Sharepoint Tips And Tricks

What do you get when you google "Visual studio 2010"?

2010-08-23T21:27:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but my search engine of choice just gave me a big surprise as the first result. It only happens when you use google Australia (.com.au), not in google.com:

Am I imagining things, or is the first result a spam site? Microsoft - you may want to do something about this...

My SharePoint 2010 How To book is now available in print

2010-08-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

My second book is now officially published and I can stop fretting about revisions for a while. If you like, take a look at it in Amazon, where you can take a look inside!
SharePoint 2010 How To (Amazon)

If you want to buy either of my books, (paper or digital copy), you can use the following links:

How to set values for a checkbox choice list field? (SPFieldMultiChoice)

2010-08-12T18:53:00.000-07:00

This is a question I just recieved through my "contact" form for this blog. The person (Chris) who asked the question gave a wrong email address, so I will post the answer publicly since I believe this can help other starting sharepoint developers - especially since I saw some wrong tips coming up in google when you search for it. So here is the right way to do it.

Question: "Hi, thanks a mil for those snippets!One question: I'm trying to programatically add selected items of a checkBoxList to a SPListItem, but am not sure in what format it wants it. i.e I've added all items as you suggested - newItem["Name"] = "blah" etc, but when it comes to the field that requires the selected checkboxlist values, I'm stuck."

Answer: to set the value for a check box choice list (a field of type choice, with multiple choices allowed - showing checkboxes), you should use the SPFieldMultiChoiceValue class to set the value. This class allows you to construct the list of choices you want to set for the column by adding the string values to it. Here is an example on how to use it:

SPList sampleList =web.Lists["test"];
SPFieldMultiChoiceValue val = new SPFieldMultiChoiceValue();
val.Add("choice1");
val.Add("choice3");
SPListItem newItem = sampleList.Items.Add();
newItem["Title"] = "This is the new item";
newItem["test"] = val;
newItem.Update();

Using jQuery validation in a sharepoint web part

2010-08-04T22:22:00.000-07:00

As we all know, a sharepoint page can only have one <form > tag in it. As anyone who wanted to use jQuery validation knows, the validation script needs to run on a form tag.
So how do I use the validation code in a sharepoint web part?

The answer is to run the script against the form that already exists in the page. For example, I had to write a web part with an email address field, and wanted to help the users by validating the text they entered is a valid email address on the client side (I also validate on the server side - just in case someone is running a browser with no script). This is the "Render" override code that I used:

       txtEmailAddress1.CssClass = "required email";
       base.Render(writer);
       if (SPContext.Current.FormContext.FormMode != Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.SPControlMode.Edit)
       {
              writer.Write(@"<script>
$().ready(function() {
    $(""#" + this.Page.Form.ClientID + @""").validate();
});
</script>
");
       }

As you can see, I am adding a css class of type "required email" for the text box, and then telling the form on the page to validate using the jquery validation plug in. This of course assumes you added the references to the jquery scripts to the page...which you may want to do as part of the web part (override oninit, and registerclientscriptblock) or as part of the master page (if you expect a lot of web parts to use it).

As for the "if (SPContext.Current.FormContext.FormMode != Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.SPControlMode.Edit)" line - you have to be careful that your validation does not prevent you from editing the page. For example, if you remove that "if", you will not be able to change the properties of any web part on the page without first entering a valid email address in the textbox!

I am speaking at the South East Asia SharePoint Conference!

2010-08-04T16:16:00.000-07:00

Are you planning to be in Singapore on October 26-27 this year? You should! the speakers are being announced, and I for one will be there for at least one presentation - how to build web parts for 2010. And no, it is not going to be the regular "open visual studio, choose the web part project" presentation...get ready for big things!
See you there!

A bit more about custom field types and XSL

2010-07-31T19:26:00.000-07:00

The following are the attributes you can use in XSL to identify the field you want to change (or access the value of):

Name (example: "First_x0020_Column" - the internal name of the column - not the field type!)
Type (example: "Text" - the base type of the field type)
FieldType (example: "MyCustomFieldType" - the type name of the custom field)
DisplayName (example: "First Column" - the title of the column
ID (example: "1b858cea-4306-4cf9-91e8-8bb8674dcdf4" - the GUID for the current column

Applying a XSL stylesheet to a custom field

2010-07-31T19:17:00.000-07:00

In the MSDN walkthrough and examples on using XSL to create a custom rendering style for a custom field type, the sample XSL all use the field's name as the reference. This is a bit silly - since it means the users need to create the new fields with the exact same name.

While the option to create a custom rendering based on the field name is welcome and will be very useful (if for example I am deploying a column to a farm and I want it to have a unique rendering template), the articles do not explain how to create a XSL rendering template for a field type - regardless of what the fields created from that type are called.

The solution is simple. Lets say your field type is "MyFieldType", then instead of the following line that uses the title of an instance of the field ("my field type"): <xsl:template match="FieldRef[@Name = 'My Field Type']" mode="Text_body"> use the following line instead, which uses the type name of the field: <xsl:template match="FieldRef[@FieldType = 'MyFieldType']" mode="Text_body">

5 Days SharePoint Development Training - Canberra, 16th August, 2010

2010-07-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

Are you in Canberra on the week of the 16th, and is just itching for some sharepoint 2010 developer training? look no further!
I have teamed up with my friends from Synergy to deliver the first ever Synergy SharePoint 2010 Development course. For more details on the content of the course and how to register, head to Dimension Data's web site!

New look for the blog

2010-07-13T23:06:00.000-07:00

Do you like it? Blogger has some new templates, and I figured its time for a change.

Update: following some comments, I reverted to white background again - and removed the width restriction that pissed me off. Is this better?

"The local device name is already in use" error when using AddFieldAsXml

2010-07-05T00:12:00.000-07:00

I had the following exception thrown at me today when trying to add a site column using AddFieldAsXml method: "The local device name is already in use".
The reason was that my XML contained a field ID - which is what the XML for a field is supposed to have when it is used as an element file in a feature, but not when you are adding the field using code. So - beware!

Read my book on Rough Cuts

2010-07-01T16:39:00.000-07:00

Do you want a preview of my upcoming book - the 'SharePoint 2010 How To'? simply go to Safari books online and read away! There is also a purchase option if you like what you see...

SharePoint Conference Australia Presentation Notes

2010-06-20T21:13:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came to see me and Brian present in the Australian SharePoint Conference last week!.
To answer the question that we got during the demo, the silverlight web part project template can be downloaded from this site: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/vsixforsp.
Also, to see the code for Brian's twitter map web part, see his blog post on the subject: http://blog.brianfarnhill.com/2010/05/21/twitterbing-maps-web-part-how-i-did-it/.
Finally - for everyone who asked for the slide deck, it is now available from my company's (Extelligent Design) web site: http://www.extelligentdesign.com/in-the-news/sharepointconferenceaustraliapresentationnowavailable where you can also purchase KWizCom products (for australian\new Zealand customers only) or contact me about sharepoint training or consulting.

Validating Web Part Properties

2010-06-01T18:03:00.000-07:00

Nothing is more annoying than configuring a web part by changing its properties and then hitting ok only to see the web part display an error that a property is invalid - and having to open the properties pane again to fix the problem.
To avoid this, best practice is to validate the data entered in the "set" of the web part property. For example, if I have a web part property that needs a comma delimited array of numbers (for example 1,2,3,4) and I don't want to build a tool part just for that, I can still build a property like this:

public string NumberArray
{
    get{return _numberArray;}
    set{_numberArray=value;}
}

The problem with the code above is that it is not validating that the string entered is indeed an array of numbers. To do that, I could change the code to something more like this:

public string NumberArray
{
    get{return _numberArray;}
    set{
          string [] arr = value.split(',');
          foreach (string item in arr)
          {
             int i;
             if(!int.TryParse(item,out i))
                throw new Exception("The item \""+item+"\" is not a valid number");
          }

_numberArray=value;}
}

This will do what I want - preven the user from closing the web part properties pane before fixing the error in the property, but it will not display the nice informative error to the user. Instead, it will show a generic error "An error has occurred" despite the fact that I specified what the error was when I threw the error!
Why? because to do that the exception must be of type WebPartPageUserException.
So the correct code for validating my sample property would be:

public string NumberArray
{
    get{return _numberArray;}
    set{
          string [] arr = value.split(',');
          foreach (string item in arr)
          {
             int i;
             if(!int.TryParse(item,out i))
                throw new WebPartPageUserException("The item \""+item+"\" is not a valid number");
          }

_numberArray=value;}
}

Now - when the users put an invalid value in my property they will be notified that it is invalid, and which value it was.

Assembly stuck in memory despite being replaced

2010-05-30T23:43:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful time this weekend trying to find out why is it that when I deployed a new version of my solution - one that included more debugging information than the previous one, nothing would come out - it would still print out the old data.
I went as far as to remove the solution entirely, make sure the GAC is clear from the assembly and then manually drag and drop my new assembly (thinking it is my WSP that is stuck with an old assembly) and still I get the old code running instead of the new one.
What didnt I do? I tried IISreset and all sort of tricks, but I could not reboot since it was not my server (partner company asking me to help out with some dev work on their server).
It turns out that if I could reboot it would have saved me all the time I spent - but then I would not have figured out the reason that was happening!

Curious? Well, here it is - I had a windows application running that used sharepoint object model to triger the timer job I was trying to redeploy. The windows application did not have a reference to the timer job code - it just used the OM to query the server what timer jobs are there and then let me choose one and execute it. So I never suspected it was the culprit - especsially since I used it to confirm the timer job was deleted after I removed the old solution.
But it was.
For some reason, just having it running, connected to sharepoint objects, somehow caused the old assembly to remain in memory\cache (I will not pretend to know why or how) and once I closed it I suddenly got the new code running!

There - if I saved someone the same frantic research I was doing this weekend, I am a happy man.

Last chance to register to the Australian SharePoint Conference

2010-05-19T21:12:00.000-07:00

It is next week in Sydney! didn't you hear? I will be there, speaking about web parts and sharepoint 2010 with my friend Brian Farnhil. Dare you miss it? it is Australia's biggest SharePoint event of the year after all...

There will be:

20 sessions of end user/power user/business content including some great case studies including Telstra, Volvo and a number of Industry verticals such as finance, insurance, legal and engineering
20 sessions of pure technical content for IT Pro, Administrators, Developers and Analysts
Content is relevant to those using WSS, MOSS 2007, and new 2010 products

Special offer!
Come see me during the conference and get a 10% discount on all products by KWizCom (offer only valid for Australian and New Zealand customers).

My stupidest mistake of the year

2010-05-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

I just spent 2 hours trying to debug why my custom web page server keeps timing out on me...It has a custom list form template that uses an override of the ListFieldIterator. What did I do wrong? take a look at my aweful code...and see if you can spot the infinite loop...

override DefaultTemplateName { get{ return this.DefaultTemplateName; } }

To Silverlight or not to Silverlight?

2010-05-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

I just found that having silverlight installed on my client is not always a good idea when using SharePoint 2010. Yes, it makes for a much better presentation and user interface...but...in some instances you lose functionality!

For instance, when creating a list, if you are using silverlight you get the awesome create dialog - with searching and filtering and all. And all you have to do is choose a template and give the new list a name, and that is it! all the other settings (description, add to navigation) are kept as default. Not happy with the defaults? simply click the "More Options" button and you will get the same dialog that people without silverlight get - the same one that you used to get back in sharepoint 2007.

...

Or do you?

It seems that the more options dialog only offers the basic settings for the lists - not the custom ones. For example, on a task list, the dialog is missing the option to "Send e-mail when ownership is assigned", which is shown in the settings page if you do not have Silverlight .

Since this is something that can be configured later (list settings, advanced settings), I guess it is not going to be high on the priority to change, but it does irk me that by installing Silverlight I am actually losing some settings when creating the list that I used to have before Silverlight .

an idea for SP1?

First win for Office 2010 (and first fail for office x64)

2010-04-23T23:47:00.000-07:00

For some reason I cannot fathom, Word 2007 never jumped to the headers when I clicked them in my book documents. That means that when I opened the document map, and saw the headers I wrote, I could not click on them to navigate to them - which is a very useful function, and for some reason Word 2007 refused to do it for all documents for my book.

Word 2010 just installed, and solved this issue! now I can write more comfortably - thanks Microsoft!

Now for the fail...I installed Office x64 - in hope that it would work better on my Windows 2008r2 machine, utilizing whatever it needed from its 12GB RAM (ok, honestly - I don't actually need 64bit office. this version is meant for excel dark wizards who need more power when working on worksheets bigger than 2GB). However, I almost immediately regretted that choice, as now I cannot use the datasheet view in SharePoint (both 2007 and 2010). This technet article explains that this is because the 64bit version does not support the 32bit activeX that is used by the datasheet view:

"The Edit in Datasheet view functionality is not supported if you install 64-bit Office 2010. However, the functionality is available if you install 32-bit Office 2010. "

But...I am still curious to see how I go with 64bit office. so I will keep it on my 2008r2 server, and install the 32bit version on my windows 7 hyper-v machine (and take my screenshots of the datasheet view from there).

update (30 minutes later): it also appears that you cannot install SharePoint designer (since it is 32bit) on the same machine. lucky my win7 virtual machine is so snappy!

Error downloading prerequisites for SharePoint 2010

2010-04-22T18:58:00.000-07:00

When installing SharePoint 2010 (which I am doing now), if you get an error when installing the prerequisites that it couldnt download the components, make sure your firewall is configured to allow it to download.

I don't know which firewall rule specifically blocks the installer, so I just turned the firewall off, let it finish downloading and installing all prerequisites, and then turned the firewall back on. Done!

SharePoint 2010 How To book is ready!

2010-04-18T02:31:00.000-07:00

If you were worried that you'r pre-ordered book will not arrive on time, you can now relax. I have just sent the first complete draft to the publisher, and seeing how Microsoft is due to release the RTM version of SharePoint 2010 this week or the next, I only have to wait for that to be able to add the images, check what changed and what was fixed, and send my publisher the final draft.
Then it may take a few weeks to go over the entire editing process, but I hope this time it will be faster, and then the book is ready to be bought by you!

Book update and MVP status

2010-04-12T03:35:00.001-07:00

8 Chapters down...only 6 to go. I intend to finish the book this weekend - wish me luck!. I am finding out a lot of small things that got changed (improved) in 2010 for the end user, and it is slowing me down - but every such thing only boosts my fondness for this version. If I get some time I will blog about those nice little things.
Also - In case you wondered, My MVP award was renewed again this April. Thank you Microsoft for thanking me!

A new internet site using SharePoint - indigenous.gov.au

2010-03-25T00:57:00.000-07:00

Take a look at the new site - an external facing internet site created for the Australian goverment to spread news about the Indigenous Australian related projects. My company, Extelligent Design, helped build the site which includes such features as tagging (with a custom built tag cloud), content query web parts and jquery picture library slide show components. I have helped write some of the components above as part of my day job.

Update: I was asked what the slide show component is - the answer is not flash, nor sliverlight - but a jquery script called galleryview (http://www.spaceforaname.com/jquery/galleryview/) that we customized for our needs (different CSS, do not show descriptions and so on) and then embedded in a web control that pulls information from a picture library, formats it as a UL list, and then uses script to show it as a slide show. Easy, and accessible - because even if you don't have javascript enabled you see the picture as a UL list (which is shown anyway at the bottom to make it accessible for other people).

My SharePoint 2010 book available for pre-order

2010-03-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

I just noticed that Amazon UK is making my 2010 book available for pre-order.
This is a bit stressful for me, since I have only written 5 chapters so far (out of 14 planned) - I guess I'd better start typing faster!
If you are interested in a end user, how to book that covers all the basics for your end users, have a look at the link, and keep a close watch - I will be posting updates. I can tell you that the book will be very similar in structure to the 2007 book I have already published.

Adding the "Sort by modified date" option to SharePoint 2010 search

2010-03-12T21:50:00.000-08:00

By default in SharePoint 2010, the search actions link web part does not show the option to change the sorting order to sort by modified date. However, it is easily added back through the web part's properties. Note that it is now shown as a dropdown and not as a link as it did in SharePoint 2007...

SharePoint Foundation - forcing a search index

2010-03-12T21:23:00.001-08:00

If you have SharePoint foundation and you want it to index your sites NOW, all you have to do is go to the service job definitions page and tell the timer job to start.
To do it - open central administration > monitoring>review job definitions>"sharepoint foundation search refresh" and click the "run now" button at the bottom.