Workaround to auto refresh RSS feed web part for SharePoint 2010 lists

If you have seen previous blog, you might know SharePoint 2010 RSS feed web part does not support AJAX asynchronous load as it should be. As a result,  you will not be able to setup to auto refresh the web part with the latest SharePoint list  feeds using AJAX options without IIS reset. 

This result has been acknowledged by Microsoft that it can be confusing to users if they try to use this option when  it does not perform this function one would expect. However, the RSS feed web part was not designed to provide this functionality so presently the issue in regards to a fix, is that the option is there in the first place. 

This is a workaround we tested it you could auto refresh the web part. The workaround is to setup the web part refresh (This is inherited from Date View web part) instead of AJAX asynchronous load. The result will be refresh through webpart refresh that is causing page refresh. You should see these options on the properties of the web part itself:

Now, you could adjust the refresh time to get the latest SharePoint list RSS feeds. The potential issue is the performance impact. This is NOT AJAX asynchronous load but a whole page refresh. If you have multiple BCS webparts,  multiple PSS feed webparts, you may run into performance issue. User experience might be impacted too.

Regrading the future enhancement or fix, here is the feedback from Microsoft. If the first then we can explore the best approach for dealing with the confusion in the option being present when it shouldn’t be. If the request is for the functionality to be added then this would be a design change request, as we are requesting new functionality. For this the product group would need a strong business reason as to why this functionality should be added in the context of a cumulative update. I can’t guarantee this can be done, it depends on a lot of factors, but if it’s something you feel strongly about pursuing we can certainly push forward the request.

SharePoint 2010 incoming e-mail does not start workflow on "create item" after upgraded from 2007

After SharePoint 2007 to 2010 for almost a year and some users reported an issue that incoming e-mail does not start workflow on "create item". After digging into the issue, we have identified that this is the same issue is happening on 2010 version.  

Since our upgraded was done using DB detach and attached approach, we have the new 2010 farm with all default settings. We were under impression that the previous issue reported that the email processing is running in the context of "System Account", SharePoint declarative workflow cannot be triggered by the system account should be resolved.

It turns out this issue still exists on 2010 RTM version for any declarative workflow. An example is any workflow created using SharePoint Designer.You still need to follow the following solution published here to enable SharePoint workflow for email enabled list.

Run “stsadm -o setproperty -pn declarativeworkflowautostartonemailenabled -pv true” on SharePoint 2010 even you have run on 2007. You could run the command "stsadm -o getproperty -pn declarativeworkflowautostartonemailenabled" first to verify the property value.

This is just one command we have missed during the SharePoint 2010 upgrade. Hope you remember this.