RLV Blog

Beware this limitation when using SharePoint Image Renditions

Posted on August 5, 2017 by Dan

With image renditions you can specify a pixel size when requesting an image, and SharePoint will deliver the image scaled down to this size for you. This is great, because you don’t have to worry about your users pulling full size pictures from their gigapixel cameras when publishing content. Or do you?

I was recently browsing a customer’s SharePoint Online intranet solution and noticed that some images in the news roll-up loaded slowly. Turned out they had been using high resolution stock photos for a few of their news articles. Even though the news roll-up requested a specific image rendition, SharePoint delivered the original, full size image file. The penalty of this is both downloading large files (10MB in this case) and having the browser scale down the image (which is slow and looks bad). I’m sure you can imagine the performance impact this could have on pages such as an intranet start page where you have lots of images.

I investigated this further by scaling an image to various sizes to see what happened. Turns out, at around 6400 pixels width or height, SharePoint suddenly stops delivering a scaled down image rendition and instead just sends the original file. This is true for both SharePoint Online and SharePoint 2016. My recommendation is that even if you use image rendition, user education is still necessary to avoid problems.

Posted in Tips | Tagged image renditions, sharepoint, sharepoint online | 5 Comments

How to backup and restore tables in Azure storage

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Dan

There is currently no built in solution for backing up tables in Azure Storage, but we can easily do it with the help of a tool called AzCopy which is provided by Microsoft. Below is a PowerShell script I built to simplify the process of backing up and restoring. It’s a two-step rocket: First it enumerates all your tables and saves a CSV-file with their names. Then it uses this file to perform the actual backup (and restore if needed). This way you can easily edit the CSV-file to “configure” what to backup.

This script is also available at my GitHub repo.

<#
    Simple script for backing up and restoring Azure Storage tables. Data 
    is save on your local disk.

    Prerequisites
        Download and install AzCopy: http://aka.ms/downloadazcopy
        
        More info about AzCopy:
        https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/storage-use-azcopy

    Backing up tables
        1. Edit the config section
        2. Run Init-StorageAccountTablesBackup to create tables.csv
        3. Open tables.csv. Verify content and remove any table you don't want to backup.
        4. Run Backup-StorageAccountTables

    Restore tables
        1. First run Remove-StorageAccountTables
        2. Wait a while to let Azure remove your tables
        3. Run Restore-StorageAccountTables
#>


### Config ###

$backupDir = "c:\backup"
$AzCopyFolder = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\AzCopy\"

$storageAccountName = "mystorageaccount"
$storageAccountKey = "rtyuiertyuqweasdfghjqwekliopasdfopzxcvbnmqiopasdfopwghjklzxcvbnm=="


### Functions ###

function Init-StorageAccountTablesBackup {
    if(!(Test-Path $backupDir)) {
        Write-Host ("Creating folder $backupDir") -ForegroundColor Yellow
        New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $backupDir
    }
    $ctx = New-AzureStorageContext $storageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $storageAccountKey
    $tables = Get-AzureStorageTable -Context $ctx
    $tables | Sort-Object -Property "CloudTable" | Select-Object CloudTable,Uri | Export-Csv "$backupDir\tables.csv" -Encoding UTF8
}

function Remove-StorageAccountTables {
    $tables = import-csv "$backupDir\tables.csv" -Encoding UTF8
    $ctx = New-AzureStorageContext $storageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $storageAccountKey
    foreach($t in $tables) {
        $tableName = $t.CloudTable
        Write-Host ("Removing table $tableName") -ForegroundColor Yellow
        Remove-AzureStorageTable –Name $tableName –Context $ctx
    }
}

function Backup-StorageAccountTables {
    $tables = import-csv "$backupDir\tables.csv" -Encoding UTF8
    cd $AzCopyFolder
    foreach($t in $tables) {
        $tableUrl = $t.Uri
        $tableName = $t.CloudTable
        Write-Host ("`nBacking up table $tableName") -ForegroundColor Yellow
        .\AzCopy.exe /Source:"$tableUrl" /Dest:"$backupDir" /SourceKey:"$storageAccountKey" /Manifest:"$tableName.manifest"
    }
}

function Restore-StorageAccountTables {
    $tables = import-csv "$backupDir\tables.csv" -Encoding UTF8
    cd $AzCopyFolder
    foreach($t in $tables) {
        $tableUrl = $t.Uri
        $tableName = $t.CloudTable
        Write-Host ("`nRestoring table $tableName") -ForegroundColor Yellow
        .\AzCopy.exe /Source:"$backupDir" /Dest:"$tableUrl" /DestKey:"$storageAccountKey" /Manifest:"$tableName.manifest" /EntityOperation:InsertOrReplace
    }
}

Simple script for backing up and restoring Azure Storage tables. Data

is save on your local disk.

Prerequisites

Download and install AzCopy: http://aka.ms/downloadazcopy

More info about AzCopy:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/storage-use-azcopy

Backing up tables

1. Edit the config section

2. Run Init-StorageAccountTablesBackup to create tables.csv

3. Open tables.csv. Verify content and remove any table you don't want to backup.

4. Run Backup-StorageAccountTables

Restore tables

1. First run Remove-StorageAccountTables

2. Wait a while to let Azure remove your tables

3. Run Restore-StorageAccountTables

### Config ###

$backupDir = "c:\backup"

$AzCopyFolder = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\AzCopy\"

$storageAccountName = "mystorageaccount"

$storageAccountKey = "rtyuiertyuqweasdfghjqwekliopasdfopzxcvbnmqiopasdfopwghjklzxcvbnm=="

### Functions ###

function Init-StorageAccountTablesBackup {

if(!(Test-Path $backupDir)) {

Write-Host ("Creating folder $backupDir") -ForegroundColor Yellow

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $backupDir

}

$ctx = New-AzureStorageContext $storageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $storageAccountKey

$tables = Get-AzureStorageTable -Context $ctx

$tables | Sort-Object -Property "CloudTable" | Select-Object CloudTable,Uri | Export-Csv "$backupDir\tables.csv" -Encoding UTF8

}

function Remove-StorageAccountTables {

$tables = import-csv "$backupDir\tables.csv" -Encoding UTF8

$ctx = New-AzureStorageContext $storageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $storageAccountKey

foreach($t in $tables) {

$tableName = $t.CloudTable

Write-Host ("Removing table $tableName") -ForegroundColor Yellow

Remove-AzureStorageTable –Name $tableName –Context $ctx

}

function Backup-StorageAccountTables {

$tables = import-csv "$backupDir\tables.csv" -Encoding UTF8

cd $AzCopyFolder

foreach($t in $tables) {

$tableUrl = $t.Uri

$tableName = $t.CloudTable

Write-Host ("`nBacking up table $tableName") -ForegroundColor Yellow

.\AzCopy.exe /Source:"$tableUrl" /Dest:"$backupDir" /SourceKey:"$storageAccountKey" /Manifest:"$tableName.manifest"

}

function Restore-StorageAccountTables {

$tables = import-csv "$backupDir\tables.csv" -Encoding UTF8

cd $AzCopyFolder

foreach($t in $tables) {

$tableUrl = $t.Uri

$tableName = $t.CloudTable

Write-Host ("`nRestoring table $tableName") -ForegroundColor Yellow

.\AzCopy.exe /Source:"$backupDir" /Dest:"$tableUrl" /DestKey:"$storageAccountKey" /Manifest:"$tableName.manifest" /EntityOperation:InsertOrReplace

}

Posted in Development, Tutorials | Tagged azcopy, azure, azure storage, backup, csv, powershell | 1 Comment

Extending the JavaScript console with history recording

Posted on June 26, 2017 by Dan

The browser JavaScript console is a web developers best friend. Using console.log() is essential for debugging your web apps. But there are a few annoyances. Two things that bother me for a while are:

Reloading the page clears the console. Yes, there are settings for keeping the log, but personally I prefer to keep this turned off.
Internet Explorer and Edge will only print to the console once the dev tools window has been opened. The console is always empty when opened, so anything you logged before this is lost.

Fortunately JavaScript is a very flexible language. Let’s make the console better!

Design goals:

Record all calls to the console’s log() , error() , warn() and info() functions.
Recall the console history by calling our own console.history() function.
- console.history() shows the console history since the current page load.
- console.history(true) shows everything from the current session.

Here is my solution (also available at my GitHub tutorial repo). I have tried to annotate it to explain what is going on.

/* Console History by RL Vision 
 * https://github.com/rlv-dan   */
(function () {

	if (console && console.log) {	// Make sure the console object is available
		
		console.historyData = [];
		
		// Restore previous session (if there is one)
		// The sessionStorage object is a convenient choice because the browser automatically clears it for us.
		var currentSessionStorage = [];
		if(sessionStorage && sessionStorage.consoleHistory) {
			currentSessionStorage = JSON.parse(sessionStorage.consoleHistory);
		}

		// Keep a reference to the original console functions that we intend to overwrite
		window.originalConsole = {
			// Assigning a native function to a var could throw TypeError, thus we need to use bind
			log: console.log.bind(console),
			info: console.info.bind(console),
			warn: console.warn.bind(console),
			error: console.error.bind(console),
		}

		// Function to save console calls in our history data objects
		var makeHistory = function(type, args) {
			args= Array.prototype.slice.call(args);
			console.historyData.push( { "type": type, "output": args, "timestamp": new Date() } );
			if(sessionStorage) {
				currentSessionStorage.push( { "type": type, "output": args, "timestamp": new Date() } );
				sessionStorage.consoleHistory = JSON.stringify(currentSessionStorage);
			}
		}

		// Override console functions with out own implementations
		// These will first record the call arguments and then pass the call on to the real console object
		console.log = function() {
			makeHistory("log", arguments);
			return originalConsole.log.apply(this, arguments);
		}
		console.info = function() {
			makeHistory("info", arguments);
			return originalConsole.info.apply(this, arguments);
		}
		console.warn = function() {
			makeHistory("warn", arguments);
			return originalConsole.warn.apply(this, arguments);
		}	
		console.error = function() {
			makeHistory("error", arguments);
			return originalConsole.error.apply(this, arguments);
		}

		// Recall history by calling console.history()
		// Argument entireSession determines if recalling since beginning of current page load or since beginning of the current session
		console.history = function( entireSession ) {
		
			// Select data source
			var source = console.historyData;
			if(entireSession && sessionStorage && sessionStorage.consoleHistory) {
				source = JSON.parse(sessionStorage.consoleHistory);
			}
			
			// Print history
			for(var n=0; n<source.length; n++) {
				switch(source[n].type) {
					case "log":
						originalConsole.log.apply(null, source[n].output);
						break;
					case "info":
						originalConsole.info.apply(null, source[n].output);
						break;
					case "warn":
						originalConsole.warn.apply(null, source[n].output);
						break;
					case "error":
						originalConsole.error.apply(null, source[n].output);
						break;
				}
			}
		}
	
	}
})(); // Initialize using an Immediately-Invoked Function Expression (IIFE)

/* Console History by RL Vision

* https://github.com/rlv-dan */

(function () {

if (console && console.log) { // Make sure the console object is available

console.historyData = [];

// Restore previous session (if there is one)

// The sessionStorage object is a convenient choice because the browser automatically clears it for us.

var currentSessionStorage = [];

if(sessionStorage && sessionStorage.consoleHistory) {

currentSessionStorage = JSON.parse(sessionStorage.consoleHistory);

}

// Keep a reference to the original console functions that we intend to overwrite

window.originalConsole = {

// Assigning a native function to a var could throw TypeError, thus we need to use bind

log: console.log.bind(console),

info: console.info.bind(console),

warn: console.warn.bind(console),

error: console.error.bind(console),

}

// Function to save console calls in our history data objects

var makeHistory = function(type, args) {

args= Array.prototype.slice.call(args);

console.historyData.push( { "type": type, "output": args, "timestamp": new Date() } );

if(sessionStorage) {

currentSessionStorage.push( { "type": type, "output": args, "timestamp": new Date() } );

sessionStorage.consoleHistory = JSON.stringify(currentSessionStorage);

}

// Override console functions with out own implementations

// These will first record the call arguments and then pass the call on to the real console object

console.log = function() {

makeHistory("log", arguments);

return originalConsole.log.apply(this, arguments);

}

console.info = function() {

makeHistory("info", arguments);

return originalConsole.info.apply(this, arguments);

}

console.warn = function() {

makeHistory("warn", arguments);

return originalConsole.warn.apply(this, arguments);

}

console.error = function() {

makeHistory("error", arguments);

return originalConsole.error.apply(this, arguments);

}

// Recall history by calling console.history()

// Argument entireSession determines if recalling since beginning of current page load or since beginning of the current session

console.history = function( entireSession ) {

// Select data source

var source = console.historyData;

if(entireSession && sessionStorage && sessionStorage.consoleHistory) {

source = JSON.parse(sessionStorage.consoleHistory);

}

// Print history

for(var n=0; n<source.length; n++) {

switch(source[n].type) {

case "log":

originalConsole.log.apply(null, source[n].output);

break;

case "info":

originalConsole.info.apply(null, source[n].output);

break;

case "warn":

originalConsole.warn.apply(null, source[n].output);

break;

case "error":

originalConsole.error.apply(null, source[n].output);

break;

}

})(); // Initialize using an Immediately-Invoked Function Expression (IIFE)

Posted in Development, Tutorials | Tagged browsers, console, edge, internet explorer, javascript, programming | Leave a comment

Solution to Azure AD App not able to use given permissions

Posted on April 15, 2017 by Dan

A client I’m working with had trouble adding permissions to their Azure Active Directory Application (AAD App). We added application permissions to allow the app to read all users’ full profiles, read directory data and read O365 unified groups, but no matter what we did our code would get an “insufficient privileges” answer back from the Microsoft Graph. We even added a brand new app, but it too had the same problems, indicating that the problem lied deeper than the app permissions.

Reaching out to Microsoft support they clearly had a hard time figuring out what was wrong, but finally their engineers presented the following solution that worked:

Open PowerShell
Connect-MsolService (sign in with a Global Admin account)
Remove-MsolServicePrincipal -ObjectId [GUID] -TenantId [GUID]
Start an InPrivate browsing window
Open: https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/authorize?response_type=code&client_id=[GUID]&prompt=admin_consent

This is supposed to remove the Service Principal and following the admin consent workflow a new Service Principal should be created and inherit the permissions given to the application object.

I hope this is helpful to someone in the same situation.

Posted in Development | Tagged apps, azure ad, o365, powershell | Leave a comment

I stopped using Google Analytics. Here’s why.

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Dan

For many years I’ve been using Google Analytics (GA) on rlvision.com, but more and more I started questioning myself why. So a month ago I finally cut the cord. Here are my reasons.

The first reason is simply that I don’t really have any need for advanced analytics. Sure, it’s always fun to see how many visitors your site has had and what the most popular pages are, but for me that’s where it ends. Google Analytics is way to complex for me and my needs, and I never felt that I really understood how to use it properly. Usage statistics sounds very enticing to website owners and stakeholders. And GA always pops up as the first suggestion. But I’m going to be so bold as to suggest that most GA users actually do not need such an advanced tracking system. They would be just as happy with a more simple system. Heck, they might even be more happy, since a simpler system that they actually understand and can fully use would be of more value to them!
The second reason is that I don’t like being tracked by Google (or other “data companies”). I even block the GA JavaScript in my browser. I don’t necessarily think it will do my any harm to be track. But the more I think about how much information Google has about everyone, the more scared I get. That being said I do not mind individual websites to track me. The problem with Google Analytics is that they track an enormous amount of sites, and by combining this data (and data from their other services) they get an eerily complete picture of you. If you choose Google Analytics because it’s free, think again about what you are giving them. It’s not healthy to let corporations have access that kind of data! Considering my stance on this, it’s simply not right to subject my website visitors to something I myself despise.
Third. If I am to track my website users, I want to own the collected data myself. Only then can I offer a real privacy policy. Only then can I dispose of the data if I need to. Only then can I (at least in theory) move my data between services. With Google Analytics, who owns your data? I’m not sure. But I do know that you cannot export you data from GA. You can manually download individual reports, but not all you data.

There are lots of alternatives to Google Analytics out there. Some are cloud service, some are self hosting software. Some are free and even open source, some are paid. For some sites GA is no doubt a very powerful and suitable service. But not for everyone.

Note: At the same time I removed Google Analytics I also stopped using AddThis which I had been using for some years. Turns out AddThis is nowadays owned by Oracle Corporation, another major player in the data field…

Posted in Opinion & Thoughts | Tagged addthis, analytics, corporations, data, google, google analytics, privacy, tracking | 2 Comments

Heads-up if you use ADAL.JS on a site added to the “Trusted Sites” zone

Posted on October 1, 2016 by Dan

When working on a SharePoint Online solution that is using the ADAL.JS library for authentication, a customer reported strange problems. In our solution, our site sends the client to the authentication authority (Azure AD), which authenticates the client and forwards it to the reply URL which in turn returns the client to the original page in a logged in state.

The problems we saw were mainly that the clients tended to get stuck in an authentication loop, where the client seemed to correctly receive a token from the authority, but our ADAL-based solution did not see the authenticated user and thus sent the browser back to be authenticated, in a seemingly endless loop. The behavior was quite erratic though – sometimes the clients were actually able to log in, either directly or after several tries. Other times it eventually failed and stopped somewhere in the “loop”.

The oddest behavior was however that the browser tab (or whole browser if only one tab) could sometimes simply just close by itself!

I experienced this myself on IE11, but the customer reported that same happening in Chrome too. A clue was that it only happened on the customer’s computers when logged in through their VPN, and only against their own SharePoint Online tenant.

Eventually we cracked the problem. Turns out that the customer had put SharePoint Online (https://customer-tenant.sharepoint.com) in the Trusted Sites zone under Internet Options in Windows. But authentication with ADAL.JS relies on a hidden iFrame working against a different URL. Because the site and iFrame belonged to different security zones, they were no allowed to share cookies.

The solution was to simply put the authentication authority (https://*.microsoftonline.com) in the Trusted Sites zone as well.

This weakness and solution is actually stated in the ADAL.JS readme, but it is easy to miss or forget, and quite hard to figure out the cause if it happens. Hopefully this post will save someone from this agony.

PS: Need to view all trusted sites, but the list can not be scrolled due to being controlled by a group policy? Superuser has the answer!

Posted in Development, Tips | Tagged adal.js, authentication, azure ad, cookies, iframe, javascript, security, sharepoint online, trusted sites | Leave a comment

Downloading OneDrive documents as PDF

Posted on September 18, 2016 by Dan

As part of automating a build process I needed a way to download the product documentation from OneDrive and save as PDF files for shipping with product. The result is this PowerShell script with two cmdlets, one that takes an array or OneDrive files to download, and one that converts the downloaded DocX files to PDF (using Word). Here is the script (also on my GitHub):

### This script download Word documents from OneDrive and saves as local PDF files
### Requires Microsoft Word and SharePoint Online Client Components SDK (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42038)

$SharePointClientDll = (($(Get-ItemProperty -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Path Registry::$(Get-ChildItem -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Path 'Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SharePoint Client Components\'|Sort-Object Name -Descending| Select-Object -First 1 -ExpandProperty Name)).'Location') + "ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll")
Add-Type -Path $SharePointClientDll 


function Get-OneDriveFiles {
    # Based on script from http://gsexdev.blogspot.com/2015/04/downloading-shared-file-from-onedrive.html
    param (
        $Tenant = "$( throw 'Tenant is a mandatory Parameter' )",
        $FileUrls = "$( throw 'FileUrls is a mandatory Parameter' )",
        $PSCredentials = "$( throw 'PSCredentials is a mandatory Parameter' )",
        $DownloadPath  = "$( throw 'DownloadPath is a mandatory Parameter' )"
    )
    process {
        $SpoCredentials =  New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($PSCredentials.UserName.ToString(),$PSCredentials.password) 
        $clientContext = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($Tenant)
        $clientContext.Credentials = $SpoCredentials;
        $output = @()
        ForEach($url in $FileUrls) {
            $DownloadURI = New-Object System.Uri($url)
            $destPath = ($DownloadPath + [System.IO.Path]::GetFileName($DownloadURI.LocalPath))
            Write-Host "Downloading $url..." -NoNewline
            $fileInfo = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.File]::OpenBinaryDirect($clientContext, $DownloadURI.LocalPath);
            $fstream = New-Object System.IO.FileStream($destPath, [System.IO.FileMode]::Create);
            $fileInfo.Stream.CopyTo($fstream)
            $fstream.Flush()
            $fstream.Close()
            $output += $destPath
            Write-Host " Done!"
        }
    }
    end {
        $output
    }
}


function Convert-WordFilesToPdf {
 	[CmdletBinding()]
	param(
		[Parameter(Mandatory=$True,
		           ValueFromPipeline=$True)]
		[string[]]$WordFiles,
        $SavePath  = "$( throw 'SavePath is a mandatory Parameter' )",
        [bool]$DeleteOriginal = $false
	)
    process {
	    $word_app = New-Object -ComObject Word.Application
        $outputFolder = Get-Item -LiteralPath $SavePath
	    foreach($f in $WordFiles) {
            try {
                Write-Host "Converting $f to PDF..." -NoNewline
                $file = Get-Item -LiteralPath $f
		        $document = $word_app.Documents.Open($file.FullName)
		        $pdf_filename = "$($SavePath)\$($file.BaseName).pdf"
		        $document.SaveAs([ref] $pdf_filename, [ref] 17)
		        $document.Close()
                if($DeleteOriginal) {
                    Remove-Item $file | Out-Null
                }
                Write-Host " Done!"
	        }
            catch {
            }
        }
	    $word_app.Quit()
    }
}


### Usage ###

# Prompt for credentials
$cred = Get-Credential

# If you don't want to enter your credentials every time you 
# run the script, and are ok with saving your password in the 
# script, use below instead of above promt
<#
$username = "your@email"
$password = "yourpassword"
$secstr = New-Object -TypeName System.Security.SecureString
$password.ToCharArray() | ForEach-Object {$secstr.AppendChar($_)}
$cred = new-object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist $username, $secstr
#>

# Configure what to do and where to put the files
$tenant = 'https://mytenant.sharepoint.com'
$docs = 'https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/mysite/Shared%20documents/Doc1.docx',
        'https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/mysite/Shared%20documents/Doc2.docx'
$downloadDocxTo = 'c:\'
$convertPdfTo = 'c:\'
$removeDocx = $true

# Run the cmdlets
Get-OneDriveFiles -Tenant $tenant -FileUrls $docs -PSCredentials $cred -DownloadPath $downloadDocxTo | Convert-WordFilesToPdf -SavePath $convertPdfTo -DeleteOriginal $removeDocx

### This script download Word documents from OneDrive and saves as local PDF files

### Requires Microsoft Word and SharePoint Online Client Components SDK (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42038)

$SharePointClientDll = (($(Get-ItemProperty -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Path Registry::$(Get-ChildItem -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Path 'Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SharePoint Client Components\'|Sort-Object Name -Descending| Select-Object -First 1 -ExpandProperty Name)).'Location') + "ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll")

Add-Type -Path $SharePointClientDll

function Get-OneDriveFiles {

# Based on script from http://gsexdev.blogspot.com/2015/04/downloading-shared-file-from-onedrive.html

param (

$Tenant = "$( throw 'Tenant is a mandatory Parameter' )",

$FileUrls = "$( throw 'FileUrls is a mandatory Parameter' )",

$PSCredentials = "$( throw 'PSCredentials is a mandatory Parameter' )",

$DownloadPath = "$( throw 'DownloadPath is a mandatory Parameter' )"

)

process {

$SpoCredentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($PSCredentials.UserName.ToString(),$PSCredentials.password)

$clientContext = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($Tenant)

$clientContext.Credentials = $SpoCredentials;

$output = @()

ForEach($url in $FileUrls) {

$DownloadURI = New-Object System.Uri($url)

$destPath = ($DownloadPath + [System.IO.Path]::GetFileName($DownloadURI.LocalPath))

Write-Host "Downloading $url..." -NoNewline

$fileInfo = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.File]::OpenBinaryDirect($clientContext, $DownloadURI.LocalPath);

$fstream = New-Object System.IO.FileStream($destPath, [System.IO.FileMode]::Create);

$fileInfo.Stream.CopyTo($fstream)

$fstream.Flush()

$fstream.Close()

$output += $destPath

Write-Host " Done!"

}

end {

$output

}

function Convert-WordFilesToPdf {

[CmdletBinding()]

param(

[Parameter(Mandatory=$True,

ValueFromPipeline=$True)]

[string[]]$WordFiles,

$SavePath = "$( throw 'SavePath is a mandatory Parameter' )",

[bool]$DeleteOriginal = $false

)

process {

$word_app = New-Object -ComObject Word.Application

$outputFolder = Get-Item -LiteralPath $SavePath

foreach($f in $WordFiles) {

try {

Write-Host "Converting $f to PDF..." -NoNewline

$file = Get-Item -LiteralPath $f

$document = $word_app.Documents.Open($file.FullName)

$pdf_filename = "$($SavePath)\$($file.BaseName).pdf"

$document.SaveAs([ref] $pdf_filename, [ref] 17)

$document.Close()

if($DeleteOriginal) {

Remove-Item $file | Out-Null

}

Write-Host " Done!"

}

catch {

}

$word_app.Quit()

}

### Usage ###

# Prompt for credentials

$cred = Get-Credential

# If you don't want to enter your credentials every time you

# run the script, and are ok with saving your password in the

# script, use below instead of above promt

$username = "your@email"

$password = "yourpassword"

$secstr = New-Object -TypeName System.Security.SecureString

$password.ToCharArray() | ForEach-Object {$secstr.AppendChar($_)}

$cred = new-object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist $username, $secstr

# Configure what to do and where to put the files

$tenant = 'https://mytenant.sharepoint.com'

$docs = 'https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/mysite/Shared%20documents/Doc1.docx',

'https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/mysite/Shared%20documents/Doc2.docx'

$downloadDocxTo = 'c:\'

$convertPdfTo = 'c:\'

$removeDocx = $true

# Run the cmdlets

Get-OneDriveFiles -Tenant $tenant -FileUrls $docs -PSCredentials $cred -DownloadPath $downloadDocxTo | Convert-WordFilesToPdf -SavePath $convertPdfTo -DeleteOriginal $removeDocx

Posted in Development, Tutorials | Tagged docx, microsoft word, onedrive, pdf, powershell, sharepoint online | Leave a comment

A drag-and-drop GUI made with PowerShell

Posted on September 17, 2016 by Dan

The script below shows how to create a simple WinForms GUI in PowerShell, where you can drag and drop files and folders and then process these with PowerShell commands when you click the button. I’ve pieced this together using various online source and my own trial and error, and figured it might be useful as a base for others who need to create an interface.

I probably won’t win any design prices with this one :-)

Tip: If you are unsure of control names or how to use properties on a control, remember that you can always launch Visual Studio with a WinForms project and then inspect the Properties window and Form1.Designer.cs file for “inspiration”.

Here is the script (or get it at GitHub).

### Sample showing a PowerShell GUI with drag-and-drop ###

[void] [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms")
[void] [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Drawing")


### Create form ###

$form = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Form
$form.Text = "PowerShell GUI"
$form.Size = '260,320'
$form.StartPosition = "CenterScreen"
$form.MinimumSize = $form.Size
$form.MaximizeBox = $False
$form.Topmost = $True


### Define controls ###

$button = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button
$button.Location = '5,5'
$button.Size = '75,23'
$button.Width = 120
$button.Text = "Print list to console"

$checkbox = New-Object Windows.Forms.Checkbox
$checkbox.Location = '140,8'
$checkbox.AutoSize = $True
$checkbox.Text = "Clear afterwards"

$label = New-Object Windows.Forms.Label
$label.Location = '5,40'
$label.AutoSize = $True
$label.Text = "Drop files or folders here:"

$listBox = New-Object Windows.Forms.ListBox
$listBox.Location = '5,60'
$listBox.Height = 200
$listBox.Width = 240
$listBox.Anchor = ([System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles]::Bottom -bor [System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles]::Left -bor [System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles]::Right -bor [System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles]::Top)
$listBox.IntegralHeight = $False
$listBox.AllowDrop = $True

$statusBar = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.StatusBar
$statusBar.Text = "Ready"


### Add controls to form ###

$form.SuspendLayout()
$form.Controls.Add($button)
$form.Controls.Add($checkbox)
$form.Controls.Add($label)
$form.Controls.Add($listBox)
$form.Controls.Add($statusBar)
$form.ResumeLayout()


### Write event handlers ###

$button_Click = {
    write-host "Listbox contains:" -ForegroundColor Yellow

	foreach ($item in $listBox.Items)
    {
        $i = Get-Item -LiteralPath $item
        if($i -is [System.IO.DirectoryInfo])
        {
            write-host ("`t" + $i.Name + " [Directory]")
        }
        else
        {
            write-host ("`t" + $i.Name + " [" + [math]::round($i.Length/1MB, 2) + " MB]")
        }
	}

    if($checkbox.Checked -eq $True)
    {
        $listBox.Items.Clear()
    }

    $statusBar.Text = ("List contains $($listBox.Items.Count) items")
}

$listBox_DragOver = [System.Windows.Forms.DragEventHandler]{
	if ($_.Data.GetDataPresent([Windows.Forms.DataFormats]::FileDrop)) # $_ = [System.Windows.Forms.DragEventArgs]
	{
	    $_.Effect = 'Copy'
	}
	else
	{
	    $_.Effect = 'None'
	}
}
	
$listBox_DragDrop = [System.Windows.Forms.DragEventHandler]{
	foreach ($filename in $_.Data.GetData([Windows.Forms.DataFormats]::FileDrop)) # $_ = [System.Windows.Forms.DragEventArgs]
    {
		$listBox.Items.Add($filename)
	}
    $statusBar.Text = ("List contains $($listBox.Items.Count) items")
}

$form_FormClosed = {
	try
    {
        $listBox.remove_Click($button_Click)
		$listBox.remove_DragOver($listBox_DragOver)
		$listBox.remove_DragDrop($listBox_DragDrop)
        $listBox.remove_DragDrop($listBox_DragDrop)
		$form.remove_FormClosed($Form_Cleanup_FormClosed)
	}
	catch [Exception]
    { }
}


### Wire up events ###

$button.Add_Click($button_Click)
$listBox.Add_DragOver($listBox_DragOver)
$listBox.Add_DragDrop($listBox_DragDrop)
$form.Add_FormClosed($form_FormClosed)


#### Show form ###

[void] $form.ShowDialog()

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### Sample showing a PowerShell GUI with drag-and-drop ###

[void] [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms")

[void] [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Drawing")

### Create form ###

$form = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Form

$form.Text = "PowerShell GUI"

$form.Size = '260,320'

$form.StartPosition = "CenterScreen"

$form.MinimumSize = $form.Size

$form.MaximizeBox = $False

$form.Topmost = $True

### Define controls ###

$button = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button

$button.Location = '5,5'

$button.Size = '75,23'

$button.Width = 120

$button.Text = "Print list to console"

$checkbox = New-Object Windows.Forms.Checkbox

$checkbox.Location = '140,8'

$checkbox.AutoSize = $True

$checkbox.Text = "Clear afterwards"

$label = New-Object Windows.Forms.Label

$label.Location = '5,40'

$label.AutoSize = $True

$label.Text = "Drop files or folders here:"

$listBox = New-Object Windows.Forms.ListBox

$listBox.Location = '5,60'

$listBox.Height = 200

$listBox.Width = 240

$listBox.Anchor = ([System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles]::Bottom -bor [System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles]::Left -bor [System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles]::Right -bor [System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles]::Top)

$listBox.IntegralHeight = $False

$listBox.AllowDrop = $True

$statusBar = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.StatusBar

$statusBar.Text = "Ready"

### Add controls to form ###

$form.SuspendLayout()

$form.Controls.Add($button)

$form.Controls.Add($checkbox)

$form.Controls.Add($label)

$form.Controls.Add($listBox)

$form.Controls.Add($statusBar)

$form.ResumeLayout()

### Write event handlers ###

$button_Click = {

write-host "Listbox contains:" -ForegroundColor Yellow

foreach ($item in $listBox.Items)

{

$i = Get-Item -LiteralPath $item

if($i -is [System.IO.DirectoryInfo])

{

write-host ("`t" + $i.Name + " [Directory]")

}

else

{

write-host ("`t" + $i.Name + " [" + [math]::round($i.Length/1MB, 2) + " MB]")

}

if($checkbox.Checked -eq $True)

{

$listBox.Items.Clear()

}

$statusBar.Text = ("List contains $($listBox.Items.Count) items")

}

$listBox_DragOver = [System.Windows.Forms.DragEventHandler]{

if ($_.Data.GetDataPresent([Windows.Forms.DataFormats]::FileDrop)) # $_ = [System.Windows.Forms.DragEventArgs]

{

$_.Effect = 'Copy'

}

else

{

$_.Effect = 'None'

}

$listBox_DragDrop = [System.Windows.Forms.DragEventHandler]{

foreach ($filename in $_.Data.GetData([Windows.Forms.DataFormats]::FileDrop)) # $_ = [System.Windows.Forms.DragEventArgs]

{

$listBox.Items.Add($filename)

}

$statusBar.Text = ("List contains $($listBox.Items.Count) items")

}

$form_FormClosed = {

try

{

$listBox.remove_Click($button_Click)

$listBox.remove_DragOver($listBox_DragOver)

$listBox.remove_DragDrop($listBox_DragDrop)

$form.remove_FormClosed($Form_Cleanup_FormClosed)

}

catch [Exception]

{ }

}

### Wire up events ###

$button.Add_Click($button_Click)

$listBox.Add_DragOver($listBox_DragOver)

$listBox.Add_DragDrop($listBox_DragDrop)

$form.Add_FormClosed($form_FormClosed)

#### Show form ###

[void] $form.ShowDialog()

Posted in Development, Tutorials | Tagged gui, interface, powershell, winforms | 2 Comments

Think twice before uploading assets to Sharepoint Online

Posted on February 20, 2016 by Dan

Here’s a heads up if you are uploading assets such as CSS files to SharePoint Online. In a solution I’m working on we have an “Alternate CSS” file that we upload to the master page gallery. It contains the following line:

@import url("//maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.4.0/css/font-awesome.min.css");

1	@import url("//maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.4.0/css/font-awesome.min.css");

Nothing special there. Everything was fine until one day when the icons stopped loading. Debugging led me to the CSS file, in which above line had been changed:

@import url("//mytenant.sharepoint.com///maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.4.0/css/font-awesome.min.css")

1	@import url("//mytenant.sharepoint.com///maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.4.0/css/font-awesome.min.css")

Notice that “//mytenant.sharepoint.com” has been added to the url. When I saw this I assumed I had made some error. I checked my original files and upload procedures, but could find nothing wrong. Provisioning the file again fixed the problem everyone was happy.

But a month or so later it happened again. Could SharePoint be modifying the file? We contacted Microsoft support and asked if they knew anything about it. They confirmed that they do indeed modify files in SharePoint Online through a time job that runs before site colection updates. Basically their response was: Deal with it.

So how *do* we deal with this? What we did was to replace “//” with “https://”. So far this seems to be working, but we are aware that it might break at any time. To be really sure you will want to skip @import statements (and other URL:s) in files you upload to SharePoint. But we don’t know what kind of files Microsoft takes the liberty to modify, nor if they process all locations or just the master page gallery. The only safe solution is probably to skip SharePoint altogether and move the files to a separate web server that you are in control of.

What we have to remember is that SharePoint Online is a cloud service, and as such, the operator is in complete control of changes. There are a lot of hidden rules and jobs going on behind the scenes in SharePoint Online that customers are not aware of. Microsoft does not necessarily tell us when changes happen or what the implications will be. And they might change the rules at any time. So we need to be cautious, even when dealing with with supported features such as Alternate CSS.

Posted in Development | Tagged alternate css, cloud, css, microsoft, pitfalls, sharepoint online, warning | Leave a comment

Converting a CSV file to RegX with PowerShell

Posted on February 13, 2016 by Dan

If you need to convert a CSV file with terms to a RegX file for use in your .Net project, you can use this simple PowerShell script:

$items = Import-Csv "C:\strings.csv" -Delimiter ',' -Encoding Default
[System.Resources.ResXResourceWriter]$resxWriter = New-Object System.Resources.ResXResourceWriter("c:\strings.resx")
$items | ForEach-Object { 
    $resxWriter.AddResource($_.Name, $_.Value);
}
$resxWriter.Close()

$items = Import-Csv "C:\strings.csv" -Delimiter ',' -Encoding Default

[System.Resources.ResXResourceWriter]$resxWriter = New-Object System.Resources.ResXResourceWriter("c:\strings.resx")

$items | ForEach-Object {

$resxWriter.AddResource($_.Name, $_.Value);

}

$resxWriter.Close()

The script assumes your CSV file contains two columns, “Name” and “Value”, such as this:

Name,Value
MyString1,First value
MyString2,Second value
MyString3,Third value

Name,Value

MyString1,First value

MyString2,Second value

MyString3,Third value

You can use Excel to export such files. You may need to change the -Delimiter parameter in the script to match your locale (Why? See my post on working with CSV files in Excel).

Posted in Development, Tips | Tagged csv, excel, powershell, regx | Leave a comment

Beware this limitation when using SharePoint Image Renditions

How to backup and restore tables in Azure storage

Extending the JavaScript console with history recording

Solution to Azure AD App not able to use given permissions

Heads-up if you use ADAL.JS on a site added to the “Trusted Sites” zone

Downloading OneDrive documents as PDF

A drag-and-drop GUI made with PowerShell

Converting a CSV file to RegX with PowerShell

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