Overroot Blog

The classic way for modifying page markup at runtime as we know it, is using ASP.NET Response Filter.
People have been using response filter for pulling off different tricks in SharePoint 2007 and it all worked fined until SharePoint 2010 arrived.

SharePoint 2010 uses ASP.NET substitution caching a.k.a Post Cache Substitution which allows it to cache the entire page except for certain portion of the page which continues to remain dynamic. More explanation can be found at http://blah.winsmarts.com/2006/05/26/aspnet-20–post-cache-substitution.aspx

Anyways so the thing is post cache substitution is not compatible with response filters. Here is the official Microsoft kb article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2014472

The only solution they suggest is to either not use substitution caching or not use response filters. They are mutually exclusive. Well since we can’t change SharePoint the only option left is to not use response filter. So there isn’t really any solution right now. If you figure it out do leave out a comment on this post.

With SharePoint 2010 on the verge of it’s release, it is very important to make your existing SharePoint applications compatible with it. SharePoint LogViewer was initially built for viewing SharePoint 2007 logs but it still could be used to view SharePoint 2010 logs until one of the most powerful feature ‘Live Monitoring’ was introduced.

‘Live Monitoring’ requires you to run SPLV on machines where SharePoint is installed. Earlier it was only able to detect SharePoint 2007 while SharePoint 2010 logs could not be monitored. SPLV detects the SharePoint installation by reading registry keys. To find the SharePoint location on a machine, SPLV used to read a registry entry ‘Location’ under the path
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0.
But this only worked for SharePoint 2007 as SharePoint 2010 has a different registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\14.0.

Now SPLV tries to locate any of the above mentioned two registry keys to detect SharePoint installation which makes it possible to monitor Live logs for both SharePoint 2007 as well as SharePoint 2010.

For those of you who want to deploy their SharePoint 2007 solutions on SharePoint 2010, Andri Yadi’s article SharePoint 2010 Solution Installer may help.

Download the latest version of SPLV from here

We some how missed the point that version is supposed to be Major.Minor.Revision.Build

When there are a lot of new features in the product, Major version is increased.
When there are some new features and a lot of bug fixes, Minor version is increased.
If there are very small bug fixes, Revision should be increased.
Build number is increased when the build is automatically made i.e. nightly, weekly, e.t.c but its irrelevant in case of SharePoint Log Viewer.

Since the release of version 1.5 of SharePoint  Log Viewer, we’ve added a lot of features and enhancements but we kept the version 1.5 and increased the revision instead but its going to change from now.

Now when we add a new feature we’ll be increasing minor version, though the only feature remaining is Live Monitoring of entire farm. After this feature we’ll probably switch to our next open source product.

Following is the list of all the features that are added in v1.5

• Auto complete search box in filter
• Live Monitoring support
• Faster searching and sorting
• Faster log loading
• Bookmarking support
• Export search results
• Multiple keyword search

This release has following improvements:

• Scroll position is maintained when log is refreshed
• Filtering/Sorting performance has been significantly improved.
• The default file in open dialog is the last one modified in the logs directory.
• Few crash bug fixes.

SharePoint Log Viewer is now full of features but there are two more features that we’re looking at in the next version.

1) Live Logs from all machines of SharePoint farm:
We will extend the current Live mode feature to read logs from all the nodes of SharePoint farm. This will allow you to get diagnostic logs of entire farm sitting on a single machine.

2) Auto complete search text box:
The search text box should provide auto complete/suggest list like google search.

With the addition of above 2 features. SharePoint Log viewer will become the ultimate choice for monitoring SharePoint logs.

SharePoint Log Viewer 1.5 has been released.
You can get a freshly baked copy at http://sharepointlogviewer.codeplex.com

Do share your valuable feedback with us to help us make it better.

We’re actively working on version 1.5 of SharePoint Log Viewer.
Following are some of the features it will have.

• Bookmark log entries and navigate between bookmarks.
• Limit no. of entries displayed in live mode.
• Improved UI and icons.
• Select entries to view in grid in settings dialog.
• Copy any log entry by pressing CTRL+C

Stay tuned.

SharePoint Log Viewer 1.1 Beta has been released.
Besides UI improvement it has feature for Live Monitoring and Log Export.

Live Monitoring:

Live monitoring can be started by pressing the ‘Play’ button on the toolbar.
Once pressed, SharePoint Log viewer will start monitoring the logs directory of WSS/MOSS for changes in the currently used log file. As soon as new entries are added they are displayed on the log viewer.

This can be very useful if you’re a SharePoint developer and you’re debugging your application that writes entries in ULS logs.

The good part is that if you’ve applied a filter or you have typed something in the search bar then only those log entries will appear in live mode that match that criteria

Log Export:

Another important feature of v1.1 of Log viewer is that after filtering log entries you can export them to a SharePoint log format file.
This feature is useful in case you want to share details of certain event/errors with another person i.e. developer or network admin.
Sending the complete log file to anyone gives the other person too much noisy data and it becomes difficult for him to find out whats happening unless of course the second person also uses Overroot’s SharePoint Log Viewer.

You can get the beta release from: http://sharepointlogviewer.codeplex.com/

Please email us your feedback at overrootinc [at] gmail [dot] com

Say hello to SharePoint LogViewer http://sharepointlogviewer.codeplex.com/

Its a WPF based windows application to view SharePoint logs.

• It allows you to view multiple log files at once.
• You can search by any field.
• You can filter the log by any field.
• Drag drop support.

Its very easy to use and provides all the basic functionality that you may require to view SharePoint logs.
If you have any suggestions, comments or you’re willing to participate in this open source project, then please send us an email at overrootinc [at] gmail [dot] com