“This form has been closed” and “The specified form cannot be found” When Using SharePoint Default Workflows

A really weird bug with SharePoint happened today.

SYMPTOMS

You have a standard MOSS 2007 Approval or Collect Feedback workflow configured in a document library or a content type. You try to:

  • Open a task created by the workflow
  • Modify the workflow association data of an existing workflow
  • Create a new workflow association

SharePoint displays “This form has been closed” or “The specified form cannot be found” trying to display the form. Sometimes it shows the InfoPath Forms Service message box with the same information.

CAUSE

The standard out-of-the-box workflows have been messed up after their creation, by unknown causes.

SOLUTION

Uninstall and reinstall the standard workflow feature, using the following sequence of command line operations:

  • stsadm –o deactivatefeature –name ReviewWorkflows –url YOURPORTALURL –force
  • stsadm –o uninstallfeature –name ReviewWorkflows –force
  • stsadm –o installfeature –name ReviewWorkflows –force
  • stsadm –o activatefeature –name ReviewWorkflows –url YOURPORTALURL

Thanks to Patrik Luca on MSDN Forums.

Visual Studio 2010 Tools for SharePoint

 image

At TechEd EMEA in Barcelona, the Visual Studio 2010 tools for SharePoint were announced and demonstrated. What was showed was the following:

  • Server Explorer for SharePoint to view lists and other SharePoint artifacts directly inside of Visual Studio

  • Existing WSP file import into a new solution

  • Visual Web Part Designer (finally!!!) which loads a user control as a web part for SharePoint (this was an idea I had in mind for some time lately, but it seems that I wasn’t alone in that)

  • Event Receiver Wizard that creates source code with only the event receiver

  • ASPX workflow initiation form designer (and probably other workflow forms, too)

  • Packaging Explorer and the Packaging Editor to fine-tune the WSP layout and contents

You can learn more about these tools on Channel9 and the Visual Studio 2010 homepage or read the original announcement at SharePoint Team blog.