View All XML Data via XSLT

Some times we have to debug the XSLT for a WebPart (which generates XML data as output e.g. Search Core Results WebPart in MOSS) to manipulate the results. The first step of XSLT debugging is to see if the generated XML is valid and have all the necessary data.

Following is the code XSLT snippit to display all the XML elements:

  
  
  
<xsl:copy-of select="*"/>  
  
  

MOSS Development/Customization Training

In April 2010, my manager Pradeep Thekkethodi asked me to conduct a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Development training to upgrade the skills of our colleagues with .NET experience. The idea was to quickly bring the developers up to the speed for SharePoint Development and Advance Customization with SharePoint Designer 2007 and Visual Studio 2008. This training was held in our company Orion Systems Integrators Inc. This training was attended by 12 professionals.

I joined hands with my colleague Pramod who is a SharePoint Architect and we came up with a following course outline:

Module 1: SharePoint Object Model – 2 Hrs - Pramod
• SharePoint Object Model – Farm, Web Application, Site Collection, Sites and Site elements
• Navigation, Access control and security, Site directory, Site columns, Content types
• Lists and Views, Search, Extra-net Usage

Module 2: Site Tools – 2 Hours – Tahir
• Create custom lists
• Create custom default views for lists
• Create custom web pages and web part zones
• Insert and configure web parts
• Connect web parts to filter data

Module 3: Master Pages – 2 Hours – Tahir
• Understand the structure of master pages.
• Modifying Master Pages
• Creating a Custom Master Page
• Creating a Custom Cascading Style Sheet
• Creating a Web Page from a Master Page
• Understand the purpose and use of Cascading Style Sheets.
• Attach and customize master pages.
• Create content pages from master pages.

Module 4: Forms and Data – 4 Hours – Tahir
• Creating a Formatted View
• Creating a Merged Data Source
• Creating a Custom Data View Page
• Applying Conditional Formatting
• Create and customize Data Views.
• Use conditional formatting to identify data changes.
• Create custom data sources
• Create linked and merged data sources

Module 5: Automating Business Processes - 4 Hours – Tahir
• Implementing Workflows Using Workflow Designer
• Create a SharePoint Designer Workflow
• Using Conditions and Actions
• Verifying and Deploying a Workflow
• Describe Workflows in SharePoint and SharePoint Designer
• Create a workflow through Workflow Designer
• Add conditions and actions to a workflow.

Module 6 and 7: Web Part Development – 4 Hours – Tahir
(Prereq: ASP.NET, C# & SharePoint)
• Creating, deploying and debugging ASP.NET Web Parts in WSS
• Writing CAML to retrieve and store data.
• Deploying WebPart

Module 8: Event Handlers – 4 hrs – Tahir
• List Event Handlers
• Deployment

Model 9: Logical Architecture, Performance Optimization and Tuning – 2 Hours – Pramod
• Client Side Performance issue
• Server side performance issues

Model 10: Best Practices, Information Architecture, Governance Planning - Pramod
• Best Practices for SharePoint implementation and Designing

Update a List Column using JQuery with SharePoint WebServices

Scenario: Click on the image in data View to update the Status on an item.
PreReq: A list with choice column Status (0,1,2).
0 represents Not started,
1 represents In Progress and
2 represents Completed.

You need two libraries:
1. JQuery (jquery-1.4.2.js)
2. SPServices (jquery.SPServices-0.5.6.min.js)

Add following code in your page in the head, or where ever you want to:

<script type="text/javascript" src="Scripts/jquery-1.4.2.js"></script>  
<script type="text/javascript" src="Scripts/jquery.SPServices-0.5.6.min.js"></script>  
  
<script type="text/javascript">  
  
function UpdateStatusCode(divId, waitMessage, ID, StatusCode)  
  {  
    
   //alert(divId +" "+ waitMessage +" "+ ID + " " + StatusCode);  
   if (confirm ("Are you sure you want to update the status of the selected event?"))  
   {  
    StatusCode = StatusCode + 1;  
      
    if (StatusCode < 3)  
    {  
     $(divId).html(waitMessage).SPServices({  
     operation: "UpdateListItems",  
     listName: 'Events',  
     ID: ID,  
     valuepairs: [["Status", StatusCode]],  
     completefunc: function (xData, Status) {  
      var out = $().SPServices.SPDebugXMLHttpResult({  
       node: xData.responseXML,  
       outputId: divId  
      });  
        
      window.location = RefreshPageURL('Default.aspx');  
  
      }  
     });  
    }  
    else  
    {  
     alert('This event is already completed.');  
    }  
   }  
  }  
</script>  

Place the following div where you want to display the status column in the DataView Webpart. XSL in the <div> will display the relevant image and click event on the div will call the UpdateStatusCode() function to update the value on StatusCode column via JQuery and then page will get refreshed to show the right image based on the updated value.

<div id="div+{@ID}" onclick="UpdateStatusCode('div'+{@ID}, 'Updating', {@ID}, {@Status});">  
<xsl:if test="@Status = '0'"><img src="images/NotStarted.png"></xsl:if>  
<xsl:if test="@Status = '1'"><img src="images/InProgress.jpg"></xsl:if>  
<xsl:if test="@Status = '2'"><img src="images/Completed.jpg"></xsl:if>  
</div>  

JQuery makes life easy :o).

SharePoint WebPart Custom Properties

Add the following piece of code (to create the custom property Password for your custom WebPart) in your WebPart class. Now the property will get displayed under Parameters section in the Property panel of the WebPart as displayed in the screenshot below.

private string _strPassword;


[Browsable(true),
Category("Parameters"),
DefaultValue(""),
WebBrowsable(true),
Personalizable(PersonalizationScope.Shared),
WebDisplayName("Password"),
Description("Network Password")]
public string strPassword
{
    get
    {
        return _strPassword;
    }
    set
    {
        _strPassword = value;
    }
}

Now Access strPassword anywhere in the code to access the value provided by the user.

SharePoint 2007 Web Service: Get Items

Use lists.asmx to get the items through a desktop application

Below is the C# function to call the lists.asmx MOSS Web Service to get list items from a list/document library.
Add reference to lists.asmx to your project and use the following code:

private void GetItems(string strListName)
{

try
{
    #region Connect to URL

    this.m_objWSSListService.Url = this.cmbURL.Text.Trim('/') + "/_vti_bin/lists.asmx";

    string sDomain = string.Empty;
    string sUserName = this.txtLogin.Text.Trim();
    if (sUserName.IndexOf("\\") > 0)
    {
        sDomain = sUserName.Split("\\".ToCharArray())[0];
        sUserName = sUserName.Split("\\".ToCharArray())[1];
    }

    this.m_objWSSListService.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(sUserName, this.txtPassword.Text.Trim(), sDomain);

    #endregion

    string sListName = strListName;
    string SourceDocumentURL = "";
    string strTempLocation = "C:\\Temp\\";
    string strFileName = "";

    System.Xml.XmlNode xnListSchema = m_objWSSListService.GetList(sListName);

    //get the Data from the List
    System.Xml.XmlDocument xdListData = new System.Xml.XmlDocument();
    System.Xml.XmlNode xnQuery = xdListData.CreateElement("Query");
    System.Xml.XmlNode xnViewFields = xdListData.CreateElement("ViewFields");
    System.Xml.XmlNode xnQueryOptions = xdListData.CreateElement("QueryOptions");

    System.Xml.XmlNode xnListData = m_objWSSListService.GetListItems(sListName, null, xnQuery, xnViewFields, null, xnQueryOptions);


    if (!Directory.Exists(strTempLocation))
    {
        Directory.CreateDirectory(strTempLocation);
    }

    foreach (XmlNode outerNode in xnListData.ChildNodes)
    {
        if (outerNode.NodeType.Equals(System.Xml.XmlNodeType.Element))
        {
            foreach (XmlNode node in outerNode.ChildNodes)
            {
                if (node.NodeType.Equals(System.Xml.XmlNodeType.Element))
                {
                    MessageBox.Show(node.Attributes.GetNamedItem("ows_Title").InnerText);
                }
            }
        }
    }

}
catch (System.Exception ex)
{

    this.WriteLog(ex.ToString());
}

}

SharePoint 2007 Web Service: Create Folder in Document Library

Use lists.asmx to create folder in a document library through a desktop application

Below is the C# function to call the lists.asmx MOSS Web Service to create folders in a document library.
Add reference to lists.asmx to your project and use the following code:

private void CreateFolder(string strPath, string strListName)
{

try
{
#region Connect to URL

this.m_objWSSListService.Url = this.cmbURL.Text.Trim('/') + "/_vti_bin/lists.asmx";

string sDomain = string.Empty;
string sUserName = this.txtLogin.Text.Trim();
if (sUserName.IndexOf("\\") > 0)
{
    sDomain = sUserName.Split("\\".ToCharArray())[0];
    sUserName = sUserName.Split("\\".ToCharArray())[1];
}

this.m_objWSSListService.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(sUserName, this.txtPassword.Text.Trim(), sDomain);

#endregion

System.Xml.XmlDocument xmlDoc = new System.Xml.XmlDocument();
System.Xml.XmlElement Batch = xmlDoc.CreateElement("Batch");

Batch.SetAttribute("OnError", "Continue");
Batch.SetAttribute("ListVersion", "0");
string strBatch = "<method id="1" cmd="New">";
strBatch = strBatch + "<field name="ID">New</field>";
strBatch = strBatch + "<field name="FSObjType">1</field>";
strBatch = strBatch + "<field name="FileRef">" + strPath + "</field></method>";

Batch.InnerXml = strBatch;
XmlNode ndReturn = this.m_objWSSListService.UpdateListItems(strListName, Batch);
if (ndReturn.FirstChild.FirstChild.InnerText != "0x00000000")
{
    this.WriteLog(ndReturn.InnerText);
}

this.WriteLog("Create Operation - List:" + strListName + " - Folder: " + strPath);


}
catch (System.Exception ex)
{
this.WriteLog(ex.ToString());
}

}

SharePoint 2007 Web Service: Download Documents

Use lists.asmx to download the documents from a document library through a desktop application

Below is the C# function to call the lists.asmx MOSS Web Service to download the documents from a document library.
Add reference to lists.asmx to your project and use the following code:

private void DownloadDocumnts(string strListName)
{

try
{
    #region Connect to URL

    this.m_objWSSListService.Url = this.cmbURL.Text.Trim('/') + "/_vti_bin/lists.asmx";

    string sDomain = string.Empty;
    string sUserName = this.txtLogin.Text.Trim();
    if (sUserName.IndexOf("\\") > 0)
    {
        sDomain = sUserName.Split("\\".ToCharArray())[0];
        sUserName = sUserName.Split("\\".ToCharArray())[1];
    }

    this.m_objWSSListService.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(sUserName, this.txtPassword.Text.Trim(), sDomain);

    #endregion

    string sListName = strListName;
    string SourceDocumentURL = "";
    string strTempLocation = "C:\\Temp\\";
    string strFileName = "";

    System.Xml.XmlNode xnListSchema = m_objWSSListService.GetList(sListName);

    //get the Data from the List
    System.Xml.XmlDocument xdListData = new System.Xml.XmlDocument();
    System.Xml.XmlNode xnQuery = xdListData.CreateElement("Query");
    System.Xml.XmlNode xnViewFields = xdListData.CreateElement("ViewFields");
    System.Xml.XmlNode xnQueryOptions = xdListData.CreateElement("QueryOptions");

    System.Xml.XmlNode xnListData = m_objWSSListService.GetListItems(sListName, null, xnQuery, xnViewFields, null, xnQueryOptions);


    if (!Directory.Exists(strTempLocation))
    {
        Directory.CreateDirectory(strTempLocation);
    }

    foreach (XmlNode outerNode in xnListData.ChildNodes)
    {
        if (outerNode.NodeType.Equals(System.Xml.XmlNodeType.Element))
        {
            foreach (XmlNode node in outerNode.ChildNodes)
            {
                if (node.NodeType.Equals(System.Xml.XmlNodeType.Element))
                {
                    XmlNode FileNameNode = node.Attributes.GetNamedItem("ows_EncodedAbsUrl");
                    SourceDocumentURL = FileNameNode.InnerText;
                    strFileName = SourceDocumentURL.Substring(SourceDocumentURL.LastIndexOf('/') + 1).Replace("%20", " ");

                    /*
                     * ?noredirect=true 
                     * will not open the file in default program (e.g. XSN for InfoPath), instead it will download the file
                     * 
                     * */

                    System.Net.WebClient objWebClient = new System.Net.WebClient();
                    objWebClient.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
                    objWebClient.DownloadFile(SourceDocumentURL + "?noredirect=true" ,strTempLocation + strFileName);

                    this.WriteLog("File Downloaded: " + SourceDocumentURL);
                }
            }
        }
    }

}
catch (System.Exception ex)
{

    this.WriteLog(ex.ToString());
}

}

SharePoint 2007 Web Service: Create User Group

Use UserGroup.asmx to create User Group through a desktop application

Below is the C# function to call the UserGroup.asmx MOSS Web Service to create Uer Groups.
Add reference to UserGroup.asmx to your project and use the following code:

private void CreateUserGroup(string strGroupName, string strDescription)
{
try
{

    #region Connect to UserGroup.asmx

    this.objUserGroupService.Url = this.cmbURL.Text.Trim('/') + "/_vti_bin/UserGroup.asmx";

    string sDomain = string.Empty;
    string sUserName = this.txtLogin.Text.Trim();
    if (sUserName.IndexOf("\\") > 0)
    {
        sDomain = sUserName.Split("\\".ToCharArray())[0];
        sUserName = sUserName.Split("\\".ToCharArray())[1];
    }

    this.objUserGroupService.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(sUserName, this.txtPassword.Text.Trim(), sDomain);

    #endregion

    this.objUserGroupService.AddGroup(strGroupName, this.txtLogin.Text.Trim(), "user", this.txtLogin.Text.Trim(), strDescription);
    this.WriteLog("Created Group: " + strGroupName);


}
catch (System.Exception ex)
{
    
    this.WriteLog(ex.ToString());
}
}

Developing Custom WebPart using ASP.NET Web User Control

In this post I will explian how to build a custom WebPart for SharePoint 2007 and how to use ASP.NET Web User Control in it. I am using Visual Studio 2008 for the development.

Following are the steps to create a custom webpart and calling/loading Web User Control in it:

Building WebPart and Web User Control project

1. Craete ASP.NET Web Application Project.


2. Delete Default.aspx.


3. Add two new folders: UserControls and WebPart into the solution.


4. Add new Web User Control in UserControls folder.


5. Add new CS Class file TrainingWP.cs in WebPart folder.


6. Add reference to SharePoint.dll (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.dll)


7. Add followign code to TrainingWP.cs



namespace Training
{
    [Guid("2E4AFAAA-AE99-4e15-9972-E6195EFBDD9C")]
    public class TrainingWP : WebPart
    {
        private Control uc = null;
        private string ucPath = "~/UserControls/TrainingUC.ascx";

        protected override void CreateChildControls()
        {
            try
            {
                uc = Page.LoadControl(ucPath);
                this.Controls.Add(uc);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                throw ex;
            }
            finally
            {
                base.CreateChildControls();
            }
        }
    }
}


We are overriding the CreateChildControls method of the WebPart class in which we will load the Web User Control.

8. Go to Tools -> Create GUID and copy/paste GUID above the class and add reference using System.Runtime.InteropServices; line.
   
9. Open code behind for Web User Control and add using Microsoft.SharePoint; line and in Page_Load function write hello world code and build the solution.

Deploying the WebPart and the Web User Control

1. In Project Properties -> Build Event tab -> Post-build Event Command add following line:
   "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bin\gacutil.exe" /i $(TargetPath)
   This will deploy our webpart dll into GAC after building the solution.


2. In Project Properties -> Signing tab -> check Sign Assembly -> and give a name.


3. Build the solution and WebPart should be deployed into GAC (c:\Windows\assembly).


4. Create DWP File using following XML



 
  
   
   Cannot import this Web Part.
  
  
   
    Training Web Part
   
  
 



5. Upload DWP file to WebPart Gallery. DWP file tells SharePoint to load which library when webpart is called.


6. Open the root folder of the Web Application and edit Web.config. Under <SafeControls> add following line




7. Under <assemblies> in Web.config add following line




8. Copy UserControls folder in to the root folder of the Web Application.(Just copy ASCX)


9. Do iisreset and add the WebPart on the page through Web UI of the site.

Thats it :o). Happy Programming.

Pointing DataView to List Name (Not List GUIID)

I had a requirement to display items from a Document library in DataView WebPart and tricky part was to make it portable, so that everytime a site template is created and restored somewhere else, the DataView should not crash.

Solution:
Change the following XSL for DataView WebPart:
1. Update Name="ListID" to Name="ListName"
2. Update ParameterKey="ListID" to ParameterKey="ListName"
3. Update DefaultValue="GUID" to DefaultValue="[List Name]"
in SelectParameters, DeleteParameters, UpdateParameters, InsertParameters and ParameterBindings tags.

<selectparameters>
 <webpartpages:dataformparameter defaultvalue="Components" name="ListName" parameterkey="ListName" propertyname="ParameterValues">
</webpartpages:dataformparameter></selectparameters>

<deleteparameters>
 <webpartpages:dataformparameter defaultvalue="Components" name="ListName" parameterkey="ListName" propertyname="ParameterValues">
</webpartpages:dataformparameter></deleteparameters>

<updateparameters>
 <webpartpages:dataformparameter defaultvalue="Components" name="ListName" parameterkey="ListName" propertyname="ParameterValues">
</webpartpages:dataformparameter></updateparameters>

<insertparameters>
 <webpartpages:dataformparameter defaultvalue="Components" name="ListName" parameterkey="ListName" propertyname="ParameterValues">
</webpartpages:dataformparameter></insertparameters>

<parameterbinding defaultvalue="Components" location="None" name="ListName">
</parameterbinding>

Intractive SharePoint Charts with No Code

Recently I came across this amazing article of Claudio (http://www.endusersharepoint.com/2009/04/20/finally-dynamic-charting-in-wss-no-code-required/) about displaying the graphs from a SharePoint list data without writing any code (of course JavaScript is code but we are referring to C# here ;o)). It shows how you can display pie-chart (Google Charts) with a small JavaScript code added to CEWP which works on your SharePoint Data.


I have extended the same technique (JavaScript) to display the Interactive Google Charts based on the SharePoint Data without writing any code :o). The javascript code uses JQuery and Google Interactive Charts (aka Visualization API).

You need to perform following steps:
1. Create a new SharePoint List View.
2. Group the data by a Column e.g. Title.

3. Add Content Editor WebPart

4. Select Edit-> Modify Shared WebPart -> Source Editor and paste the following JavaScript:

<!--
Author: Tahir Naveed
Date: 2010-04-15
Article URL:http://mysplist.blogspot.com/2010/04/intractive-sharepoint-charts-with-no.html
Blog URL: http://mysplist.blogspot.com/
Original Code: http://www.endusersharepoint.com/2009/04/29/finally-dynamic-charting-in-wss-no-code-required-part-3-multiple-pie-charts
-->
<SCRIPT type=text/javascript>
if(typeof jQuery=="undefined")
{
    var jQPath="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/";
    document.write("<script src='",jQPath,"jquery.js' type='text/javascript'><\/script>");
}
</SCRIPT>

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/jsapi">
</script> 

<SCRIPT type=text/javascript>
var ColValue = new Array();
var ColName = new Array();

// Getting the Data
$("document").ready(function(){
 var arrayList=$("td.ms-gb:contains(':')");
 var coord= new Array();
 var labels= new Array();
 $.each(arrayList, function(i,e)
 {
  var MyIf= $(e).text();
  var txt= MyIf.substring(MyIf.indexOf('(')+1,MyIf.length-1); 
  // Extract the 'Y' coordinates
  coord[i]=txt;
  var txt1= MyIf.substring(MyIf.indexOf(':')+2,MyIf.indexOf("(")-1); 
  // Extract the labels
  labels[i]=txt1+"("+txt+")";   
  //add also coordinates for better read
 });
 ColValue = coord;
 ColName = labels;
 });

//Graph Rendering
google.load("visualization", "1", {packages:["columnchart"]}); 
google.setOnLoadCallback(drawChart); 
function drawChart() 
{ 
  var data = new google.visualization.DataTable();
  data.addColumn('string', 'Department'); 
  data.addColumn('number', 'Department'); 
  data.addRows(ColValue.length);
  for (i=0; i<ColValue.length; i++)
  {
   data.setValue(i, 0, ColName[i]);
   data.setValue(i, 1, parseInt(ColValue[i]));
  }
  var chart = new google.visualization.ColumnChart(document.getElementById('chart_div')); 
  chart.draw(data, {width: 600, height: 240, is3D: true, title: 'Graph Title'}); 
} 
</script>

<div id="chart_div" align="center"></div>

5. You will see the error message: Internet Explorer cannot display the WebPage. Ignore the message and remove the ?PageView=Shared from URL and refresh the page. You should be able to see the chart as follows:

Attachments in DataView

By Dafault DataView control dont display attachments and when you add attachment column it displays true/false.


Here is the solution by Brandt Fuchs: http://dbweb.sbisite.com/blogs/bf/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=19

Perform following steps:

1. Add DataView control in your page.
2. Add an empty column.
3. Add following code:

Adding JavaScript to SharePoint Form Field

Many time in my current project I felt the need of adding javascript to the SharePoint Form Fields to trigger my custom function in order to perform some calculation and other stuff.
Luckily I found the following blog and it sloved my Javascript problem.

URL: http://webborg.blogspot.com/2008/04/add-functions-and-events-to-sharepoint.html

When you add the javascript mentioned in the above blog in the bottom of your page, do call your custom function again at the end because if ur page postbacks and reload (due to some missing required field or any other reason) dropdown change event wont fire. So here is the updated code:

function getField(fieldType,fieldTitle) { 
    var docTags = document.getElementsByTagName(fieldType); 
    for (var i=0; i < docTags.length; i++) { 
        if (docTags[i].title == fieldTitle) { 
            return docTags[i] 
        } 
    } 
} 
 
function DisplayMessage()
{
 alert('Hello World');
}

//Add JavaScript to Decision Column
getField('select','Decision').onchange = function() {DisplayMessage()};

//Add additional call
DisplayMessage();

Line 19 is the additional call to the function.
Above code will add onchange event to choice type SharePoint field and each time the selected value is changed, DisplayMessage() will be triggered.