In the process of organizing our monthly Omaha SharePoint User Group meetings I just tossed out an idea to have a regular SharePint. If you don’t already know what a SharePint is, please read this article by Christian Buckley. We decided to have our first SharePint at the Upstream Brewery at about 171st and Center on May 10 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. There’s no requirement to be there the whole time and there’s no requirement to drink adult beverages. We are hoping to provide a more social way for anyone who wants to meet other users of Microsoft SharePoint.
We’ll be upstairs by the pool tables. This is a non-sponsored event so all refreshments are totally your responsibility!
A co-worker pointed this out to me. Seems like someone was making a change to SharePoint.Microsft.com without testing and got the Unexpected Error! I’m sure it was unexpected!
The site was down for only a little while but it gave both of us a chuckle.
Thanks Matt!
I created a web part that displays data in an HTML table. On this web part, there is also a button that says, Export to Excel. When the button is clicked, the form posts to the server and my server-side code responds with an Excel file. The problem is that it only works once. To get it to work again, I have to refresh my page. Is SharePoint preventing me from posting more than once?
I wrote this same functionality using the jQuery library SPServices along with jQuery to create the table. I then use jQuery to post the form to a custom handler that returns an Excel file. Same problem. The form will only POST once.
Any ideas?
I just confirmed that I will be presenting at SharePoint Saturday – Kansas City on December, 11, 2010. Come join us. It is a lot of fun and there will be loads of SharePoint information.
I can’t see why some companies continue to block Twitter access to their employees. Especially developers. For me, Twitter has been an invaluable resource. A wealth of 140 character wisdom. An constant supply of what is new in the SharePoint (or insert your favorite topic here) world.
This example just happened to me yesterday. I am working for a client that wants me to write a SharePoint 2010 workflow using K2′s Blackpearl. Believe me, I am excited about using Blackpearl but it is a learning curve and I want to be productive. Normally, I would just fire up Visual Studio and start writing a workflow. K2 promises that Blackpearl can write complex workflows without code. I wanted to see if I could figure it out on my own. I read through the “My first workflow” instructions and thought I understood what I needed to do. I started working through my own requirements when I got stumpted. I knew what I wanted to do, I just couldn’t figure out how to tell Blackpearl to do it!
Finally, I sent out a Tweet asking this simple question:
I received a reply asking for my contact information and later last night – I received a detailed email from Holly at K2 telling me how I could accomplish this. I searched Google, Bing without any hint on how to do this. It didn’t help that I wouldn’t have understood what I was reading anyway. Holly’s instructions were clear and easy to understand. We’ve exchanged a couple of emails and she has suggested ways I could fulfill my whole requirement. I am going to try this but I was so pleased that I wanted to get this post out here so that other companies would think twice about allowing their developers to use tools like Twitter.
Here’s a usability solution that was necessitated by my desire to present a logical, workable solution to my end-user. I’m still learning jQuery so my solution may not be the most elegant – but it works. I welcome any improvements!
The Setup
I have a SharePoint site that is displaying the results of an SQL stored procedure. I’m using Quest Web Parts for SharePoint – qSIListView part which is part of their fine System Integration web parts package. The great thing about these web parts is that I can create a stored procedure on a database and then use the Filter capabilities of the qSIListView to supply the stored procedure with the parameter values. It’s a pretty slick solution and very easy to configure. My problem is that when you use the filter fields as the Parameter input fields, only the “Equals” operator has any meaning. I can select “Begins with” or “Contains” but it will only just pass the parameter value and not the operator. That means that my End User will be presented with a lot of false options. To avoid the confusion, I would like to present the user with one operator - “Equals”, or in the case where I’m trying to do some wild card matching in SQL, I would remove all but “Contains”. You get my point. The problem is that the Web Parts do not have the ability to filter out the operator selections. I’ve submitted this change idea to Quest for future versions but in the mean time, I needed to find a solution. My solution was to use jQuery.
Solution
There are many posts out on the web about using jQuery to manipulate the SharePoint interface. One of the best sites for jQuery on SharePoint can be found on EndUserSharePoint.com. The solution I am talking about today can be used in any web environment, including SharePoint. Essentially, my short script removes all <option> elements from all select boxes that match a certain text value. This effectively narrows the choices presented to the User to only the valid choices, Exclude from search and Equals.
To do this, I placed a Content Editor Web Part (CEWP) onto my page and pasted my script in it. In the script, I use jQuery to select all <OPTION> elements of the page and remove them if they contain any of the invalid choices. The script is pretty straight forward. I have jQuery stored in a script library on my SharePoint site. This library provides read-access to all users on the site. It is also a common place to store all of my scripts. A good post on creating a script library can be found on here.
Once I load the document, I have search for all matching <OPTION> elements and remove them.
<script src="http://mysharepointdomain.com/scripts/jquery-1.4.2.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
$("option").remove(":contains('Does not equal')");
$("option").remove(":contains('Contains')");
$("option").remove(":contains('Starts with')");
$("option").remove(":contains('Ends with')");
$("option").remove(":contains('Is empty')");
$("option").remove(":contains('Is not empty')");
});
</script>
That’s it! The end result looks like this.
As I said earlier, this is a pretty simple solution to a problem that I was having. Now, every time I use filter fields to supply parameter values, I can be assured that I have presented my User with valid options.
I welcome any feedback!
Every so often, I come across sites that have the default Heading entries on the Quick Launch deleted. I decided to write them down here in case I ever needed to put them back. It’s also handy to be able to navigate to the All Items link in a site with no Quick Launch. This is really for my reference but I hope this helps someone else out!
Default Quick Launch Heading Paths
View All Site Content
/[web url]/_layouts/viewlsts.aspx
Documents
/[web url]/_layouts/viewlsts.aspx?BaseType=1
Lists
/[web url]/_layouts/viewlsts.aspx?BaseType=0
Discussions
/[web url]/_layouts/viewlsts.aspx?BaseType=0&ListTemplate=108
Sites
/[web url]/_layouts/viewlsts.aspx?ShowSites=1
People and Groups
/[web url]/_layouts/people.aspx
Recycle Bin
/[web url]/_layouts/recyclebin.aspx
I am literally heading out the door to the airport to catch a flight to New Orleans for SharePoint Saturday! I will be presenting, “What I Wish I Knew BEFORE I Implemented SharePoint”. I really enjoy this presentation and I hope that anyone attending will enjoy it as much as I do.
NewOrleansTech.net wrote a great article about it.
If you can come and join us – do! I’d love to meet you!
OK – Off to the airport!
One of the reasons I like developing for SharePoint is that I get to work with many different technologies and platforms. When I am designing a custom list for (display, edit or new), There are times where I may have a delimited string in a field that I want to display differently on the screen. Since the forms are all XSL style sheets, it is helpful to have a few XSL templates to process the data.
I wrote this XSL template so I could wrap some HTML around any element in a delimited list. This is specifically geared towards XSL 1.0. In XSL 2.0, I would most likely use tokenize. I’m not an expert at XSL so if anyone has any suggestions that would improve this template, please leave comments.
<xsl:template name="split-string">
<xsl:param name="list" />
<xsl:param name="delimiter" />
<xsl:param name="id" />
<xsl:if test="normalize-space($list)">
<xsl:variable name="newlist">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="contains($list, $delimiter)">
<xsl:value-of select="normalize-space($list)" />
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:value-of select="concat(normalize-space($list), $delimiter)"/>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="first" select="substring-before($newlist, $delimiter)" />
<xsl:variable name="remaining" select="substring-after($newlist, $delimiter)" />
<!-- This is where you need to put the display code -->
<a>
<xsl:attribute name="href">./Attachments/<xsl:value-of select="$id" />/<xsl:value-of select="$first" /></xsl:attribute>
<xsl:attribute name="target">_blank</xsl:attribute>
<img src="~/_layouts/images/doclink.gif" width="16" height="16" alt="" border="0" />
<xsl:value-of select="$first" />
</a>
<!-- end display code -->
<xsl:if test="$remaining">
<!-- I put a little display code here also -->
<br />
<!-- end display code -->
<xsl:call-template name="split-string">
<xsl:with-param name="list" select="$remaining" />
<xsl:with-param name="delimiter">
<xsl:value-of select="$delimiter"/>
</xsl:with-param>
<xsl:with-param name="id"><xsl:value-of select="$id" /></xsl:with-param>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>
You can add or remove variables depending on what you need. In the above example code, I had a semi-colon list of email attachment file names that were attached to the list. I wanted to create a ‘clickable’ link to each file, which is why I needed the ID field. Normally, you wouldn’t need the ID field.
This is how I called the template in my XSL:
<xsl:call-template name="split-string">
<xsl:with-param name="list"><xsl:value-of select="@EmailAttachmentNames" /></xsl:with-param>
<xsl:with-param name="delimiter">;</xsl:with-param>
<xsl:with-param name="id"><xsl:value-of select="@ID" /></xsl:with-param>
</xsl:call-template>
After the Superbowl, where the “Who Dat Nation” conquered the Indianapolis Colts, CBS previewed a new program called Undercover Boss. It is an intriguing concept. Take the CEO/President of a company and have them work undercover for their own company. I DVR’d it and had the opportunity to watch the first episode last night. In this episode, the President/COO of Waste Management worked at five different locations doing different jobs, from recycling, to port-a-potty cleaning, to riding a trash truck, to picking up trash in a land fill. Along the way, he got to experience how his decisions and policies as an Executive affected the front-line employees in his company. He was even “fired” by one person for not picking up trash fast enough. The one thing that he kept saying was, “I didn’t know”. He didn’t realize that the cost cutting measures they instituted created a situation where one lady was actually doing the work of three to four individuals, but getting paid as admin staff. He found out that lady truck drivers had to pee in a coffee can because of the production quotas they had implemented. He found out that some employees were being docked two minutes of pay for each minute they were late. He also found out that he had some real good and loyal employees. Employees who needed recognition. Employees who had good attitudes and ideas. Employees who were the face of his company to their customers.
So – how does this relate to SharePoint? One thing I love about SharePoint is that it is a social computing platform. It enables team building. It encourages collaboration. It enables the flow of information to flow efficiently in many directions. Used effectively, C-Level Executives don’t have to say – “I didn’t know.”
Here are some ideas on how Management can leverage SharePoint in their company.
- Executive blogs. I don’t care what company you work for, all employees are interested in what the Executive Team is doing to make sure that they have jobs in the future. It doesn’t take much time for a CEO or President to jot down a few notes about the direction of the company. It is commonly known that successful companies have leaders who are visionary, and communicate that vision to the company. When employees feel that they play an active part in that vision, they are more productive and loyal. When employees see the CEO communicating his personal thoughts in a blog, managment becomes more real instead of some faceless entity handing down edicts.
- Surveys. Want to know what people think about a certain subject? Ask them. SharePoint has surveys right out of the box! And, they are easy to create.
- BI. SharePoint has some pretty good BI tools. With Dashboards, LOB data integration, Excel services, and workflow, among others, SharePoint is positioned to be an efficient platform for surfacing BI data.
- Search. How many times have you known a piece of information exists in the company but you can’t find it, so you recreate it. How many hours do you spend searching for the right piece of information? Sam Goodner has blogged about what CEO’s don’t want to hear. He also talks about what they do want to hear. In one of his examples, he documents how it costs $28,125 per year per employee because of poor findability in their company. Now I don’t know if these are actual numbers but think about it, can you quantify your informational findability?
- Workflow. Whether you use the OOB workflows or create your own with Designer or Visual Studio, processes can be automated making your business more efficient.
- My Sites. While this is most likely one of the most controversial parts of SharePoint in an organization, if an organization embraces My Sites, you will have realized the 360 degree aspect of social computing. What happens when I need to know who in my company is an expert on a certain subject? I can do a People Search to find someone who is an expert on that subject? I can then visit their site and find papers and such that they have published on the subject. I can establish a relationship with them and invite them to collaborate something I am working on. Just think of the possibilities for organizations that have offices throughout the world.
These are just some ideas. Look around you. Social computing has taken hold in our everyday lives. With Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and FourSquare becoming household words, employees are expecting that same type of interactivity and socialization in their company. Executives that embrace these technologies and actively participate in these technologies, will never again have to say, “I didn’t know…”.
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