Peter Seale's weblog

Thursday, July 19, 2007 6:50:39 AM UTC 

I recently read Simon's post about using Reflector with SharePoint. Inspired, I set about to use Reflector as a sort of "MSDN 2" to help me work through holes in MSDN's (and to be fair, the rest of the world's) documentation. Unfortunately for me, I had to track down DLLs and ASMX files from different subfolders of the 12 hive and even from the GAC.

I'm writing this post to help me (and you) find the SharePoint 2007 DLLs and EXE's and everything else we might need to reverse eng…um, let me rephrase that, "embrace a lifestyle of self-service SharePoint documentation." That last bit sounds nicer, yes.

For various non-technical reasons, I can't just post the code directly here—instead, we must each go to our MOSS (or WSS) farms and copy out the DLLs. Thus far I've found three directory trees SharePoint is storing its code:

Name	Directory	SKUs	Fun Facts!
The 12 Hive	C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\	WSS, MOSS	What's sad is that I typed the full directory from memory—including the awkward capitalization.
The "Office Server" directory	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\ (can be customized)	MOSS	Post your fun fact in the comments, otherwise I'll have to stick with "Fun fact: Excel Services .dllis hosted here!" See, you can do better.
The GAC	%WINDIR%\Assembly\	WSS, MOSS	Windows Explorer hides files in the GAC from you (it's a special folder), so you'll have to work a little to get at them.

The added value I'm here to present today is, well, I automated all of the copying—I wrote a PowerShell script to grab all the files. It's way overkill (especially the Vista-style nuttiness when I spend half of the script calculating the estimated time the other half will take to complete), but hey, why not?
Here we are:

Find-SharePointDllsVistaEdition.ps1 (2.06 KB)

#Freely distribute and use. Absolutely no warranty is implied.
$dirTwelveHive = "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\"
$dirMossServers = "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers"

$subDirectory = read-host "Full pathname to write files?"
mkdir $subDirectory -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | out-null
mkdir ([System.IO.Path]::Combine($subDirectory, "12-hive")) -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue  | out-null
mkdir ([System.IO.Path]::Combine($subDirectory, "MOSS")) -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue  | out-null
mkdir ([System.IO.Path]::Combine($subDirectory, "GAC")) -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue  | out-null

echo "Calculating time required to perform this operation…"
$excludedFileExtensions = dir -path "$([System.IO.Path]::Combine($dirTwelveHive, ""template\images""))
" | foreach { $_.Extension.ToUpper() } | group | foreach { $_.Name }
$excludedFileExtensions += ("MDF","LDF")
$exclusionCriteria = $excludedFileExtensions | foreach { "*$_"}

$allFiles = dir -path $dirTwelveHive -recurse -exclude $exclusionCriteria -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$allFiles += dir -path $dirMossServers -recurse -exclude $exclusionCriteria -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$allFiles += dir -path ([System.IO.Path]::Combine($subDirectory, "GAC")) -recurse -include "*SharePoint*.dll" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

$allFiles | Select Extension | group Extension | select Name, Count | sort Count -desc | select -first 10

$sum = 0
$allFiles | foreach {
    $sum += (dir $_).Length
}

echo "`n`n Total size in MB: $($sum/1MB)"

cp -recurse -force -path $dirTwelveHive -destination ([System.IO.Path]::Combine($subDirectory, "12-hive")) -exclude $exclusionCriteria
cp -recurse -force -path $dirMossServers -destination ([System.IO.Path]::Combine($subDirectory, "MOSS")) -exclude $exclusionCriteria

#does not preserve directory structure
$filesFromGac = dir -recurse -path "$([System.IO.Path]::Combine($env:WINDIR,""assembly""))" -include "*SharePoint*.dll"
$filesFromGac | foreach { cp -force -path $_ -destination ([System.IO.Path]::Combine($subDirectory, "GAC")) }

I'd better hit the "Post" button before my laptop battery runs out.