How can I use SharePoint Designer with a Foundation site on Windows 7?

2
votes

I've installed SharePoint Designer and SharePoint Foundation on Windows 7 Home Premium. Both are running, however, I have not been able to figure out how to access my Foundation Site with Designer.

When I try to open SP Designer through the Foundation site Designer opens, but I receive the error below

Microsoft SharePoint Designer

Unable to open Web site. Possible Causes:

1)The Web server may not have SharePoint installed.

2)The Web server may be temporarily out of service.

3) If you are connecting through a proxy server, the proxy settings may be incorrect.

4) An error may have occurred in the Web server.

Is there a way to fix this? Can I access the SP Foundation site through Designer another way?

Thanks for any help, Ben

1
sharepointwindows-7sharepoint-designersharepointfoundation2010
Did you install SP Designer 07 or 2010? It goes based off of the SharePoint version not the office version so even if you have office 07 you'll still need SP Designer 2010. – knight0323
what version of SPD are you using – Ashutosh Singh-MVP SharePoint

1 Answers

1
votes

Before starting, you need to make sure IIS is configured on your local machine correctly. To do this the easy way, right click on - Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt - and choose "Run as Administrator", then type in the following and hit enter;

start /w pkgmgr /iu:IIS-WebServerRole;IIS-WebServer;IIS-CommonHttpFeatures;IIS-StaticContent;IIS-DefaultDocument;IIS-DirectoryBrowsing;IIS-HttpErrors;IIS-ApplicationDevelopment;IIS-ASPNET;IIS-NetFxExtensibility;IIS-ISAPIExtensions;IIS-ISAPIFilter;IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics;IIS-HttpLogging;IIS-LoggingLibraries;IIS-RequestMonitor;IIS-HttpTracing;IIS-CustomLogging;IIS-Security;IIS-BasicAuthentication;IIS-WindowsAuthentication;IIS-DigestAuthentication;IIS-RequestFiltering;IIS-Performance;IIS-HttpCompressionStatic;IIS-HttpCompressionDynamic;IIS-WebServerManagementTools;IIS-ManagementConsole;IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility;IIS-Metabase;IIS-WMICompatibility;WAS-WindowsActivationService;WAS-ProcessModel;WAS-NetFxEnvironment;WAS-ConfigurationAPI

0: Open SP Designer by going to: Start > All Programs > SharePoint > Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010

Once launched, Click: "Open Site" and in the dialogue that appears type the URL of your SharePoint instance - I.E. http://sharepoint - or - http://localhost

1: Alternate Access Mappings will need to be configured for any address that you wish to use in Central Administration > Configure alternate access mappings > Alternate Access Mapping Collection > Change alternate access mapping > SharePoint - 80

2: Start > All Programs > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager > Application Pools > SharePoint Web Services Root

This web service application pool is started and stopped by SharePoint, manually starting or stopping it is not advisable. The Identity this Application Pool runs within is important. You can also check this by PowerShell- Get-SPServiceApplicationPool

3: IIS Manager > Application Pools > SharePoint Web Services Root > Advanced Settings > Process Model > Identity > Custom account

The account that you specify, has to able to connect to IIS and authenticate. Change the account to one with sufficient access rights.

IISRESET

The executing assembly in this Web Services Root,"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\isapi\owssvr.dll", is a 64-bit assembly and the "applicationhost.config" located in - "C:\Windows\System32\Inetsrv" may need to be modified to include a bitness flasg by adding ",bitness64" where you find this assembly referenced in the GlobalModules section.

IISRESET

4: IIS Manager > Sites > SharePoint - 80 > under "ISAPI Filters", make sure all "Executable" paths point to > Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v#.#.####\aspnet_filter.dll

IISRESET

Final note, you will need integrated windows authentication in IIS Authentication Settings enabled as Basic Authentication is not going to help. After all this, can I say that I have some experience with this and personally use Virtual Machines for SharePoint as it does not fully integrate with Windows 7. You will have it working (with some work) but it will never be as easy to manage, control, update, roll-back and play with as a dedicated virtual machine, which can have snapshots stored and easily reverted, unlike a desktop or laptop.

Good luck!