Sharepoint Site Displays and Behaves Incorrectly on Client Browsers.

Hi. We recently deployed MOSS 2007 in our organiztion. After much
customization and tweaking, we were finally ready to launch, but a
test deploeyment showed that quite a number of users could not view
the portal properly. That is, once they signed in, certain features
were displayed incorrectly, or menus didn't work at all.The SITE
ACTIONS button absolutely refused to work for such people. Including
the document library buttons. Also on the MySite pages, the display
was a bit broken; certain text was too large and things like the
'Create Blog' buttons were misplaced on the page. Also, on these
user's systems, the site acquired a 'Skip to main content link' at
the top right. that doesn't appear on mine,

Normal links work fine, but it's totally useless to such people
because they can't access many features. I have absolutely no idea
what could be causing this. It seems very random, it happens with
people with IE6, IE7, Winxp SP1, SP2.... Ironically it works fine on
other browsers like Firefox, so I'm thinking it's the browser. I
don't know what to do.

Any ideas??!?

galvin
Tue Jul 22 07:09:34 CDT 2008

On Jul 22, 4:46=A0am, onydchic <onydc...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi. We recently deployed MOSS 2007 in our organiztion. After much
> customization and tweaking, we were finally ready to launch, but a
> test deploeyment showed that quite a number of users could not view
> the portal properly. That is, once they signed in, certain features
> were displayed incorrectly, or menus didn't work at all.The SITE
> ACTIONS button absolutely refused to work for such people. Including
> the document library buttons. Also on the MySite pages, the display
> was a bit broken; certain text was too large and things like the
> 'Create Blog' buttons were misplaced on the page. Also, on these
> user's systems, the site acquired a 'Skip to main content link' =A0at
> the top right. that doesn't appear on mine,
>
> Normal links work fine, but it's totally useless to such people
> because they can't access many features. I have absolutely no idea
> what could be causing this. It seems very random, it happens with
> people with IE6, IE7, Winxp SP1, SP2.... =A0Ironically it works fine on
> other browsers like Firefox, so I'm thinking it's the browser. =A0I
> don't know what to do.
>
> Any ideas??!?

These avenues of research come to mind:
1. Javascript enabled/disabled for those client machines.
2. Make sure everything is checked in. Approvers may see "drafts" but
others may not.
3. Is it an extranet with some AAM configuration? That could
interfere with hard coded links.
4. Continue to try and isolate differences between clients that work
and clients that do not work.
5. Permissions to assets. Maybe an image in a library is secured so
that some of those users cannot see it.

--Paul Galvin, EMC (formerly Conchango)
RSS @ http://feeds.feedburner.com/PaulGalvinsSharepointSpace
Web site @ http://paulgalvin.spaces.live.com
Twitter @ http://twitter.com/pagalvin (I follow anyone who follows
me)

rdcpro
Tue Jul 22 10:11:39 CDT 2008

This is just a guess, but it sounds to me like some of the files like
javascript and/or CSS are permissioned weirdly. One way this can happen is
if you're deploying customizations and someone unzips a file directly to the
final location. For example, unzipping directly to an IIS web site will
suddenly make the files unaccessible.

Like I said, though, it's just a guess! ;^)

Regards,
Mike Sharp

"onydchic" wrote:

> Hi. We recently deployed MOSS 2007 in our organiztion. After much
> customization and tweaking, we were finally ready to launch, but a
> test deploeyment showed that quite a number of users could not view
> the portal properly. That is, once they signed in, certain features
> were displayed incorrectly, or menus didn't work at all.The SITE
> ACTIONS button absolutely refused to work for such people. Including
> the document library buttons. Also on the MySite pages, the display
> was a bit broken; certain text was too large and things like the
> 'Create Blog' buttons were misplaced on the page. Also, on these
> user's systems, the site acquired a 'Skip to main content link' at
> the top right. that doesn't appear on mine,
>
> Normal links work fine, but it's totally useless to such people
> because they can't access many features. I have absolutely no idea
> what could be causing this. It seems very random, it happens with
> people with IE6, IE7, Winxp SP1, SP2.... Ironically it works fine on
> other browsers like Firefox, so I'm thinking it's the browser. I
> don't know what to do.
>
> Any ideas??!?
>

rdcpro
Tue Jul 22 10:15:08 CDT 2008

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I'm thinking this is really the
problem. The "Skip to main content" link is a big clue. This should be
invisible to IE, unless the browser can't load the CSS file. Try loading the
CSS files directly into the browser by URL. If you get a 401 error, then you
may have to actually re-install SharePoint (to overwrite the permissions) and
then redeploy your customizations (being careful not to unzip directly into
the 12 hive).

Regards,
Mike Sharp

"rdcpro" wrote:

> This is just a guess, but it sounds to me like some of the files like
> javascript and/or CSS are permissioned weirdly. One way this can happen is
> if you're deploying customizations and someone unzips a file directly to the
> final location. For example, unzipping directly to an IIS web site will
> suddenly make the files unaccessible.
>
> Like I said, though, it's just a guess! ;^)
>
> Regards,
> Mike Sharp
>
> "onydchic" wrote:
>
> > Hi. We recently deployed MOSS 2007 in our organiztion. After much
> > customization and tweaking, we were finally ready to launch, but a
> > test deploeyment showed that quite a number of users could not view
> > the portal properly. That is, once they signed in, certain features
> > were displayed incorrectly, or menus didn't work at all.The SITE
> > ACTIONS button absolutely refused to work for such people. Including
> > the document library buttons. Also on the MySite pages, the display
> > was a bit broken; certain text was too large and things like the
> > 'Create Blog' buttons were misplaced on the page. Also, on these
> > user's systems, the site acquired a 'Skip to main content link' at
> > the top right. that doesn't appear on mine,
> >
> > Normal links work fine, but it's totally useless to such people
> > because they can't access many features. I have absolutely no idea
> > what could be causing this. It seems very random, it happens with
> > people with IE6, IE7, Winxp SP1, SP2.... Ironically it works fine on
> > other browsers like Firefox, so I'm thinking it's the browser. I
> > don't know what to do.
> >
> > Any ideas??!?
> >

Mike
Tue Jul 22 10:25:40 CDT 2008

The .windowsservices newsgroup is completely the wrong place for this
MOSS question as that newsgroup only covers installations of WSS 2.0 or
WSS 3.0.

I suggest in any way that you always only post to one newsgroup - in
this case as the question seems to have nothing to do with customization
but all to do with administration, I'd have suggested the
.setup_and_administration newsgroup.

Could someone using a reader that allows this please remove
.windowsservices from the circulation of this thread.

Mike Walsh
WSS FAQ http://www.wssfaq.com / http://wss.collutions.com
no questions by e-mail please



onydchic wrote:
> Hi. We recently deployed MOSS 2007 in our organiztion. After much
> customization and tweaking, we were finally ready to launch, but a
> test deploeyment showed that quite a number of users could not view
> the portal properly. That is, once they signed in, certain features
> were displayed incorrectly, or menus didn't work at all.The SITE
> ACTIONS button absolutely refused to work for such people. Including
> the document library buttons. Also on the MySite pages, the display
> was a bit broken; certain text was too large and things like the
> 'Create Blog' buttons were misplaced on the page. Also, on these
> user's systems, the site acquired a 'Skip to main content link' at
> the top right. that doesn't appear on mine,
>
> Normal links work fine, but it's totally useless to such people
> because they can't access many features. I have absolutely no idea
> what could be causing this. It seems very random, it happens with
> people with IE6, IE7, Winxp SP1, SP2.... Ironically it works fine on
> other browsers like Firefox, so I'm thinking it's the browser. I
> don't know what to do.
>
> Any ideas??!?

onydchic
Tue Jul 22 12:50:15 CDT 2008

On Jul 22, 4:25=A0pm, Mike Walsh <englantilai...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> The .windowsservices newsgroup is completely the wrong place for this
> MOSS question as that newsgroup only covers installations of WSS 2.0 or
> WSS 3.0.
>
> I suggest in any way that you always only post to one newsgroup - in
> this case as the question seems to have nothing to do with customization
> but all to do with administration, I'd have suggested the
> .setup_and_administration newsgroup.
>
> Could someone using a reader that allows this please remove
> .windowsservices from the circulation of this thread.
>
> Mike Walsh
> WSS FAQhttp://www.wssfaq.com/http://wss.collutions.com
> no questions by e-mail please
>


Sorry if this was wrongly placed, I had no idea where to put it
really. I'll note that for next time.

onydchic
Tue Jul 22 12:51:46 CDT 2008

On Jul 22, 4:15=A0pm, rdcpro <rdc...@community.nospam> wrote:
> Actually, the more I think about it, the more I'm thinking this is really=
the
> problem. =A0The "Skip to main content" link is a big clue. =A0This should=
be
> invisible to IE, unless the browser can't load the CSS file. =A0Try loadi=
ng the
> CSS files directly into the browser by URL. =A0If you get a 401 error, th=
en you
> may have to actually re-install SharePoint (to overwrite the permissions)=
and
> then redeploy your customizations (being careful not to unzip directly in=
to
> the 12 hive).
>
> Regards,
> Mike Sharp
>
> "rdcpro" wrote:
> > This is just a guess, but it sounds to me like some of the files like
> > javascript and/or CSS are permissioned weirdly. =A0One way this can hap=
pen is
> > if you're deploying customizations and someone unzips a file directly t=
o the
> > final location. =A0For example, unzipping directly to an IIS web site w=
ill
> > suddenly make the files unaccessible.
>
> > Like I said, though, it's just a guess! ;^)
>
> > Regards,
> > Mike Sharp
>


Thanks... so what you're saying is, I may have to RE-INSTALL
sharepoint?!?!?!? What would have caused that?? And if all the users
have the same permissions... then shouldn't it affect all of them?!?

rdcpro
Tue Jul 22 13:20:01 CDT 2008

In the case of CSS, if it's cached in the browser, it might work for one
user, and not another one who doesn't have it in the cache.

The only reason you might have to re-install is to reset the permissions on
the SharePoint files in the 12 hive. But now that I think about it, it's
probably just the customized files that have the permissions problem.

I ran into this once myself when I was copying some static files to an IIS
web site. I usually create a build tree on the server, and
extract/unzip/copy my builds there. Then I copy the files into the web
application. In this case, I was in a hurry and unzipped directly to the IIS
web site, which messed up the permissions on the files I extracted. Copying
a fresh build solved it (after I smacked my forehead when I realized what I'd
done).

I know it's a long shot, but it's the only idea I can come up with that
explains the symptoms. ;^)

Regards,
Mike Sharp



"onydchic" wrote:

> On Jul 22, 4:15 pm, rdcpro <rdc...@community.nospam> wrote:
> > Actually, the more I think about it, the more I'm thinking this is really the
> > problem. The "Skip to main content" link is a big clue. This should be
> > invisible to IE, unless the browser can't load the CSS file. Try loading the
> > CSS files directly into the browser by URL. If you get a 401 error, then you
> > may have to actually re-install SharePoint (to overwrite the permissions) and
> > then redeploy your customizations (being careful not to unzip directly into
> > the 12 hive).
> >
> > Regards,
> > Mike Sharp
> >
> > "rdcpro" wrote:
> > > This is just a guess, but it sounds to me like some of the files like
> > > javascript and/or CSS are permissioned weirdly. One way this can happen is
> > > if you're deploying customizations and someone unzips a file directly to the
> > > final location. For example, unzipping directly to an IIS web site will
> > > suddenly make the files unaccessible.
> >
> > > Like I said, though, it's just a guess! ;^)
> >
> > > Regards,
> > > Mike Sharp
> >
>
>
> Thanks... so what you're saying is, I may have to RE-INSTALL
> sharepoint?!?!?!? What would have caused that?? And if all the users
> have the same permissions... then shouldn't it affect all of them?!?
>