.

 

 

RESOLUTION

In the end it turns out to be that the application pool that hosts the search service application somehow doesn’t have the correct access.

 

Some people suggested that I rebuilt my farm but as a simpler solution you can simply change the application pool to use SharePoint Web Services System. This should fix it.

 

Or alternatively you can create a new application that uses the same account as the SharePoint Web Service System’s.

 

 

 

Hope this helps,

Tommy

SharePoint 2010 – User Profile Synch (FIM Sync) failed – BAIL: MMS(1952): server.cpp(1838): 0x80070005 (Access is denied.) – Generic Failure

Jan 10, 2013 6:05 PM, - Posted by Tommy Segoro

INTRODUCTION

 

When I tried to run the profile sync (i.e. Run Full Synchronisation) it didn’t run at all. The status was always in IDLE. I tried to refresh the page and the status didn’t change.

 

In Event Viewer I get the following errors:

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FIRST ERROR

BAIL: MMS(1952): server.cpp(1838): 0x80070005 (Access is denied.)

 

SECOND ERROR

Generic Failure

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In SP log I also get the Generic Failure error.

 

 

 

RESOLUTION

 

The resolution to this issue is by doing the following:

– Restart SharePoint Timer Service

– Restart Forefront Identity Synchronization Service

– Restart Forefront Identity Manager Service

 

Rerun the full synch and it seems working.

 

 

 

Hope this helps,

Tommy

How to Do an Efficient Requirements Gathering for an Internet Website Project?

Jan 10, 2013 1:50 PM, - Posted by Tommy Segoro

Inviting client to a cafe for a cup of coffee is one thing but to have an efficient meeting and discuss about the website requirements is another thing.

 

On this opportunity I want to share with you my experience during requirements gathering time and how to make it efficient.

 

One rule that will not change: Client never knows what they want! Therefore – if we don’t guide them – don’t expect them to explain to us what they actually have in mind. Well, not all clients are the same but most of them are!

 

Especially with designing and developing a website, some of the clients I know don’t even have any knowledge on what it’s all about. Yes they’re expert in what they’re doing (ie. their business) but they normally have no idea what website is all about and what it takes to build one. What they know is: they need a website and that’s about it.

 

It’s our job as a professional web site designer and developer to guide them with this process.

 

 

What Do You Need?

Before coming to any meeting, it’s always good to prepare what you want to talk about. I always prepare a checklist for this. The checklist doesn’t have to complicated but at least it captures the basics of website development. For example:

– Domain name to use

– Colour theme and logo

– Basic pricing for domain and space hosting

– Website layouts discussion

– Site structure discussion

– Functionalities discussion

 

 

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is always that big question, “So how much will that cost me?”. Client always wants to know pricing up-front. Always tell them, “It all depends on the functionalities.”. Never say anything about price up-front because client remembers! And we’ll be cornered later on if we’ve quoted them a price and we actually need more money.

 

It’s OK to let them know of static pricing such as domain and hosting price, SSL price, etc.

 

 

The Requirements

Just like searching in Google, we have to know what questions to ask to get the right answer. You can pretty much type in what you like in Google but it doesn’t mean that the results you get are the ones you want. When gathering requirements, make sure that you ask the right questions.

 

So, what are the right questions then?

 

Always start with this question “What’s the purpose of the web site?”. Be assertive and listen! Some clients are direct (ie. straight to the point), some aren’t. Those who are direct will answer, “It will contain information about my business and nothing more.”. But those who are not will go around in a circle and answer, “Well…I thought before that the website will talk about where my company is but then I changed my mind… I think the website should allow user to submit bla bla bla”. At this point, you have to be assertive and ask the keyword question: “So, your website will only contain information about your company and nothing more?”.

 

Then guide them into more detail, “Do you need visitors to be able to register?”, “Does it need a contact form where visitors can submit enquiries from?”, etc. They will then answer your questions either directly or indirectly. So in a nutshell:

 

At any time always be assertive and ask the keyword questions!

 

That’s really how you can gather requirements efficiently. Don’t let them steer you but you steer them. Apologise if you feel that you’re cutting off their explanation but don’t be afraid to do so. The more direct you are the better. Otherwise, they’ll keep going on a circle.

 

If you need to, prepare a checklist that contains general website functionalities such as news roller on the homepage, contact us form, news & events page, etc. I will talk more about general functionalities that a website normally has later.

 

 

Your Homework

Once your meeting ends, summarize what you’ve talked about on a document then send it to them (client). Get them to ask you questions on things that they’re not clear about. Otherwise, get them to approve the requirements document by signing it.

 

I will discuss later about how to write a good requirements document. It has to be detail enough and clear! It shouldn’t say things that are too broad, for example:

– Client wants a news listing page.

Make it more detailed, for example:

– Client wants a news listing page that lists latest 10 news sorted by date. A paging control will also be added to the page to allow readers to navigate to older news items.

 

It’s OK to make assumptions!

 

Once again, you’re the expert not them. If a particular requirement is not clear, just make an assumption. You may forget to mention during the meeting how the news listing page is going to look like, but it’s OK to make an assumption based on your expertise (just like above). When client later receives your requirements document, they can then picture it in their head and they may go, “Aha..that’s a good idea” or even “Nah..that’s a bit too over the top, let’s forget about the news listing page”.

 

A lot of the times client thinks that your ideas are great ideas and they normally approve it. That’s even better because it means you will get longer work hence more money! Imagine if they cancel the news listing page, you have lost 1-2 days worth of work.

 

Don’t complicate the requirements. Even though you want to win more work, it doesn’t mean that you have to complicate them (the requirements). As long as what you add in there can help them achieving what they want, that’s good enough. By complicating the requirements, it will make your life a lot harder later on when developing the website. It will also increase development time and may blow out the budget. Client may not want to go ahead with your service because it’s too expensive.

 

 

 

Conclusion

So, let me remind you again. An efficient requirements gathering can only happen if you’re assertive and listen.  Ask the keyword questions. Do a lot of practice to find the keywords in a question.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Tommy

Designing & Developing Professional Website – Step 4 – Web Site Deployment

Jan 10, 2013 1:49 PM, - Posted by Tommy Segoro

The website is now fully tested and client is happy for it to go live.

As part of this article: DOWNLOAD Deployment Guide Document Template FOR FREE! You may just be a developer and your client has an another department that does the deployment for you. The Deployment Guide document template is very important to ensure that the person on that deployment department deploys successfully.

It’s now time for us to setup the live hosting service before we can transfer the files over.

 

Selecting Hosting Service

Selecting a hosting service can be a daunting task. They may look cheap but have they got good support, etc? Below are some advice that I can give when selecting hosting service:

– Look at review websites for a particular company that you’re interested to get your hosting service with. Check and ensure that various review websites all say the same thing. Check the comments from people who have had their websites hosted with that company.

– Check if the hosting company supports your need in terms of the type of coding they’re supporting, database, etc. Some host companies only support PHP and MySQL but some also support ASP.NET, etc. Ensure that the website you’ve developed can run on their environment.

– Check what the support is like. You can normally “test” this by sending a support email. These hosting companies normally have a Contact Us form on their website. Try sending an enquiry and see how long they get back to you.

– Check price (of course). Windows hosting is definitely more expensive than Linux hosting. You generally need Windows hosting if you program in ASP.NET otherwise Linux hosting will be sufficient.

– Check how much quota you have (ie. no of emails, databases, sub-domains, etc). If you know that your client will be creating a lot of email addresses, you may need to get higher plans.

 

Configuring Hosting

– You can use FTP clients such as FileZilla (free) to transfer files with.

– Create temporary redirection mechanism so that you have the time to test the production website before it goes fully live. This can be approached below:

* Create an index.html file that contains “This website is under construction” message or similar to the root folder so that when visitors are trying to access http://www.thenewproductionwebsite.com/, they see the “website under construction” message. The downside of this approach is, some IT-savvy visitors may be able to play around the URL eg. visiting http://www.thenewproductionwebsite.com/Home.php and they may end-up seeing the production website. That’s fine if the website runs correctly but what if it doesn’t?

* Ask the hosting provider to redirect ALL requests to http://www.thenewproductionwebsite.com/ to a temporary space/file. You can then create a sub-domain for testing eg. http://testing.thenewproductionwebsite.com/.

 

Please note that these are only required if you’re not sure that the live website will run correctly after deployment. Your UAT environment may be different from the live environment. You may not use the same hosting provider hence server configuration may be different.

 

Before Going Live

Before your website goes live please make sure that everything runs correctly. Forms can send emails, user can register, the website has write permission to the required files, etc. It’s embarassing when the website goes live and visitors try to register and the website then shows an error message.

 

 

 

So….that’s all for now. From this point on, I’ll go deeper and deeper into designing and developing professional website!

 

 

Cheers and see you soon,

Tommy

Designing & Developing Professional Website – Step 3 – Website Development

Jan 10, 2013 1:48 PM, - Posted by Tommy Segoro

We have now arrived at the most interesting part of the professional website development process. It’s the development time YAY! It’s time to get our hand dirty.

As part of this article: DOWNLOAD Technical Requirements Document Template FOR FREE! Make sure you document how you approach a business requirement technically.

During development we will certainly need tools to help us achieving what we have planned before. I personally use the following tools at the very least:

– Adobe Photoshop

– EditPlus Text Editor or Adobe DreamWeaver

– Any development/coding tools such as Visual Studio or text editors for PHP development, etc

– Other tools such as Adobe Flash, etc

 

 

Adobe Photoshop

Using Adobe Photoshop we will create the website prototype. I will detail later what this is all about. In a nutshell, we will be creating images on how the actual website will look like (ie. the end “product”). We will design all layouts that have been approved prior.

 

We will then send these images to client so that client can see and approve what the final products will be. Remember, when developing websites we have to encourage client to approve everything up-front before we even start the development. Any changes/modifications have to be discussed up-front as much as we can otherwise the delivery of the final product may be delayed.

 

There will always be changes during the development but as a professional web developer we have to be able to – somehow – make those changes as “out-of-scope”. Therefore, the decision is then on client on whether to implement those changes or not. I will discuss about this later.

 

 

HTML Editors

HTML editors such as EditPlus or Adobe DreamWeaver will help us a lot in producing the HTML code. After we design the prototype (see above), it’s time for us to then “cutting up” those prototypes into HTML which can then be incorporated into a programming language such as ASP.NET or PHP for producing dynamic websites.

 

These text editors will help us doing the “cutting up”. I will elaborate more on this later.

 

 

Dynamic Website/Coding Tools

What is static website vs dynamic website? Static website means that the HTML code on the website is static. If someone needs to update the content of this website, he has to literally edit and update the HTML code. Dynamic website means the HTML code is generated “on-the-fly” (eg. from database).

 

There are heaps of programming languages out there that can help us producing dynamic websites such as ASP.NET, PHP, ColdFusion, PERL, CGI, etc. These programming languages generally have their own “editor”. The difference between this editor and HTML editor is it can load “commands/libraries” that are specific to the programming language.

 

If you need to develop dynamic websites (which most of the websites nowadays are), you will certainly need these tools. They will save you a lot of time and plus you don’t have to memorize the commands/syntax that are relevant to the programming language.

 

 

Other Supporting Tools

You can also use other supporting tools such as Adobe Flash to create flash animations, etc.

 

 

UAT and Test  Environment

It is extremely important to always have User Acceptance Test (UAT) and Test Environment. This will be used for testing and client demo. You will not want to use the live hosting space for your client demo because search engine may crawl it and there is a chance of visitors coming to the website that is not ready yet. This may hurt the website later on.

 

Test Environment can be your own laptop/computer while UAT is normally hosted or at least accessible remotely by client. Try to make  your UAT environment isolated from public visitors. You can use a temporary domain name eg. http://test.clientdomainname.com/ or something.

 

Testing is always important as it is a part of quality control. By having UAT also, client can see the progress and they will like you! They can also make comments on the current progress of the website. You have to always be aware that what you send as a prototype may look different on the browser.

 

 

Conclusion

So…this is the development process in a nutshell. I will of course elaborate more on this. We will go much deeper than this. Later on we will talk about development methodologies such as Agile, SCRUM, etc. It’s all about fun fun fun…. 🙂

 

 

Cheers,

Tommy