Extracting a DLL from the Global Assembly Cache

Sometimes, you might need to access DLLs which for various reasons might exists only in the Windows\Assembly folder. This folder allows you to drop DLLs into it, but does not allow you to drag DLLs out.

The following workaround allows you to get access to the DLLs in the GAC.

Create a mapped drive to:

\\servername\C$\Windows\assembly

When you click on the mapped drive you will find a number of GAC folders. Browse around to find the DLL you require.

I'm not sure if this is something advisable to do, so please handle with care!

Unknown Error - Revealing the true source of the error

SharePoint has the production friendly, but definetely developer unfriendly page - Unknown error when an error is thrown. My usual way to finding the error was to look at the Logs found in the 12 hive, however it looks like there is an easier way to do this:

The Sharepoint web.config is abstracting this message from the user. Find the web.config for the site you normally use as your development site.

<safemode callstack="false"> and change it to CallStack="true"
Set <customerrors mode="On"> to mode="Off"
Set <compilation batch="false" debug="false"> to <compilation batch="true" debug="true">

You will now get a hopefully less cryptic error message...

Team-Based Development in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Good read:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb428899.aspx

Migration Hassles - made easy(ier)

I stumbled across the following while struggling with some migrations, haven't had time to try it out though it looks promising!

Migrating implementations has been one of my greatest headaches since day 1, and anything which helps with this is always welcome.

Introducing the SharePoint Content Deployment Wizard. The tool provides a wizard-like approach to deploying content between SharePoint sites. The selected content is exported using the Content Migration API (PRIME), giving a .cmp file (Content Migration Package) which can be copied to other servers.
http://www.sharepointnutsandbolts.com/2007/12/introducing-sharepoint-content.html