SharePointers

Using JQuery to Tweak Editform.aspx

2012-01-04T13:58:00.000-08:00

For smaller changes to your Editform.aspx you may want to avoid doing a solution deployment that contains a custom content type feature with a custom EditForm.aspx. This is a quick workaround. It's pretty much the same as we used to to in MOSS with only minor changes to the way you get to the form.

I did this in IE, but it's probably similar in other browsers:

Place an html document containing some JavaScript/Jquery into a document library on your list's site. (Try just putting this for initial testing: <script type="text/javascript">alert('hello world');</script>)
Navigate to the list whose editform.aspx you want to change
Right click on any item's link to it's display form and choose 'open in new tab'
Go to the newly opened tab and click the 'Edit Item' button to open the item in the editform.aspx
append &ToolPageView=2 to the url
Add a Content Editor Web Part and point it to your document from step 1.

This shouldn't be a replacement for all customized EditForm.aspx's by any means, but it's still a useful trick for quick fixes that don't justify custom development.

Opening an Infopath form library template from Infopath in a link

2011-10-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

I've found a lot of bad info on how to do this and it's not well documented so hopefully this helps someone:

first create a JavaScript function so that your links aren't super long:

          function OpenForm(absSiteUrl, siteRelFormUrl, siteRelSaveUrl)
          {
                      var formUrl = absSiteUrl + siteRelFormUrl;
                      var saveUrl = absSiteUrl + siteRelSaveUrl;
                      var formSvcUrl = absSiteUrl + "_layouts/FormServer.aspx?XsnLocation=" + formUrl;
                      CoreInvoke('createNewDocumentWithRedirect2',event, formUrl, saveUrl, 'SharePoint.OpenXmlDocuments.2', true, formSvcUrl, false, 0);
          }
</script>

then create a link like so:

<a href="javascript:OpenForm('[AbsoluteSiteUrl]','[SiteRelativeFormUrl]','[SiteRelativeSaveLocationUrl]')">open form</a>

here are examples for the vars
[AbsoluteSiteUrl] = http://mysp2010server/siteA/
[SiteRelativeFormUrl] = myformlibrary/Forms/template.xsn
[SiteRelativeSaveLocationUrl] = myformlibrary

People Search from MySite returns 404

2011-10-11T07:31:00.000-07:00

If you have MySites and a Search Center running in your farm, you may have overlooked a not-so-obvious configuration setting. When setting up MySites for a User Profile service application, your Search Center URL must point to the "Pages" folder where the Search Center publishing pages are located instead of the Search Center web URL. Otherwise, a People Search from a MySite will forward the request to to

http://[searchcenter]/PeopleResults.aspx?k=searchquery

(which doesn't exist) instead of

http://[searchcenter]/PeopleResults.aspx?k=searchquery

which is where the PeopleResults.aspx page is actually located.

TLDR: Use http://[searchcenter]/Pages/ for your Search Center url in UPA MySite Settings.

Including a JS file for a custom ribbon control CommandUIHandler without using a ScriptLink CustomAction or Custom Page Components

2011-09-08T14:08:00.000-07:00

I've been struggling lately with the proposed solutions for including the javascript for CommandUIHandler's CommandAction and EnabledScript attributes. Thus far I have only seen the following examples:

JavaScript directly into the attributes (messy),
Including a ScriptLink command action (bad because then the script file is included in every page where the feature is activated causing bloated pages)
Creating a page component (overcomplicated)

Instead of all this, I created a pattern which loads the js file on the fly with javascript and keeps your ribbon development more compact (note I have JQuery loaded in the master page, if you don't have this then you'll have to either load jquery dynamically or reference the elements without JQuery):

<commanduihandler
CommandAction="javascript:
                                     $.getScript('/_layouts/myProject/myScriptfile.js', function(){ commandActionMethodInJSFile(); });"
EnabledScript="javascript:
                         function enabledController()
                           {
                               if(typeof checkIsEnabledMethodFromJSFile == 'undefined')
                               {
                                  $.getScript('/_layouts/myProject/myScriptfile.js', function(){ RefreshCommandUI(); });
                                  return false;
                                }
                                else return checkIsEnabledMethodFromJSFile();
                            }
                           enabledController();
"

/>

The CommandAction is simple, just load the script file with the jQuery getScript() method and call your ribbon action in the callback.

The real trick was handling the Asynchronous load in the EnabledScript since it will just finish before the callback occurs. What this does is check to see if the method in your JS file has been loaded, if not it calls the jQuery getScript to load the file and then keeps the control disabled, then once the callback happens it calls 'RefreshCommandUI' to notify the ribbon that something has happened and it needs to evaluate the Enabled condition again. This time, the method does exist because the script is loaded and thus you can call your enabled check method in your script file.

Giving credit where it's due, Andrew Connell's post helped me find the missing piece to my solution : http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/archive/2010/10/14.aspx
Hopefully this will help you keep your Ribbon development more simplified.

Quickly determine which PID corresponds to which App Pool's w3wp.exe

2011-08-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

This is a command that will quickly let you know which w3wp.exe you should be debugging on Server 2008 (IIS7, since the App Pool isn't listed in Visual Studio's 'attach to process' dialog).

go to \Windows\System32\inetsrv and run "appcmd list wp" and you'll get a list that associates App Pool and PID

PowerShell code for looking up document properties

2011-04-27T19:31:00.000-07:00

If you want to use the SPWeb.Files.Add() method that allows you to pass in a HashTable of metadata for the document, you will need to use the internal name of the metadata field, not the display name.   Here's a PowerShell script to get that for you quickly:

$web = Get-SPWeb http://intranet.sharepointdev.com
$list = $web.Lists["Shared Documents"]
foreach($item in $list.Items)
{
    $file = $item.File
    #output all the SPFile property names
    foreach($key in $file.Properties.Keys)
    {
        write-host("File Key: " + $key)
    }

    #output the associated item's fields
    foreach($field in $item.Fields)
    {
        write-host("Item Field: " + $field.InternalName)
    }
    break;
}

Understanding Sandboxed Solutions

2011-03-10T20:57:00.000-08:00

There are several components/processes that are involved in the execution of sandboxed solutions. For a developer, it's critical to understand how coding/debugging various types of solutions changes based on the type of solution. Here's how the execution goes in a nutshell:

When the sandboxed code is called, the Execution Manager (running in the w3wp.exe) makes a call to an application server running the User Code Service (SPUCHostService.exe). The User Code Service then tells the Worker Service (SPUCWorkerProcess.exe) to load the sandbox code. The code is then verified to ensure only calls to the subset of the API allowed by the Sandbox API are called. The worker process then executes the code against the Worker Proxy (SPUCWorkerProcessProxy.exe) which has full access to the SharePoint API (but the sandboxed code has already been disallowed from using the non-subset portion of the API by the Worker Service).

When debugging sandboxed solutions, you'll need to attach to the SPUCWorkerProcess.exe to step through your code.

Finally, the exe's for all the .exe's metioned above (except w3wp.exe) can be found in your 14\UserCode directory.

Thoughts on SharePoint 2010 Search Refinement

2011-01-03T10:49:00.000-08:00

I've been spending a lot of time lately working with SharePoint 2010's "Refinement Panel" web part.

This capability was available only as a third-party add-in or Codeplex solution back in the MOSS days, but I was very excited to learn that it had been incorporated natively in 2010.

It's frustrating, however, to have to constantly explain to customers that Refinement goes only 500 results deep unless you have FAST, which requires Enterprise CALs. The standard search provides a Refinement Panel that defaults to an Accuracy Index of 50 and goes to a maximum of 500. This means that the Refinement capability will only work for the first 50-500 results returned.

So if a company is stuck with Standard CALs and no FAST, how do they get around this limitation? Surely a mid to large size company will have many more than 500 list items, documents and other artifacts returned in a global search of all content sources, including SharePoint sites, File Shares, etc.

So in our hypothetical mid to large size company scenario where a search for "widget" returns 5,000 results, how do we mitigate the problem I've outlined with the Refinement Panel? Well, there are a couple of ways:

Create focused search scopes
Remove the Refinement Panel web part for global searches

Fortunately, data from systems connected via Business Connectivity Services can't be used until you reach the Enterprise CAL level, either, so definitely use FAST for that and many other search improvements.

To conclude, don't fret if you're stuck with just the Standard CAL search experience. There are a few things you can do to make it a little better, especially with the Refinement Panel:

if you do use the Refinement Panel, limit results by creating scopes
Change the default Accuracy Index from 50 to 500 (the maximum in Standard)
Enable Counts for your Refinement Panel
...but be sure to uncheck the "Use Default Configuration" box in the toolpart. :)

Latest ASP.NET Vulnerability Fix For SharePoint

2010-09-23T07:55:00.000-07:00

The latest discovered ASP.Net vulnerability affects SharePoint 2007 & 2010. The SharePoint Team's blog has the instructions for the temporary fix here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sharepoint/archive/2010/09/21/security-advisory-2416728-vulnerability-in-asp-net-and-sharepoint.aspx

Turn on versioning on a site's Document Libraries.

2010-09-22T13:07:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of sites that needed to have versioning turned on, here's a simple console app I wrote to do this, you just pass the url of the web as an argument:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using Microsoft.SharePoint;

namespace Mirant.Utilities.SiteVersioningActivator

{

class Program

{

static void Main(string[] args)

{

if (args.Length != 1)

throw new Exception("URL of the site is required as a parameter");

string webUrl = args[0];

using (SPSite site = new SPSite(webUrl))

{

using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())

{

foreach (SPDocumentLibrary docLib in web.GetListsOfType(SPBaseType.DocumentLibrary))

{

docLib.EnableVersioning = true;

docLib.MajorVersionLimit = 5;

docLib.Update();

}

Getting a usable SPItem URL to a display form

2010-04-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

This is definitely from the "I can't believe I hadn't blogged this already department".

When you try to use the SPListItem.Url property you wind up getting a url that's relative to the site (even though it starts with a '/').

I've written this method that will return a list item url and takes into account the fact that the urls differ when they're lists or document libraries:

private string GetItemUrl(SPListItem listItem)
   {
   string result;

   string itemUrlTemp = listItem.Url.Replace("Lists/", "");
   string siteRelativeListUrl = itemUrlTemp.Substring(0, itemUrlTemp.IndexOf('/'));

   if (listItem.ListItems.List.BaseTemplate == SPListTemplateType.DocumentLibrary)
   result = SPEncode.UrlEncodeAsUrl(String.Format("{0}/{1}/Forms/Dispform.aspx?ID={2}", listItem.ListItems.List.ParentWeb.Url, siteRelativeListUrl, listItem.ID));
   else
   result = SPEncode.UrlEncodeAsUrl(String.Format("{0}/Lists/{1}/Dispform.aspx?ID={2}", listItem.ListItems.List.ParentWeb.Url, siteRelativeListUrl, listItem.ID));

   return result;

   }

Setting up a SharePoint 2010 Developer VM using VirtualBox

2010-04-26T16:25:00.000-07:00

I spent a few hours this weekend creating a SharePoint 2010 Developer environment using the RTM.

For now, I'm approaching my dev build the same way I had my MOSS 2007 VM set up - a standalone MOSS install with Visual Studio installed.

Because I wanted to use a 64bit guest OS (64bit Server 2008), I decided to use VirtualBox as my VM solution, if you want to use VirtualBox, you can get it here. I should note that when I set up my VirtualBox VM I gave it 20GB of hard drive space which was not enough so I had to expand the drive (described later orange text). I'd suggest going to 40 or more if you can because Windows,SP2010, SQL, and Visual Studio take up about 18GB (and setting it up right the first time will save you from having to do this.

Once I had Server 2008 installed on a VirtualBox VM I downloaded the RTM version of SharePoint from MSDN.

I then attached the SharePoint 2010 .iso file to my VM, opened the mounted SharePoint 2010 image and ran the Prerequisite installer (I got an error as autorun tried to run).

After the prerequisite installation finished, I ran the setup, entered my product key, and chose to do a Standalone install. (I might do a Farm install so that I can use SQL Server as my backend, but you need to use Domain Accounts if you want to do this and I haven't set up a developer domain yet).

I did run into one hiccup, apparently during the installation I got a BSOD (though since I walked away during the install I didn't see the details). Once the server came back up and I realized what had happened, I reran the installer and the installation finished successfully, however, the Configuration Wizard wouldn't run (I got a 'failed to start the database service MSSQL$SharePoint' error). After going to Control Panel, then to the Uninstall Programs screen, I chose SharePoint 2010 (this wont show up unless you finish the install after the Blue Screen) and then chose 'Change', and selected 'Repair'. After the repair, SharePoint asked for a reboot, so I rebooted.

Once the server came back up I was able to run the Configuration Wizard without the 'failed to start...' issue. The configuration wizard ran through its thing and finished successfully. To verify a successful install I pulled up Central Admin to ensure that SharePoint 2010 was indeed installed successfully. After being prompted for credentials, Central Admin came up.

*Next, I had to expand my Virtual Box VDI file. This process is documented here.

After that I tried to install Visual Studio 2010. I got through all the installer wizard screens but got an error upon the actual install, apparently the VS 2010 iso doesn't mount well in Virtual Box. So I took my VM's browser to msdn and downloaded the VS 2010 web installer. I ran the web installer and went to bed. I later returned to see that after .NET Framework 4's installation I needed to reboot. I rebooted the VM then reran the web installer and it picked up where I left off.

Next I moved on to SharePoint Designer, based on my experience with VS 2010 not installing from a mounted drive in VirtualBox, I chose to download the Designer 2010 code directly in the VM. I couldn't find it on MSDN, so I downloaded it here. The installation went smoothly without any issues.

Expanding a VirtualBox VDI file for Server 2008 x64 R2

2010-04-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

I use virtual box as my SharePoint VM host because I want to be able to run 64bit Server 2008 R2 on my Windows 7 host machine. When I first installed SharePoint 2010, the VDI (Virtual Disk for VirtualBox) I created was too small, so I had to expand it. This is a bit of a challenge, but by doing some research I figured out how to do it.

The process involves creating a new, larger disk and copying the original boot and main partitions to the newer disk. This can be done with gparted. and the steps to do so are well documented here

However there are a few more steps you'll need to follow because you are using 64bit Server 2008 R2:

After you've followed the above instructions, mount the newer larger drive as the Primary Master and mount the Server 2008 R2 ISO.
Boot to the ISO (hitting any key when prompted)
Choose your language then on the next screen select repair
Select the partition and click ok
Choose the command line option
Switch to your c: drive
Type bootrec.exe /fixboot
Type bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd and after it runs successfully type A and hit enter to add the entry to the BCD store
Type exit and reboot the machine.
The machine should load, but kind of slowly, and then scandisk will run (allow it to run to completion), then windows should come back up.

Change Default Search Scope of your Search Results Page

2010-03-15T10:33:00.001-07:00

This, surprisingly, took a lot of digging to come up with, but the solution is simple.

1. Go to your search results page
2. Click Site Actions > Edit Page
3. On the search Core Results web part choose 'Modify Shared Web Part'
4. Expand the Miscellaneous section.
5. Type your scope name in the 'Scope' box, then click apply.
6. Test your Search

Using Milkbox with SharePoint

2010-01-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

Recently we needed to integrate Milkbox (Lightbox that supports Flash and other things) to our SharePoint-based Intranet Site.

In order to do this you need to do the following to your master page.

Download the Milkbox Code. Depending on how you plan to implement this solution you can store the files in a number of places, either in a doc library or on the file system in the 12 hive. In this example I created an STSDEV solution and added the downloaded files into the solution so they would deploy to the TEMPLATE/LAYOUTS directory in the 12 hive. If you choose to save it to another location, be sure to update your references from the '_layouts/...' references I gave to the .js and .css files.

Ensure the following DOCTYPE declaration is at the top of your masterpage:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN”>

Ensure the following assembly registration is in the top of your master page:

<%@ Register Tagprefix="PublishingWebControls" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

In the <head> section of your master page add the following (Also, pay attention that the version numbers match up with the most current version you've downloaded):

<PublishingWebControls:EditModePanel PageDisplayMode="Display" runat=server id="MilkboxPanel">

<script type="text/javascript" src="/_layouts/Lightbox/milkbox-2.3.2/js/mootools-1.2.3-core-yc.js"></script>\>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/_layouts/Lightbox/milkbox-2.3.2/js/mootools-1.2.3.1-assets.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/_layouts/Lightbox/milkbox-2.3.2/js/milkbox.js"></script>
<style type="text/css">
@import url(/_layouts/Lightbox/milkbox-2.3.2/css/milkbox/milkbox.css);
</style>

</PublishingWebControls:EditModePanel>

*Notice the Edit Mode panel wrapping the <style> and <script> tags. This is to prevent a javascript error that appears when the page is in edit mode and you try to edit a text field. This fix was proposed by Steve Mann of RDA, thanks for the help!

In your page content area, ensure that your links include the milkbox 'rel' attribute:

<a href="img/01b.jpg" rel="milkbox" title="Caption goes here...">image #1</a>

After this setup, you should be able to use Milkbox as it is documented on the page

Microsoft Virtualilzation Headaches

2009-12-17T08:47:00.000-08:00

As a SharePoint consultant, I am constantly moving from client to client and the best way to develop and test the code, designs and configurations for each client while maintaining complete separation is to virtualize. Since I work for a Microsoft partner, we try to use Microsoft tools and technologies as much as possible, which can be quite frustrating, as you will find out below.

I recently started working for a large client with a global presence whose IT policies are well-established, difficult to change and not always up-to-date. In that vein, enter the corporate VPN: it's a web-based signin with a host checker that doesn't support any x64 OS.

This prompted me, running Win 7 x64, to try to get a co-worker's Hyper-V Win2k3 x86 MOSS VM and run it in Windows Virtual PC. Seems like a logical thing to do, right? I mean, a Microsoft VHD should work, and be able to be imported by other Microsoft tools, right? Wrong. After spending quite a bit of time trying to attach the VHD in Windows Virtual PC and boot directly into it, I concluded that this was not possible.

Apparently, you can only run VMs using the same architecture as the host in Windows Virtual PC. And you can only boot into a VM that was created on your machine using that method.

To solve my problem, I wiped my machine and installed Windows Server 2008 R2 to take advantage of Hyper-V. While I was at it, I grabbed an image of Windows Server 2003 x86 and built a nice development machine to use for this client.

My problem was solved, but I think in the future, I'll use the open-source VirtualBox by Sun if I'm not able to use Hyper-V. A colleague grabbed one of my Hyper-V VMs the other day and was signed into it from his Windows 7 host using VirtualBox within minutes.

Another annoyance is the resizing of VHD files. My client VM mentioned above was created as a dynamic 30GB disk. The space was quickly filled and my performance was soon shot. Compounding the issue was the fact that I had half a dozen snapshots. While Hyper-V does let you merge snapshots, the process is painful, to say the least.

Resizing the .vhd file can be done using some third-party tools (beware if you have snapshots or a dynamic disk) like VHD Resizer, but that doesn't address the problem of resizing the system partition within the VM itself. Resizing the boot partition isn't supported in Windows Server 2003, so I ended up using another open-source tool, Gparted. Boot into the VM using this tool and it's a breeze to resize the system partition.

I really wish Microsoft would make their virtualization technologies a little more robust in the future.

How to: Set up your SharePoint 2010 development environment

2009-11-25T07:50:00.001-08:00

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554869(office.14).aspx

SharePoint 2010 Beta Available on Technet now!

2009-11-16T13:43:00.000-08:00

2 days early.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/securedownloads/default.aspx?pv=42%3a393

Examination of CSS Differences in IE 6, 7 & 8

2009-10-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has delved into the hairy world of SharePoint CSS knows that it can be difficult to effectively create a cross-browser experience that's *exactly* the same across recent versions of IE (6, 7, 8).

The fine people at Smashing Magazine have dissected all of the differences for us in this very useful article:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/14/css-differences-in-internet-explorer-6-7-and-8/

SharePoint CSS Builder

2009-10-05T07:52:00.000-07:00

I have a project where we'd like to display a sharepoint calendar within another application. If you are using the stock SharePoint Master Pages it's pretty easy to go through and hide the navigational elements. If you use this tool: http://sharepointcanvas.com/spc/ it's abouta 2 second job.

Great tool.

SPUtility.SendEmail truncates your message body

2009-09-24T13:04:00.001-07:00

Use this instead to send longer emails from SharePoint:


MailMessage message = new MailMessage();
message.From = new MailAddress(list.ParentWeb.Site.WebApplication.OutboundMailSenderAddress);
message.To.Add(new MailAddress("email@email.com));
message.Subject = "Subject";
message.Body = "Body";
SmtpClient smtpClient = new SmtpClient(SPContext.Current.Site.WebApplication.OutboundMailServiceInstance.Server.Address);
smtpClient.Send(message);

Getting WSPs out of the solution store

2009-08-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

We recently started creating a DR farm and I needed to get the wsp's out of our production farm so i could ensure the exact same version went into the dr farm. Thankfully someone already took on this challenge:

http://spbyexamples.blogspot.com/2009/07/batch-solution-deployment-between-farms.html

SharePoint Public Facing Sites

2009-08-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

This is a very good presentation on the considerations for deploying an external facing web site using SharePoint.

Working with the BDC

2009-07-16T13:34:00.000-07:00

I'm back to doing some BDC work and now remember how much I disliked it. I'm using hte BDC Application Definition Designer that comes with the SDK but it's always helpful to have a little refresher course on what everything does.

Randy Williams wrote and 8 part series over at SharePointMagazine.com that you should check out.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

New SharePoint 2010 Developer Videos

2009-07-13T10:24:00.001-07:00

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/Developer-Video.aspx

Check them out.