SharePoint Universe

SharePoint Interview Questions and Answers: Basics

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Sun, 27 May 2012 03:57:00 +0000

My next series of posts will be related to SharePoint Interview questions and answers. This will help most of you guys. What I am gonna do is - Simply take any topic in SharePoint and provide the list of questions and answers asked by the interviewer. I have some good amount of experience in interviewing the people, cause in my career many time I was on the interviewer's chair than interviewee.

Lets start with the SharePoint Basics:

1. What is Ghosting?

- page ghosting is an optimization used with site pages in which a single page template can be used to process multiple page instances across many different site. A page template, such as default.aspx, is compiled into an assembly dynamic-link library (DLL) and loaded into memory just once per Web application. When a user customizes a site page by using the SharePoint Designer and then saves those changes, a customized version of the page definition is stored in the content database.

2. SPVirtualPathProvider

- WSS stores storing customized versions of .aspx files and .master files inside the content database and retrieving them on demand when they are needed to process an incoming page request.

SPVirtualPathProvider is able to retrieve an ASP.NET page file from the content database, such as default.aspx, and then pass it along to the ASP.NET page parser.

3. Difference between Site pages and Application pages.

- Pages that support user customization are known as site pages. home page (default.aspx) is a site page. It supports user customization by using tools such as the SharePoint Designer.

Application page does not support customization. The standard Site Settings page (settings.aspx) is a good example of an application page. It can be accessed from any site, yet it does not support customization.

Application pages are deployed as physical files on the file system of the front-end Web server in a directory at the following path:

SharePoint 2007: c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\

web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS {12 hive}

SharePoint 2010: c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\

web server extensions\14\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS 
{14 hive}

4. Why SafeControls entry required in web.config in SharePoint

- It determines what controls a user might place on a customized page. For example, imagine a scenario in which a site administrator tries to mount an attack by adding a server-side control to a site page and parameterizing it in a certain way. Safe mode allows the farm administrator to determine which controls can be used in pages that are processed in safe mode.

5. What are the Featutes?

- Features provide a mechanism for defining site elements and adding them to a target site or site collection through a process known as feature activation. The element types that can be defined by a feature include menu commands, link commands, page templates, page instances, list definitions, list instances, event handlers, and workflows. A feature consists of a directory created within a special WSS system directory:

c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\Features

The directory for a feature contains one or more XML-based files that contain Collaborative Application Markup Language (CAML). Each feature directory contains a manifest file named feature.xml that defines the high-level attributes of the feature, such as its Id, Title, Description, Version, Scope, Hidden and ImageUrl. It also contains one or more additional XML files (elements.xml) that define the actual elements that make up the feature.

Feature Scopes:

The Scope defines the context in which the feature can be activated and deactivated. The feature we are creating has a scope equal to Web, which means it can be activated and deactivated within the context of the site. If you assign a Scope value of Site, your feature will then be activated and deactivated within the scope of a site collection. The two other possible scopes for defining a feature are WebApplication scope and Farm scope.

Feature EventReceivers:

Create a class that inherits from the SPFeatureReceiver class. As you can see, you handle events by overriding virtual methods in the base class such as FeatureActivated and FeatureDeactivating. There are also two other event handlers that fire when a feature is FeatureInstalled or FeatureUninstalled

6. What is site column?

- A site column is a reusable column definition that can be used across multiple lists. A site column defines the name for a column, its underlying field type, and other characteristics such as the default value, formatting, and validation. Advantage is that you can update the site column in a single place and have that update affect all the lists where the site column has been used.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms450825

7. What is Content Type?

- A content type is a flexible and reusable WSS type definition that defines the columns and behavior for an item in a list or a document in a document library.

You can also existing list columns to the list content types on the list. Also when you add columns directly to a list, and that list contains multiple content types, you can specify whether you want the new column to be referenced in all the content types on that list.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms479905

8. SharePoint Lists.

- At the heart of the core WSS architecture is the infrastructure for defining list types and provisioning list instances to store content. Document libraries, which play a vital role in creating WSS business solutions.

Following are the List Types. I have highlited some list types, which are majorly used in SharePoint Development:

List Type	Description
Document library	Used for collaborating on documents with support for versioning, check-in and check-out, and workflow. Includes support for deep integration with Microsoft Office.
Form library	Used to store XML documents and forms for use with Microsoft Office InfoPath.
Wiki page library	Used for collaborative Web pages based on wiki pages, which are dynamically generated and collaboratively edited Web pages.
Picture library	A specialized document library enhanced for use with pictures. Includes support for slide shows, thumbnails, and simple editing through Microsoft Office Picture Manager.
Announcements	Used for simple sharing of timely news with support for expiration.
Contacts	A list for tracking people and contact information, with support for integration into Microsoft Office Outlook and other WSS-compatible contacts applications.
Discussions	A simple list for threaded discussions with support for approval and managing discussion threads.
Links	A list for managing hyperlinks.
Calendar	A list for tracking upcoming events and deadlines. Includes support for integration and synchronization with Office Outlook.
Tasks	A list of activity-based items that can integrate with workflow.
Project tasks	An enhanced tasks list with support for Gannt chart rendering and integration with Microsoft Office Project.
Issue tracking	A list for tracking issues and resolution, with support for prioritization.
Custom list	An empty list definition for extending with custom columns, or created using Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets.

SharePoint Object model code to access any list:

SPList list = null;

using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://siteurl"))

{

using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())

{

string listName = "SampleList";

list = web.Lists[listName];

// list = web.GetList("/Lists/ SampleList"); This method is // useful, as no code change required when the list Title // changes.

SPListItem newItem = list.Items.Add();

newItem ["Title"] = "First Item";

newItem.Update();

// You can use newItem.SystemUpdate(); if you don’t want // update modified date and version.

}

To get specific results within a list, you can use the SPQuery object as follows:

query.ViewFields = @"<FieldRef Name='Title'/><FieldRef Name='Expires'/>";query.Query =@"<Where><Lt><FieldRef Name='Expires' /><Value Type='DateTime'><Today /></Value></Lt></Where>";
SPList list = site.Lists["SampleList"];
SPListItemCollection items = list.GetItems(query);

SPSiteDataQuery class can return items from many different lists through an entire site collection. hence queries run with the SPSiteDataQuery class are sometimes referred to as cross-site queries.

I have added some of the question which might help you guys...

I will update same post with more useful question and answers immediately...

Avoiding JavaScript and CSS stylesheet caching problems in sharepoint

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:12:00 +0000

Good news - Our application got new branding in this release, which changed my perception as a developer to see SharePoint applications. SharePoint is not only about C# and CAML other things like JS, CSS and HTML also plays major role in your application.

We mainly work on the business logic of the application but this time got chance to work with UI designers, and Changing look and feel of SharePoint is not a easy task as lots of tweaking is needed to overwrite existing styles dynamically applied by the SharePoint.

So let me introduce you the structure of our application, All JS, Stylesheets and images are placed inside the _layouts [14 hive\Layouts] folder.
UI designer made some changes to apply branding on homepage and gave update files to me. I have merged all the files properly and deployed the application on the server. but changes are not reflected and UI is breaking. Called my fellow UI designer showed the issue. She performed hard refresh (CTRL + F5) this resolved all the issues.

Root cause is the Browser caching for js and css files.

This raised another question in my mind I can perform hard refresh but in Production we cannot tell every user to perform hard refresh.

So here is the solution to above problem...

To avoid browser caching a file even after it is updated, simple change the linking URL format

To:

Update this numbers whenever your file is updated, to avoid facing the same issue of not seeing updated CSS and JavaScript files by default.

Reference link: http://www.sharepointnutsandbolts.com/2011/11/avoiding-bugs-from-cached-javascript.html

ASP:Button OnClientClick and OnClick not working

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:05:00 +0000

Sometimes you face really strange scenarios in Development, I faced a very strange issue about Event handlers while development of simple application. It proves that its not always Developers fault for coding defects.

I was creating a Search module in our application where I want call OnClientClick event for validation and if the validation returns true then perform search on DataSource using OnClick event of the Search button.

I have created a JavaScript function for validation and called that method in OnClientClick event

function ValidateSearch()

{

var flag = true;

// JavaScript code for validation

return flag;

}

following is the ASP.Net code for Search button.

<asp:Button ID="keywordSearch" runat="server" Text="Search" TabIndex="1" OnClick="keywordSearch_Click" OnClientClick="ValidateSearch()" />

With above code it should call ValidateSearch() method first on click of Search button and based on the return value, it should call the Server-Side event.

Everything is OK, but above code didn't work, [Don't give up in such cases]
I tried some other alternative like...

1) <asp:Button ID="keywordSearch" runat="server" Text="Search" TabIndex="1" OnClick="keywordSearch_Click" OnClientClick="javascript:return ValidateSearch();" />

2) <asp:Button ID="keywordSearch" runat="server" Text="Search" TabIndex="1" OnClick="keywordSearch_Click" OnClientClick="return ValidateSearch();" />

but still no Success.

Solution:
We have to explicitly return the result after checking the functions return value.

<asp:Button ID="keywordSearch" runat="server" Text="Search" TabIndex="1" OnClick="keywordSearch_Click" OnClientClick="if (!ValidateSearch()) { return false;};" />

Hope this helps you.

Add List Items with users identity (Created By) when using RunWithElevatedPriviledges delegate

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:21:00 +0000

We faced a situation when we have to elevate the read only users permission to add/update the list items in SharePoint list. To accomplish this we usually go for the RunWithElevatedPriviledges delegate, but the only disadvantage of this approach is if we add/update any item within this delegate, it will save that record with 'System Account' identity.

Following code can be used to overwrite the 'System Account' identity with current user's identity, So list item will display 'Created By' or 'Modified By' columns value as current user.

SPUser user = SPContext.Current.Web.CurrentUser;

SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()

{

    using (SPSite site
= new SPSite(SPContext.Current.Web.Url))

{

        using (SPWeb web =
site.OpenWeb())

{

           
web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;

            SPList list = web.Lists["TempList"];

            SPListItem listItem = list.AddItem();

           
listItem["Title"] = string.Format("Hey
{0}", user.LoginName);

           
listItem["Editor"] =
user;  //
Modified By                     

           
listItem["Author"] =
user;  //
Created By

           
listItem.Update();

           
web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = false;

}

}

});

Simplest way to get the strong name of an assembly

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 08:58:00 +0000

I found very interesting post which describes how to get strong name of the assembly without even opening the properties window of that assembly. I saw many fellow-developers are still not aware of this simple option that may make their life at least a bit easier, hence sharing this post.

Old Method:

Open the assembly in the GAC (c:\Windows\Assembly) and view its properties. Then form the strong name with assembly name, version and public key token.

http://www.understandingsharepoint.com/justask/how-do-i-find-the-strong-name-of-an-assembly

Simplest method:

Open the assembly, select the assembly you need the strong name for, then from the Edit menu choose Copy Display Name menu item

http://blog.dotnetstep.in/2009/04/how-to-get-assembly-name-for.html

Session State Service Configuration in SharePoint 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 10:11:00 +0000

To enable ASP.NET session state, log on the Central Admin
Server using Farm Admin Account, and Either Run PowerShell command

Enable-SPSessionStateService -DefaultProvision

to create service application with default
state. By default, this will create service application database with
“SessionStateService_<GUID>”, on the same database server where farm
configuration database is located using windows credentials of the logged in
user.

Or

Enable-SPSessionStateService -DatabaseServer YourDBServerName
-DatabaseName YourDBName

to create service application
with specific database name on non-SharePoint configuration database server.
For more details and additional parameters,
Reference link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607857.aspx.

By enabling Session State Service on your farm,

It would create database on specified server: SessionStateService_<GUID>

It would create SharePoint Server Session State Service in
Manage Service Applications, please make sure it is showing ‘Started’.

It would add module in all web applications on farm, Check
following entry in web.config:

<sessionState mode=”SQLServer” timeout=”60″
allowCustomSqlDatabase=”true” sqlConnectionString=”Data Source=<DatabaseServarName>;Initial
Catalog=SessionStateService_<GUID>;Integrated
Security=True;Enlist=False;Connect Timeout=15″ />

You have to manually update Web.Config file for the specific
SharePoint web application on all servers in the farm. - <pages
enableSessionState=”true”

By performing above steps you can configure Session State service in your Web Application. Now

you can user Sessions in ShrePoint without ant issues...

Disable automatic activation of SharePoint features in Visual Studio 2010.

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 07:52:00 +0000

When we write our custom solutions for SharePoint 2010, we must know that all our features will be activated automatically on every time we deploy the solution over the SharePoint site selected at project creation time.

This is the default configuration that we have inside SharePoint 2010 tools for Visual Studio 2010. When you are doing development of a custom event receiver that manage activation or deactivation events of a SharePoint feature. In this specific sample, we cannot debug our code.

To solve this problem, you can modify this configuration and select to don't activate your features every time you have to deploy your solution. To do this, simply you have to open the project properties page through the "Solution explorer" toolbox, select the "SharePoint" tab and choose the configuration named "No Activation".

As we can disable the automatic activation of our features, we also have the possibility to create custom configurations in which we can insert deploy and retract operations, app-pool recycles, features activation and command execution of pre/post deploy actions.

The specified path, file name, or both are too long. The fully qualified file name must be less than 260 characters.

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 07:38:00 +0000

If you receive the following error in Visual Studio while packaging WSP:

The specified path, file name, or both are too long. The fully qualified file name must be less than 260 characters, and the directory name must be less than 248 characters

then simply move all your projects from

C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\

to root drive

C:\Projects

Visual studio does not allow absolute path that exceeds 260 characters. so use short filenames when you create any WSP package and create your project on root directory to avoid long absolute paths.

Inbuilt method to Check if List Exist in SharePoint 2010.

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 09:35:00 +0000

In SharePoint 2007, one of the mostly required methods but not provided by Microsoft:

Checking if SharePoint List exists on Site or not?

If we directly use spWeb.Lists[“<ListName>”] and if list does not exist then it will throw an exception. To avoid such exceptions I have created following extension method:

public static bool IsListExists(this SPWeb spWeb, string listName)

{

try

{

return spWeb.Lists.Cast<SPList>().Any(list => string.Compare(list.Title, listName, true) == 0);

}

catch (Exception ex)

{

ex.LogException("List does not exist", CommonConstants.EVENT_SOURCE, spWeb, spWeb.CurrentUser);

return false;

}

Now Microsoft is woke up, In SharePoint 2010 they have provided an inbuilt method method in the SPListCollection .Simply use this method instead of looping all the lists and check its existence.

SPList sampleList = spWeb.Lists.TryGetList("SampleList");

if (sampleList != null)

{

// Code Block goes here

}

Hope this helps you...

ECMAScript vs. Silverlight Object Model

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:33:00 +0000

In modern web application design, the requirement to add client-side code is becoming increasing popular that’s why I was curious to know,

Is Silverlight object model is better than ECMAscript object model?

When you are working on Sandbox solution and customizing the list forms (NewForm or EditForm) youhave multiple approaches:

1. You can use SharePoint Designer and Customize list Forms and then use ECMAScript object model to implement business logic inside that forms.

2. Second approach is to design New, Edit and Display forms of list from scratch in Silverlight and use Silverlight object model for business logic implementation.

If you decide you want to add client-side code to a SharePoint solution, then next step is to choose between above approaches. Let's look at the pros and cons of each approach.

ECMAScript:

1. Multiple browser support.

2. Built-in support for ECMAScript, no downloads required.

3. No compile-time type checking and IntelliSense.

4. Need advanced programming skills with ECMAScript to work with Web Services.

5. Automatically generates form based on the SharePoint list columns.

Silverlight:

1. User must download and install the Silverlight runtime to run Silverlight application.

2. Deployment of Silverlight applications is now easy in SharePoint 2010, as SharePoint Foundation includes several different Silverlight 3 applications in standard pages.

3. You can write your code in Visual Studio 2010 with IntelliSense and in C# or VB language.

4. Compile-time type checking.

5. Using Silverlight OM it’s easier to program against web services.

6. Form design needs to be done from scratch.

Reference links:

Understanding Key Design Decisions in SharePoint 2010 Development by Ted Pattison

Silverlight object model

ECMAScript Object model

Configurable multi-level treeview left navigation in SharePoint

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:11:00 +0000

It’s a very common requirement in SharePoint to implement a multilevel Left or Top navigation. And another requirement is that it should be configurable i.e. user able to add or remove the navigation links.

I have used treeview control and SharePoint list to implement Left navigation of the site.

Step 1:

Create a SharePoint list (LeftNavigation) with following columns

1. Title – Single Line of Text (Name to be displayed in navigation)

2. URL – Single Line of Text (Relative URL)

3. Hierarchy – Lookup column (Parent node)

Step 2:

Add new Class Library project or WSPBuilder project. Then add a User control inside the CNTROLTEMPLATES folder (as shown below).

Give proper name to the user control, here my user controls name is ‘SPNavUserControl’

Step 3: Copy this code in SPNavUserControl.ascx file

<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="SPNavUserControl.ascx.cs"

Inherits="SPNavControl.SPNavUserControl,SPNavControl,Version=1.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=d3f00d350c249841" %>

<asp:XmlDataSource ID="xmlDS" runat="server" />

<asp:TreeView BackColor="White" ID="treeViewLeftNav" runat="server" DataSourceID="xmlDS"

ShowLines="true" ShowExpandCollapse="true" SelectedNodeStyle-Font-Bold="true"

HoverNodeStyle-Font-Bold="true" SelectedNodeStyle-ForeColor="Red" NodeStyle-Width="100%"

NodeStyle-Height="100%" NodeStyle-Font-Size="11px" NodeStyle-Font-Names="verdana"

NodeIndent="15" RootNodeStyle-BackColor="#d6e8ff" RootNodeStyle-Width="100%"

RootNodeStyle-BorderColor="#add1ff" RootNodeStyle-BorderStyle="Solid" RootNodeStyle-BorderWidth="1px"

LeafNodeStyle-BorderStyle="None">

<asp:TreeNodeBinding DataMember="menu" TextField="name" NavigateUrlField="url" />

</DataBindings>

</asp:TreeView>

</div>

Step 4: Write following code in code-behind file (.cs) to generate XML string (data source) from the SharePoint List and bind the Data source to the treeview control.

namespace SPNavControl

{

public partial class SPNavUserControl : System.Web.UI.UserControl

{

#region Variable Declaration

XPathExpression expr = null;

StringBuilder xmlDataSource = null;

string tempString = string.Empty;

XmlDocument xmlDoc = null;

XPathDocument doc = null;

#endregion

protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e)

{

treeViewLeftNav.PreRender += new EventHandler(treeViewLeftNav_PreRender);

treeViewLeftNav.DataBinding += new EventHandler(treeViewLeftNav_DataBinding);

treeViewLeftNav.TreeNodeDataBound += new TreeNodeEventHandler(treeViewLeftNav_TreeNodeDataBound);

}

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

if (!IsPostBack)

{

//Generate XML file from the SharePoint list

xmlDataSource = new StringBuilder();

xmlDataSource.Append("<?xml version='1.0' encoding='iso-8859-1' ?>");

using (SPSite spSite = new SPSite(SPContext.Current.Site.ID))

{

using (SPWeb spWeb = spSite.OpenWeb())

{

SPList list = spWeb.GetList(spWeb.Url + "/Lists/LeftNavigation");

DataTable dtList = list.Items.GetDataTable();

DataRow[] dtListItems = dtList.Select("Hierarchy = ''");

foreach (DataRow dtRowItem in dtListItems)

{

tempString = dtRowItem["Title"].ToString();

//Recursive method to create a XML file from list

GenerateXMLDS(xmlDataSource, dtRowItem, dtList);

}

void treeViewLeftNav_TreeNodeDataBound(object sender, TreeNodeEventArgs e)

{

if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(e.Node.NavigateUrl))

{

e.Node.SelectAction = TreeNodeSelectAction.Expand;

}

private void GenerateXMLDS(StringBuilder xmlDataSource, DataRow dtRowItem, DataTable dtList)

{

try

{

xmlDataSource.Append("<menu name='" + dtRowItem["Title"] + "' url='" + (String.IsNullOrEmpty(dtRowItem["URL"].ToString().Trim('/')) ? String.Empty : (SPContext.Current.Site.Url + "/" + dtRowItem["URL"].ToString().Trim('/'))) + "' level='" + tempString + "'>");

DataRow[] dtListItems = dtList.Select("Hierarchy = '" + dtRowItem["Title"] + "'");

if (dtListItems.Length != 0)

{

foreach (DataRow dtRowItemNew in dtListItems)

{

tempString += "/" + dtRowItemNew["Title"];

GenerateXMLDS(xmlDataSource, dtRowItemNew, dtList);

}

if (-1 != tempString.LastIndexOf('/'))

tempString = tempString.Remove(tempString.LastIndexOf('/'));

xmlDataSource.Append("</menu>");

}

catch (Exception)

{

// Handle and Log your exception here.

}

void treeViewLeftNav_DataBinding(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

try

{

//Bind XML data source to the Treeview control

xmlDS.Data = xmlDataSource.ToString();

}

catch (Exception)

{

// Handle and Log your exception here.

}

void treeViewLeftNav_PreRender(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

try

{

//Code block to maintain the previous state of treeview control after redirection

treeViewLeftNav.CollapseAll();

xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();

xmlDoc.LoadXml(xmlDataSource.ToString());

doc = new XPathDocument(new XmlNodeReader(xmlDoc.DocumentElement));

XPathNavigator nav = doc.CreateNavigator();

string currentUrl = Request.Url.AbsoluteUri.Replace("%20", " ");

string pageTitle = Request.QueryString["title"];

expr = nav.Compile("//menu[@name='" + pageTitle + "' and @url='" + currentUrl.Trim('/') + "']");

XPathNodeIterator iterator = nav.Select(expr);

while (iterator.MoveNext())

{

string currentNodeToSelect = iterator.Current.GetAttribute("level", nav.NamespaceURI);

TreeNode treeNodeToExpand = treeViewLeftNav.FindNode(currentNodeToSelect.Trim('/'));

if (null != treeNodeToExpand)

{

treeNodeToExpand.Selected = true;

while (null != treeNodeToExpand)

{

treeNodeToExpand.Expand();

treeNodeToExpand = treeNodeToExpand.Parent;

}

catch (Exception)

{

// Handle and Log your exception here.

}

Step 5: Add this User Control in master page.

Note: There is limitation of the treeview control. It will not maintain a state after redirection. To overcome this limitation, I have introduced ‘Hierarchy’ column which always point’s to parent node.

When user clicks on any of the links from navigation it is redirected to the URL specified in NavigationUrl property of Treeview. As the user control is placed in master page, in treeView_PreRender event with the help of the current URL I am finding the level of the clicked node and expanding it based on that.

Extend the Default Navigation Provider of SharePoint 2010 in 5 easy steps

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 09:40:00 +0000

There are many limitations, when you want to tweak the SharePoint’s default navigation to add multiple levels in left/top navigation.

SharePoint supports only 2 level of fly-out navigation. For multilevel navigation there are following approaches:

1. Create your own user control

2. Extend the SharePoint Navigation Provider

I have extended the default navigation provider PortalSiteMapProvider to show multilevel fly-out navigation.

Step 1: Create a C# class library project with the following code:

using System.Web;

using Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing;

using Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation;

namespace CustomNavProvider

{

public class Navigation : PortalSiteMapProvider

{

SiteMapNodeCollection siteMapNodeColl = null;

public override SiteMapNodeCollection GetChildNodes(System.Web.SiteMapNode node)

{

PortalSiteMapNode pNode = node as PortalSiteMapNode;

if (pNode != null)

{

if (pNode.Type == NodeTypes.Area)

{

SiteMapNodeCollection nodeColl = base.GetChildNodes(pNode);

//We can use SharePoint list or XML file to make our navigation configurable.

SiteMapNode childNode = new SiteMapNode(this, "<http://www.mainsite.com>",

"<http://www.mainsite.com>", "Root site");

SiteMapNode childNode1 = new SiteMapNode(this,"<http://www.level1site.com>",

"<http://www.level1site.com>", "Level 1 Site");

SiteMapNode childNode2 = new SiteMapNode(this,"<http://www.level2site.com>",

"<http://www.level2site.com>", "Level 2 Site");

SiteMapNode childNode11 = new SiteMapNode(this,

"<http://www.level11site.com>", "<http://www.level11site.com>", "Subsite level 11");

SiteMapNode childNode12 = new SiteMapNode(this, "<http://www.level12site.com>",

"<http://www.level12site.com>", "Subsite level 12");

SiteMapNode childNode111 = new SiteMapNode(this, "<http://www.level111site.com>",

"<http://www.level111site.com>", "Site Pages 1");

SiteMapNode childNode112 = new SiteMapNode(this, "<http://www.level112site.com>",

"<http://www.level112site.com>", "Site Pages 2");

nodeColl.Add(childNode);

siteMapNodeColl = new SiteMapNodeCollection();

siteMapNodeColl.Add(childNode111);

siteMapNodeColl.Add(childNode112);

childNode12.ChildNodes = siteMapNodeColl;

siteMapNodeColl = new SiteMapNodeCollection();

siteMapNodeColl.Add(childNode11);

siteMapNodeColl.Add(childNode12);

childNode1.ChildNodes = siteMapNodeColl;

siteMapNodeColl = new SiteMapNodeCollection();

siteMapNodeColl.Add(childNode1);

siteMapNodeColl.Add(childNode2);

childNode.ChildNodes = siteMapNodeColl;

return nodeColl;

}

else

return base.GetChildNodes(pNode);

}

else

return new SiteMapNodeCollection();

}

Step 2: Deploy the solution or Copy the dll in GAC.

Step 3: Add following entry in web.config for your web application

Step 4: Create a custom master page or update the v4.master with SharePoint designer 2010, and then add the following code under the left navigation’s ContentPlaceHolder element.

<SharePoint:AspMenu

ID="LeftNavigationMenu"

Runat="server"

DataSourceID="leftSiteMap1"

EnableViewState="false"

AccessKey="<%$Resources:wss,navigation_accesskey%>"

Orientation="Vertical"

StaticDisplayLevels="1"

MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels="4"

DynamicHorizontalOffset="0"

StaticPopoutImageUrl="/_layouts/1033/images/next.gif"

StaticPopoutImageTextFormatString=""

DynamicHoverStyle-BackColor="#CBE3F0"

SkipLinkText=""

StaticSubMenuIndent="0"

CssClass="ms-topNavContainer">

<DynamicMenuStyle BackColor="#F2F3F4" BorderColor="#A7B4CE"

BorderWidth="1px"/>

</SharePoint:AspMenu>

<asp:SiteMapDataSource

ShowStartingNode="False"

SiteMapProvider="MyCustomNavigationProvider"

id="leftSiteMap1"

runat="server"

StartFromCurrentNode="true"/>

Step 5: Recycle your application pool and your site should now displaying the updated navigation.

External list using BCS in SharePoint 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 14:09:00 +0000

Sample Database:

Create a sample Employee database in SQL Server, as shown below:

I have created BCSDB database and a sample Employee table with three columns.

Create an External content Type

Open SharePoint designer and select External Content Type:

Create new External content type as follows:

Provide all required data with content type name and click on External System link to create connection to attach content type with external data source i.e. SQL Server database.

Click on Add Connection button:

Select "SQL Server" as Data Source Type

Enter the details about your connection to your SQL Server:

When the connection is made, your Data Source Explorer will be filled with the database you have specified. Now choose the table you want to work with and right-click and select "Create All Operations":

Click " Next" to get to the Parameters page and then click on finish button.

Check External Content Type Operations table:

Final view of my External Content Type: EmplyeeCT

Create an External list as Employee Details:

Provide External Content Type; click the browse-button beside it:

Select your created External content Type and press OK.

That’s it, Your External list is created and now add/update/delete items from Employee Details list and these changes will be reflected in list as well as in Database. User will be unaware of the backend processing.

Limitations of External list using BCS in SharePoint 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:50:00 +0000

There are a many features that are missing when you create an External List based on an External Content Type:

1. Workflows cannot be associated with external lists

2. Cannot create Information Management Policies

3. LINQ to SharePoint spmetal.exe does not support external lists

4. No versioning

5. No Inline Editing or Datasheet View

6. No ratings

7. No alerts

8. No attachments

9. No REST access through ListData.svc to External Lists

10. No RSS Feeds

11. No Item Level Permissions

12. No item or field level validation

13. No Lookups

14. No ability to Export to Excel, Create Visio Diagram, Open with Access or Open with Project

Editable Dropdown list with IE6 issue resolved

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:48:00 +0000

I came across the situation when I wanted to give the user the option of either creating a new entry or selecting from an existing one.

Solution is here...
The textbox is placed on top of the dropdown with enough room on the right to still display the down arrow of the dropdown. You can see that the user is either able to enter new text into the textbox or select an option from the dropdown.

To display the box properly I use HTML and CSS. When the user selects an option from the dropdown I use Javascript to load the value into the textbox. When the form is submitted ignore the dropdown and just pull the value from the textbox.

function DropDownTextToBox(objDropdown, strTextboxId)

{

document.getElementById(strTextboxId).value = objDropdown.options[objDropdown.selectedIndex].value;

DropDownIndexClear(objDropdown.id);

document.getElementById(strTextboxId).focus();

}

</script>

This is the HTML that includes the textbox, dropdown and the div that goes around it. You’ll notice IE conditional statements in commented area for IE6 issue.

<input name="TextboxExample" type="text" maxlength="50" id="TextboxExample" tabindex="2"

onchange="DropDownIndexClear('DropDownExTextboxExample');" style="width: 242px;

position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; z-index: 2;" />

<select name="DropDownExTextboxExample" id="DropDownExTextboxExample" tabindex="1000"

onchange="DropDownTextToBox(this,'TextboxExample');" style="position: absolute;

top: 0px; left: 0px; z-index: 1; width: 265px;">

</select>

</div>

IE6 Problem:

The above implementation wont work in IE 6. It wasn’t able to display the textbox over the dropdown properly.

The following style code is used to overcome the issues with IE6.



<style type="text/css"> .select-free { position: absolute; z-index: 10; /any value/ overflow: hidden; /must have/ width: 247px; /must have for any value/ /width of area +5/ } .select-free iframe { display: none; /sorry for IE5/ display: block; /sorry for IE5/ position: absolute; /must have/ top: 0px; /must have/ left: 0px; /must have/ z-index: -1; /must have/ filter: mask(); /must have/ width: 3000px; /must have for any big value/ height: 3000px /must have for any big value/; } .select-free .bd { padding: 11px; } </style>

The Web application at ... could not be found. Verify that you have typed the URL correctly.

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 07:18:00 +0000

Yesterday my colleague showed me this error. He was trying to open a SPSite object using a URL and hitting the following error:

The Web application at ... could not be found. Verify that you have typed the URL correctly. If the URL should be serving existing content, the system administrator may need to add a new request URL mapping to the intended application.

This is common, and can have several causes.

1. The obvious: The URL does not exist on the farm.

Solution: Change the URL you are loading to the correct one.

2. The not so obvious: the code is in a console or windows application which you are now running with an account that does not have permissions to connect to the SQL server.

Solution: either run the application as a different user or grant the user permissions on the SQL database.

3. The last but most important: the code is in a console or windows application that is compiled with platform target x86, while your SharePoint server is x64.

Solution: set the platform target to "Any CPU".

Add event receiver to a SharePoint list

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 06:30:00 +0000

Recently I have created a generic function to add event receiver to specific SharePoint list.

Explaination is not need as code is very simple to understand.

private void AddEventReceiverToAList(string siteUrl)

{

using (SPSite site = new SPSite(siteUrl))

{

using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())

{

try

{

SPList list = web.Lists["myList"];

if (list != null)

{

int receivers = list.EventReceivers.Count;

string className = "EventReceiverClass";

string asmName = "EventReceiverAssemblyName, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=a865f0ecc234ea51";

web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;

bool isAddedReceiverExist = false;

for (int i = 0; i < receivers; i++)

{

SPEventReceiverDefinition eventReceiver = list.EventReceivers[i];

if (eventReceiver.Class == className && eventReceiver.Type == SPEventReceiverType.ItemAdded)

{

isAddedReceiverExist = true;

break;

}

if (!isAddedReceiverExist)

list.EventReceivers.Add(SPEventReceiverType.ItemAdded, asmName, className);

}

catch { }

finally

{

web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = false;

}

The service 'System.Workflow.ComponentModel.Compiler.ITypeProvider' must be installed for this operation to succeed. Please ensure that this service is available.

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 09:07:00 +0000

Yesterday I was creating a Visual studio workflow, so I have created a WSPBuilder Project and added ‘State Machine Workflow feature’ template. When I tried to open the workflow it gave me following error:

The service 'System.Workflow.ComponentModel.Compiler.ITypeProvider' must be installed for this operation to succeed. Please ensure that this service is available.

To fix this issue you have to edit your project file:

<ProjectTypeGuids> {14822709-B5A1-4724-98CA-57A101D1B079};{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}ProjectTypeGuids>

Note: You will not encounter above error in ‘WSPBuider Project with Workflow' template.

Reference link:

http://wspbuilder.codeplex.com/discussions/27794?ProjectName=wspbuilder

Update SharePoint default application pages (AccessDenied.aspx, SignOut.aspx) with your own custom pages

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 13:44:00 +0000

I came across the situation where I need to replace the default SignOut.aspx page with custom page.

The following feature receiver replaces the default SignOut page with a custom one on activation and resets the SignOut page to the default one on deactivation.

[Guid("d8ed5819-b368-493f-a59c-1167c2a63799")]

public class UpdateDefaultPageEventReceiver : SPFeatureReceiver

{

const string customPage = "_layouts/MyPage/CustomSignOut.aspx";

public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)

{

SPWebApplication webApp = properties.Feature.Parent as SPWebApplication;

if (null != webApp)

{

if (!webApp.UpdateMappedPage(SPWebApplication.SPCustomPage.Signout, customPage))

{

//Unable to replace the SignOut page

}

public override void FeatureDeactivating(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)

{

SPWebApplication webApp = properties.Feature.Parent as SPWebApplication;

if (null != webApp)

{

if (!webApp.UpdateMappedPage(SPWebApplication.SPCustomPage.Signout, null))

{

//Unable to reset the SignOut page

}

You can also replace other pages which are member of SPWebApplication.SPCustomPage enum. (e.g. AccessDenied.aspx, Confirmation.aspx, Error.aspx, Login.aspx, ReqAcc.aspx, SignOut.aspx etc.)

Execute a JavaScript onload() function in SharePoint page

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 10:53:00 +0000

In SharePoint, most of the time master page contains the BODY tag, now if you want to add your JavaScript function on body onload() then there is a workaround for it. SharePoint provides the "_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames" array. When the body is loaded, the onload event handler executes each function whose name is contained in this array.

_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.push("FunctionName");

function FunctionName()

{

// Code goes here...

}

script>

This array is basically a part of init. If you open the JavaScript file, you will notice the page onLoad event is handled by function _spBodyOnLoadWrapper, which further calls ProcessDefaultOnLoad, and this function executes all the function names added in array _spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.

Out of box SharePoint Development

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 09:22:00 +0000

DO NOT write code if you don't have to.

I am a developer and I love coding. However, I find that not to write code, when the requirements can be fulfilled using OOB, is the way to make a SharePoint development project successful.

Yes, go codeless in a SharePoint development project.

Here are pros for going OOB:

No need to write code
No need to debug code
No need to test code
No need to optimize code, such as cache, log, exception handling, etc.
Easier to understand (not always)
Easier to deploy (not always)
Shorter development cycle
Save time and $

And of course there are cons:

Harder to debug and test
Limited options for optimization
May not be feasible
May be harder to deploy

Future of the SharePoint is OOB only, Sandbox solutions in SharePoint 2010 is the first step towards it.

Some useful methods in SPUtility class

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 08:12:00 +0000

SPUtility is a very rich class, which contains a number of useful functions; it also contains a number of obsolete functions. I found following methods very useful in our daily programming.

1. System DateTime to ISO8601 DateTime

Converts a system DateTime value to ISO8601 DateTime format (yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ)

string isoDateTime = SPUtility.CreateISO8601DateTimeFromSystemDateTime(DateTime.Now());

//Output: 2010-03-30T15:30:33Z

2. Redirect

Signature of Redirect method:

public static bool Redirect(string url, SPRedirectFlags flags, HttpContext context)

The below link will provide you detailed information about the SPRedirectFlags.

http://www.tonstegeman.com/Blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=102

3. Transfer to Success or Error Page

These methods are useful when you are

SPUtility.TransferToErrorPage("Hi this is an Error Page", "this is link","{your_url}");

SPUtility.TransferToErrorPage("Hi this is an Error Page {0}, {1}", "click here to Go to Top site", "{your_url}");

SPUtility.TransferToSuccessPage("Hi this is an Sucess Page");

SPUtility.TransferToSuccessPage("Hi this is an Sucess Page {0},{1}", "{url}", "This is Link", "{url}");

Useful link:

http://www.sharepointkings.com/2008/05/how-to-use-sputilitytransfertoerrorpage.html

4. Email

Send an email from the context of the given SPWeb.

SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Site.OpenWeb();
string subject = "Email from the " + web.Title + " web";
string body = "The body of the email";

SPUtility.SendEmail(web, false, false, "someone@somewhere.com", subject, body);

5. 12-hive Path:

Returns the filesystem path for the 12-Hive, or any of the folders beneath it.

(C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12)

string featuresPath = SPUtility.GetGenericSetupPath("Template\\Features");

6. Full URL:

Return absolute url from relative url

string webUrl = "/sub/default.aspx";

SPUtility.GetFullUrl(SPContext.Current.Site, webUrl);

//Output: "http://localhost/sub/default.aspx"

There are methods that I did not describe; I will publish them as soon as I find out how they can be used.

Reference Links:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.utilities.sputility_members.aspx

SPWeb.ProcessBatchData method to improve SharePoint list operations performance

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 07:13:00 +0000

The common way to add or update multiple items in SharePoint list is SPListItem.Update. You can an existing item or add a new item using SplistItemCollection .Add().

Sample Code Snippet:

for (int itemCount = 0; itemCount < 100;s itemCount++)

{

SPListItem newItem = listItemCollection.Add();

newItem.Update();

}

Using Batch Update:
ProcessBatchData method takes XML format as input and it will directly communicate with SharePoint content database.

StringBuilder query = new StringBuilder();

query.Append("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?><Batch>");

for (int itemCount = 0; itemCount < 100; itemCount++)

{

query.AppendFormat("<Method ID=\"{0}\">" +

"<SetList>{1}</SetList>" +

"<SetVar Name=\"ID\">New</SetVar>" +

"<SetVar Name=\"Cmd\">Save</SetVar>" +

"<SetVar Name=\"{3}Title\">{2}</SetVar>" +

"</Method>", i, listGuid, someValue, "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#");

}

query.Append("</Batch>");

spWeb.ProcessBatchData(query.ToString());

Conclusion:
If you have to update a larger number of items its highly recommended to not use the Update method on every item. Instead – use the batch update function ProcessBatchData provided by SPWeb.

Reference Links:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc404818.aspx

SharePoint 2010: Version History for Multiline text column with “Append Changes to Existing Text” not visible in SharePoint 2010 Custom Edit forms

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 06:52:00 +0000

Problem Statement:

If you have created a Multiline textbox with “Append Changes to Existing Text”

This will display a version history for that column in default Edit and Display form, but the same thing won’t work in the custom edit and display forms.

Solution:

Add tag below the text fields control with Control mode “Display” and unique Id.

<SharePoint:AppendOnlyHistory runat="server" id="ff21disp{$Pos}" controlmode="Display" fieldname="Comments "></SharePoint:AppendOnlyHistory>

Introduction...

noreply@blogger.com (Nilesh Mandekar) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 09:52:00 +0000

Hey Guys,
This is my first BLOG post. I always think to write any blog on SharePoint but frankly speaking, I didn’t have the time last year due to project deliverables. I now realize that there is so much information that I came across which is truly useful and I don’t always have time to write a blog post. This year I have decided to give my time to this blog. Thanks for reading and I hope all my time and effort helps you on many levels.