MdP's MOSS Blog

This blog has moved

mdp — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:23:00 GMT

Check out my new blog on SharePoint 2007 on the SharePoint 2007 platform:

http://www.thesug.org/blogs/MOSSMania/default.aspx

For my subscribers, update your readers, here is my new RSS Feed Url:
http://www.thesug.org/blogs/MOSSMania/_layouts/listfeed.aspx?List={3f7d7b8a-a822-409c-97ed-d4367160f6d7}

MCTS - Too Many Certifications

mdp — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 06:33:00 GMT

Too many certifications is never a bad thing. I was playing around with Microsoft's logo builder after Pearson VUE finally got my microsoft profile updated, a month after I passed the tests and I noticed that if I tried to create a logo with all 4 of my WSS/MOSS certifications, I received an error telling me to remove one. I worked hard for all four, so I would want them all displayed.

Microsoft's site says that "Due to design and branding requirements, a logo may only display up to four or six lines." If they moved Configuration up, that would allow for two more lines. Also, why is MOSS 2007 Application Development on one line and WSS 3.0 Application Development is on two lines?

On the usage guide page, it does not say that the certifcation list is limited to 4 to 6 lines, but to 4 to 6 certifcation areas:
The right side of the bar can accommodate 4-6 certification areas depending upon the credential. I also have other problems with this since when I will go to upgrade my MCAD/MCSD, I will be getting more MCTS certs, which won't be able to be all listed together. I still think these certifications should have been MSCS (Microsoft Sharepoint Certified Specialist) since MCSS is already taken by Microsoft Certified Security Specialist instead of MCTS.

Overriding the Content Query Web Part

mdp — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 04:44:00 GMT

Out of the box, the content query web part can only get items from one content type, but what happens if you want it to display items from more than one content type? You don't have to write a custom web part to do this thanks to Microsoft adding overrides in their content query web part.

First, build the CQWP (Content Query Web Part) with everything how you want it, including the query, then you will need to export it to a location on your drive. To export the web part, navigate to the page that contains the web part. Open up the page in edit mode and on that page, click on the edit drop down menu for the web part and click "Export."

Save the file locally. Once you have exported the web part as a .webpart file, open it with notepad and edit the ListsOverride property.

If you want to get everything based on a Generic List (BaseType = 0), you would use the following property:

If you want to get everything based on a document library (BaseType = 1), you would use the following property:

<property name="ListsOverride" type="string"><![CDATA[ <Lists BaseType="1"> </Lists>]]></property>

Once you have finished editting the webpart, save the file. Now we have to import the new .webpart file. To do this, go to "Site Actions" -> "Site Settings" -> "Modify All Site Settings" on the top level site.

Under "Galleries", click on "Web Parts". Now click the "Upload" button.

Click on the "Browse" button and select the .webpart file that you made changes to.

Now set all of the properties for the webpart and click "OK" when finished.

Now browse to the page you want to add the web part to. Open up the page in edit mode and in the web part zone where you want to add the web part, click on "Add a web part" and select your new webpart and then click "Add."

How to: Customize the Content Query Web Part by using Custom Properties
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa981241.aspx

Development Tools and Techniques for Working with Code in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

mdp — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 21:33:00 GMT

Patrick Tisseghem has posted a two part article on the MSDN library about development tools and techniques for coding in WSS. These are very great articles and I encourage you to look into them.

Development Tools and Techniques for Working with Code in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (Part 1 of 2)

Summary: Learn the skills you need to develop for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, about the differences from traditional ASP.NET development, about the required development environment, and the steps to build a Windows SharePoint Services solution with Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. This article is part 1 of 2. (33 printed pages)

Patrick Tisseghem, U2U

June 2007

Applies to: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Contents

Development Tools and Techniques for Working with Code in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (Part 2 of 2)

Summary: Explore Windows SharePoint Services solutions, solution architecture, and techniques for creating, deploying, maintaining, and upgrading Windows SharePoint Services solutions. This article is part 2 of 2. (26 printed pages)

Patrick Tisseghem, U2U

June 2007

Applies to: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Contents

SPSiteDataQuery - The query cannot be completed because the number of lists in the query exceeded the allowable limit

mdp — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 08:46:00 GMT

Today I learned a hard lesson. A single letter was causing a big problem for me: The query cannot be completed because the number of lists in the query exceeded the allowable limit. For better results, limit the scope of the query to the current site or list or use a custom column index to help reduce the number of lists.MaxListsLimit vs MaxListLimit

After a while of researching, I found out that the original example that I had been using for the basis of my SPSiteDataQuery had used MaxListsLimit where MaxListLimit should have been for the Lists property of my SPSiteDataQueryI was using

"<Lists BaseType='1' MaxListsLimit='0'/>"

When what I needed was just:

"<Lists BaseType='1' MaxListLimit='0'/>"

This made the error go away as it let me search all of the lists in the entire site. Not specifying a MaxListLimit would only search 1000 lists, but seems to throw an error if there are more than 1000 lists, instead of just searching the first 1000 that it finds. I would recommend always using '0' if you are not sure that the client will have less than 1000 lists.

Building your first AJAX web part

mdp — Mon, 14 May 2007 21:39:00 GMT

The CodeProject now has an article about building an AJAX web part from scratch that calculates two numbers. It includes step by step instructions for setting up web.config to support AJAX.

It can be accessed here:

http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/MossAjaxWebPart.asp

Creating an XSLT DataView for a sharepoint list

mdp — Mon, 14 May 2007 21:33:00 GMT

Sharepoint Tips and Tricks has posted an article about how to create an XSLT DataView for a sharepoint list to use as a web part.

It can be accessed here:

http://www.sharepoint-tips.com/2007/05/sharepoint-designer-article-2-creating.html

Using AND/OR in a SPSiteDataQuery

mdp — Thu, 10 May 2007 09:55:00 GMT

A quick note about using AND/OR in a SPSiteDataQuery:
You can only have 2 conditions below an AND/OR element in the query.
Examples:

Valid:
<And>
<Eq><FieldRef Name=”Title”><Value Type=”Text”>Value</Value></Eq>
<Eq><FieldRef Name=”ContentType”><Value Type=”Text”>Product</Value></Eq>
</And>

<Or>
<Eq><FieldRef Name=”Title”><Value Type=”Text”>Value</Value></Eq>
<Eq><FieldRef Name=”ContentType”><Value Type=”Text”>Product</Value></Eq>
</Or>

Invalid:
<And>
<Eq><FieldRef Name=”Title”><Value Type=”Text”>Value</Value></Eq>
<Eq><FieldRef Name=”ContentType”><Value Type=”Text”>Product</Value></Eq>
<Eq><FieldRef Name=”Field1”><Value Type=”Text”>Value</Value></Eq>
</And>

<Or>
<Eq><FieldRef Name=”Title”><Value Type=”Text”>Value</Value></Eq>
<Eq><FieldRef Name=”ContentType”><Value Type=”Text”>Product</Value></Eq>
<Eq><FieldRef Name=”Field1”><Value Type=”Text”>Value</Value></Eq>
</Or>

You can wrap AND/OR nodes in other AND/OR’s. If you need three conditions, you would do the following:

Valid:

<And>
<And>
<Eq><FieldRef Name=”Title”><Value Type=”Text”>Value</Value></Eq>
<Eq><FieldRef Name=”ContentType”><Value Type=”Text”>Product</Value></Eq>
</And>
<Eq><FieldRef Name=”Field1”><Value Type=”Text”>Value</Value></Eq>
</And>

<Or>
<Or>
<Eq><FieldRef Name=”Title”><Value Type=”Text”>Value</Value></Eq>
<Eq><FieldRef Name=”ContentType”><Value Type=”Text”>Product</Value></Eq>
</Or>
<Eq><FieldRef Name=”Field1”><Value Type=”Text”>Value</Value></Eq>
</Or>

If you need more conditions, you need to get creative with your wrapping, but it can be done.

Getting an SPListItem by it's Unique ID

mdp — Thu, 10 May 2007 02:29:00 GMT

So you have an item's Unique ID from the SPListItem.UniqueId property. How would you go about getting that item? I haven't found an easy way to do this through the API without already knowing the ID of the Web and List that it is in. A way around this is to use the SPSiteDataQuery to search the entire site for that item. As you will notice, I am running the search inside of the Elevated context to make sure that the item will be returned no matter what permissions the end user has. You will also notice that I am not passing any ViewFields to the SPSiteDataQuery. These are not required as WebID, ListID, and (int)(item)ID are returned automatically. You don't need to loop through all of the DataRows, since there is only one.

     Guid g = {GUID};     
     SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
     {
         using (SPSite site = new SPSite(SPContext.Current.Site.Url))
         {
             SPSiteDataQuery query = new SPSiteDataQuery();
             query.Webs = "<Webs Scope='SiteCollection' />";
             query.Query = string.Format("<Where><Eq><FieldRef Name=\"UniqueId\" />" +
		+ "<Value Type=\"Text\">{0}</Value></Eq></Where>", Convert.ToString(g));
             query.RowLimit = 1;

             using (DataTable dt = site.RootWeb.GetSiteData(query))
             {
                 foreach (DataRow dr in dt.Rows)
                 {
                     Guid webId = new Guid(Convert.ToString(dr["WebID"]));
                     Guid listId = new Guid(Convert.ToString(dr["ListID"]));
                     using (SPWeb web = site.AllWebs[webId])
                     {
		          SPList list = web.Lists[listId];

		          SPListItem li = null;
		          try
		          {
		              li = list.Items[ g ];
		          }
		          catch { }
		          if (li != null)
		          {
		              // Now you have your item, do what you need to do
		          }
		          list = null;
                     }
                 }
             }
             site.RootWeb.Dispose();
         }
     });

IE7Pro makes IE7 work like a real browser

mdp — Thu, 10 May 2007 01:47:00 GMT

IE7Pro is a free add-on for IE7 that finally makes up for some of IE7's flaws. The biggest fix is the one that when IE7 crashes, which it does often, it will load your pages back in instead of closing, re-opening and taking you back to your homepage, nice! The site also says it is compatible with IE6.

These are the features listed on their site:

Enhance Internet Explorer's Tabbed Browsing Capabilities
1. Double click to close tab.
2. Open new tab from address bar.
3. Enable/disable tab browse history manager.
4. Enable/disable crash recovery
5. Move the IE menu bar above the address bar
6. Hide search bar.
7. Modify the maxium number of parallel connections to the web server.
8. Select the external program to view page source

AD Blocker
Blocks all forms of advertising, including Flash ads, rich media, fly-ins, slide-ins, pop-ups, pop-unders, spyware and adware ads, and messenger ads.

Super Drag and Drop
With 'Super Drag and Drop' enabled, you can open new links by simply dragging and dropping the link on the page. You can also Drag and Drop to search selected words with the default search engine or save the selected photo when Shift is held down.

Mouse Gesture
Mouse Gesture allow the user to execute commonly performed tasks (open/close a tab, go back, go forward , print , scrolling page etc.) by drawing a simple symbol on the screen.

Crash Recovery
Crash Recovery automatically restores all opened pages after a crash happened.

Save Page to Image
Flexible and easy-to-use tool that converts html page from any URL to image. It captures the whole web page's content into JPG, BMP , GIF , PNG or TIFF on the fly.

Quick Proxy Switcher
Different internet connections do often require completely different proxy server settings and it's a real pain to change them manually.

Greasymonkey alike User Script
IE7Pro Script is to Internet Explorer7 as Greasemonkey is to Firefox. It lets you remix the Web via scripts.

Step by Step Guide for Installing MOSS 2007 on a VPC

mdp — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 00:49:00 GMT

I've found this guide from Tony Zink of the SharePoint Reporter Blog very handy for a walkthrough of installing MOSS 2007. The guide gives you screen shots of every step along the way so that you can check your progress:

How to Create a MOSS 2007 VPC Image: The Whole 9 Yards

It is broken down into 20 parts, so you can view them all or skip to the one you want.

Part 1: Getting Started, Installing IIS, and Installing .NET Framework 2.0

Part 2: Installing and Configuring POP3 Email

Part 3: Installing and Configuring Outlook 2007

Part 4: Installing and Configuring the .NET Framework

Part 5: Installing SQL Server 2005

Part 6: Configuring SQL Server 2005

Part 7: Installing SQL Server 2005 SP1

Part 8: Creating the MOSS Accounts

Part 9: Installing and Configuring the MOSS 2007 Application

Part 10: Setting Up Internet Explorer Web Browser Security

Part 11: Starting Services

Part 12: Creating a Shared Services Provider

Part 13: Configuring Search Settings

Part 14: Configuring Outgoing E-mail

Part 15: Creating the Portal

Part 16: Installing SharePoint Designer 2007

Part 17: Installing Office 2007 Applications

Part 18: Installing Warm-up Scripts

Part 19: Optimizing the MOSS 2007 VPC Image

Part 20: Creating a Virtual PC Differencing Disk

Using a SharePoint List as an Authentication Provider: Part 2

mdp — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 01:37:00 GMT

Willie Rust posted part two of his article about Using a SharePoint list as an Authentication Provider.

Check it out here:
http://www.willierust.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=7

If you missed the first article check it out here:
http://www.willierust.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=5

Forms Based Authentication using a SharePoint List Provider

mdp — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 23:07:00 GMT

My colleague Willie Rust wrote an excellent article on how to implement Forms Based Authentication using a SharePoint List Provider. This allows you to manage your users using SharePoint’s built in list interfaces and set permissions to this list inside of SharePoint.

Using a SharePoint List as an Authentication Provider: Part 1

Profile Properties Import/Export

mdp — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 01:38:00 GMT

If you need to import or export user profile properties from one server to another, There is now a command line tool on codeplex.com called SharePoint 2007 Shared Services Provider User Profile Property Replicator. It's a very handy utility so far, the syntax ends up being:

export user profiles to an output file
ProfilePropertyMgr.exe -url <url> -filename output.xml -export

import user profiles from an import file
ProfilePropertyMgr.exe -url <url> -filename input.xml -import

Easy enough. One thing that I would like to see in a future release is that it keeps the order of the properties. Ordering the properties in the UI is a pain in the rear.

MCMS 2002 API vs MOSS API

mdp — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 22:28:00 GMT

As a MCMS 2002 developer it is sometimes hard to get used to the MOSS API for Publishing. I have found that this Mapping MCMS 2002 APIs to SharePoint Server 2007 site to be very useful. I have supplied some example comparisons from the site below:

CmsHttpContext Properties	SPContext Properties
Channel	PublishingWeb.GetPublishingWeb(SPContext.Current.Web);
Posting	SPContext context = SPContext.Current; PublishingPage currentPage = PublishingPage.GetPublishingPage(context.ListItem);
RootChannel	PublishingWeb.GetPublishingWeb(SPContext.Current.Web.Site.RootWeb);
User	SPContext.Current.Web.CurrentUser

Getting Posting Values

In MCMS 2002:

Posting p = null;
//Code to get to the posting
AttachmentPlaceholder att = p.Placeholders["attachment1"] as
AttachmentPlaceholder;
String attachmentText = att.AttachmentText;
HtmlPlaceholder html = p.Placeholders["html1"] as HtmlPlaceholder;
String htmlContents = html.Html;
ImagePlaceholder img = p.Placeholders["image1"] as ImagePlaceholder;
String ImageUrl = img.Href;

In SharePoint Server 2007:

PublishingPage p = null;
//Code to get to the page
LinkFieldValue linkfieldValue = p.ListItem["attachment1"]
   as LinkFieldValue;
String linkText = null;
if (null != linkfieldValue)
{
   linkText = linkfieldValue.Text;
}
String html = p.ListItem["html1"] as string;
ImageFieldValue imagefieldValue = p.ListItem["image1"] as ImageFieldValue;
String ImageUrl = null;
if (null != imagefieldValue)
{
   ImageUrl = imagefieldValue.ImageUrl;
}

Setting Postings Values

In MCMS 2002:

Posting p=null;
String text1 = "new attachment text";
String text2 = "new html";
String text3 = "new image href";
//Code to get to the posting
AttachmentPlaceholder att = p.Placeholders["attachment1"] as 
   AttachmentPlaceholder;
att.AttachmentText = text1;
HtmlPlaceholder html = p.Placeholders["html1"] as HtmlPlaceholder;
html.Html = text2;
ImagePlaceholder img = p.Placeholders["image1"] as ImagePlaceholder;

img.Href = text3;
CmsHttpContext.Current.CommitAll();

In SharePoint Server 2007:

PublishingPage p = null;
String text1 = "new attachment text";
String text2 = "new html";
String text3 = "new image href";
//Code to get to the Page
LinkFieldValue linkfieldValue = p.ListItem["attachment1"] as
LinkFieldValue;
if (null != linkfieldValue)
{
linkfieldValue = new LinkFieldValue();
}
linkfieldValue.Text = text1;
p.ListItem["html1"] = text2;

ImageFieldValue img = p.ListItem["image1"] as ImageFieldValue;
if (null != img)
{
img = new ImageFieldValue();
}
img.ImageUrl = text3;
p.ListItem["image1"] = img;
p.Update();

"sgen.exe" exited with code 1

mdp — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 23:11:00 GMT

I was having trouble building a solution in VIsual Studio 2005 and I was getting the following error.

"sgen.exe" exited with code 1

I found that following the steps below fixed it:

Open up the project properties.
Open up the build tab.
Set "Generate Serialization Assembly" to "Off"

Inserting Data into a HyperLink Column in MOSS

mdp — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 00:13:00 GMT

If you need to insert data into a HyperLink column in a list, you can use the following code:

item["HyperLinkColumn"] = "http://www.google.com, Google";

Make sure you have a space after the comma.

FREE Colligo Reader for all versions of Sharepoint

mdp — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 09:59:00 GMT

Colligo Reader allows a user to access offline content for all versions of SharePoint which includes SharePoint Services (WSS 3.0 & 2.0) as well as MOSS 2007 and SharePoint Portal Server SPS 2003. The install is rather small and requires no server modifications since it uses standard web services and site permissions to access content.

Download it here:

http://www.colligo.com/products/sharepoint/reader_home.asp

Uses of SPContext

mdp — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 08:25:00 GMT

Mirjam's blog lists some uses of SPContext. Here are a few I grabbed from his post:

SPList currentList = SPContext.Current.List;
SPWeb currentSite = SPContext.Current.Web;
SPSite currentSiteCollection = SPContext.Current.Site;
SPWebApplication currentWebApplication = SPContext.Current.Site.WebApplication;
SPListItem item = (SPListItem)SPContext.Current.Item;
SPUser user = SPContext.Current.Web.CurrentUser;

He also explains the difference between the SPSiteDataQuery object and the SPQuery object.

Check it out here: http://www.sharepointblogs.com/mirjam/archive/2007/02/23/19983.aspx

Creating a List with a Custom View in MOSS

mdp — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 08:07:00 GMT

The following code can be used to create a custom list in MOSS and apply a custom view to it:

	// create list
	web.Lists.Add(listName, "", SPListTemplateType.GenericList);
	list = web.Lists[listName];

	// Add your fields to the list
	list.Fields.Add("Field1", SPFieldType.Text, false);
	list.Fields.Add("Field2", SPFieldType.Text, false);

	// You can change the title of a field by accessing the SPField object
	SPField field1 = list.Fields["Field1"];
	field1.Title = "Title Of Field 1";
	field1.Update();

	// You have to use a specialized string collection to add fields to a view
	System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection strCol = new System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection();
	strCol = new System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection();
	strCol.Add("Field1");
	strCol.Add("Field2");

	// You can use a standard query here to only return certain data
	string query = string.Empty;	
	query = "";
	SPView view = null;
	view = list.Views.Add("Items Sorted By Field1", strCol, query, 20, true, false);

	list.Update();

Writing a MOSS WebPart

mdp — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 23:57:00 GMT

Here is a link that helped me in creating my first MOSS WebPart, since it is a little different than SharePoint 2003. I hope this helps you as much as it helped me:

http://www.codeguru.com/csharp/.net/net_asp/webforms/article.php/c12293__1/

Published Wednesday, February 14, 2007 6:57 PM by mykiep

Filed under: Tools, Guides, MOSS, API, Programming, Web Parts

Writing Custom Event Handlers for MOSS

mdp — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 12:00:00 GMT

I had to create a custom event handler in MOSS to calculate the remaining budget for a user, here is the code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;

namespace MP.EventHandlers
{
    public class EventHandler1 : SPItemEventReceiver
    {
        public override void ItemAdded(SPItemEventProperties properties)
        {
            base.ItemAdded(properties);
            SPListItem listItem = properties.ListItem;
            // Update List Item Properties Here
            listItem.Update();
        }

        public override void ItemUpdated(SPItemEventProperties properties)
        {
            base.ItemUpdated(properties);
            SPListItem listItem = properties.ListItem;
            // Update List Item Properties Here
            listItem.Update();
        }        
    }    
}

I have been using Event Handler Explorer by Patrick Tisseghem to attach my custom event handlers to MOSS which is available here: http://blog.u2u.info/DottextWeb/patrick/archive/2006/07/31/27876.aspx