Kit Menke's Blog » MOSS2007 http://kitmenke.com/blog Experiences with SharePoint, web development, and programming Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:28:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Customizing EditForm.aspx in a Publishing site http://kitmenke.com/blog/2010/12/11/customizing-editform-aspx-in-a-publishing-site/ http://kitmenke.com/blog/2010/12/11/customizing-editform-aspx-in-a-publishing-site/#comments Sun, 12 Dec 2010 04:56:56 +0000 Kit http://kitmenke.com/blog/?p=318 After recently doing a lot of work heavily customizing NewForm.aspx and EditForm.aspx for a SharePoint list, I ran into a major issue after I moved my list into a publishing site. The issue appeared when I added a webpart onto my EditForm.

As soon as another webpart was added, the entire page switched into some sort of weird publishing mode.

This new mode has a couple of changes to the form:

  1. A publishing toolbar now appears at the top
  2. Every field in the List View Web Part has an additional “form” label
  3. Additional JavaScript is added to the page that prompts the user to save whenever an attempts to navigate somewhere differently: To save your changes before continuing, click “OK”. To continue without saving changes, click “Cancel”.

In my case, this new mode definitely would not work for what I was trying to do. The labels increase the size of the form dramatically, the publishing toolbar makes it seem as if you are editing the page rather than a list item, and this new mode does NOT appear on NewForm.aspx which means the forms are dramatically inconsistent.

After googling, I found a couple of people who have had similar issues. The root cause seems to be the Office SharePoint Server Publishing site feature. Since disabling the feature on the site was not an option, I had to find another way. JavaScript and CSS was a viable option (since I’m customizing the form using these anyway) but I felt like I needed a more bullet proof method.

My method involves using SharePoint Designer to customize EditForm.aspx. (Updated January 13th, 2011 after ADE’s comment below. Thanks a lot!)

Step 1: Create a new custom EditForm.aspx by right clicking on EditForm.aspx, click “New From Existing Page”

Step 2: Add the SPNavigation line in right before PlaceHolder Main:

<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" runat="server"/>
<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="SPNavigation" runat="server"/>
<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderMain" runat="server">

Step 3: Save your new CustomEdit.aspx into the same directory as EditForm.aspx

Step 4: Verify your list now is associated with your new CustomEdit.aspx by right clicking on the list in SharePoint Designer and clicking “Properties”.

Your new edit form should be listed under the Supporting Files tab for Edit item form:

]]> http://kitmenke.com/blog/2010/12/11/customizing-editform-aspx-in-a-publishing-site/feed/ 5 Autopopulate a SharePoint Form from URL (with SPUtility.js) http://kitmenke.com/blog/2010/11/10/autopopulate-a-sharepoint-form-from-url-with-sputility-js/ http://kitmenke.com/blog/2010/11/10/autopopulate-a-sharepoint-form-from-url-with-sputility-js/#comments Thu, 11 Nov 2010 02:34:35 +0000 Kit http://kitmenke.com/blog/?p=297 This post is the sequel to my first post: Autopopulate a SharePoint Form from URL.

Let’s use the same example, but this time take advantage of SPUtility.js (the open source JavaScript library I maintain).

Our page’s URL would be something like:

/Lists/ProjectTasks/NewForm.aspx?projectID=523

I want to take the ‘projectID’ URL parameter and autopopulate my Project ID field with this value. Then, we’ll make the field read only.

We’ll dive right into the code:

<script type="text/javascript" src="/path/to/prototype.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/path/to/SPUtility.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">

function GetValueFromURL(queryParamName) {
    var queryParams = location.href.toQueryParams();
    if (queryParams != null && queryParams[queryParamName] != null) {
        return decodeURI(queryParams[queryParamName]);
    }
    return null;
}

Event.observe(window,'load',function(){
    try {
      var urlValue = GetValueFromURL('projectID');
      SPUtility.GetSPField('Project ID').SetValue(urlValue).MakeReadOnly();
    } catch (ex) {
      alert(ex.toString());
    }
});

</script>

To install, you’d simply place the JavaScript above into a Content Editor Web Part on your NewForm.aspx or EditForm.aspx. Take a look at the SPUtility.js Installation page for detailed instructions.

]]> http://kitmenke.com/blog/2010/11/10/autopopulate-a-sharepoint-form-from-url-with-sputility-js/feed/ 1 Wrap ListViewWebPart Column Headers http://kitmenke.com/blog/2010/07/08/wrap-listviewwebpart-colum-headers/ http://kitmenke.com/blog/2010/07/08/wrap-listviewwebpart-colum-headers/#comments Thu, 08 Jul 2010 18:55:58 +0000 Kit http://kitmenke.com/blog/?p=258 I recently got asked if it was possible wrap the column headers in a list view web part. The user had a WebPart with quite a few columns with long names and was trying to prevent the page from scrolling left to right.

Column Header (nowrap)

What we needed to do was wrap the column header so that it fit more to the data in the grid.

Column Header (wrapped)

The solution is relatively simple to implement; all you need is a Content Editor Webpart at the bottom of the page somewhere with the following JavaScript in it:

<script type="text/javascript">
function WrapColumnHeaderText(columnName) {
    try {
        var tables = document.getElementsByTagName("table");
        for (i = 0; i < tables.length; i++) {
            // find the table that is for the column we're looking for
            var attrItem = tables[i].attributes.getNamedItem("displayname")
            if (null != attrItem && attrItem.nodeValue === columnName) {
                var cells = tables[i].getElementsByTagName("td");
                for (c = 0; c < cells.length; c++) {
                    if (null != cells[c].attributes.getNamedItem("nowrap")) {
                        cells[c].attributes.removeNamedItem("nowrap");
                        // after removing nowrap, IE won't actually wrap the content
                        // until it "changes".. so we touch it to force it to wrap
                        cells[c].innerHTML = cells[c].innerHTML;
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    } catch (ex) {
        alert(ex.toString());
    }
}

function WrapColumnHeaders() {
    // TODO: repeat the line below to wrap more columns
    WrapColumnHeaderText("Company Product Code");
}

_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.push("WrapColumnHeaders");
</script>
]]> http://kitmenke.com/blog/2010/07/08/wrap-listviewwebpart-colum-headers/feed/ 2 The Danger in using SPSite.OpenWeb() http://kitmenke.com/blog/2009/06/08/the-danger-in-using-spsiteopenweb/ http://kitmenke.com/blog/2009/06/08/the-danger-in-using-spsiteopenweb/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:37:39 +0000 Kit http://kitmenke.com/blog/?p=61 Recently I ran into a “feature” of SharePoint’s SPSite.OpenWeb() method (the no argument constructor specifically). If the OpenWeb() method is used with a URL that is not known to exist, it can result in some unexpected behavior.

Assuming you have the following site structure…

  • SiteCollection
    • Subsite1
    • Subsite2
    • …

Can you find the bug?

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
// !!! warning !!!
// !!! dangerous code ahead !!!
string server = "http://myserver";
string siteUrl = "/sites/SiteCollection/This Subsite Does Not Exist";
using (SPSite site = new SPSite(server + siteUrl))
{
    using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())
    {
        Console.WriteLine(site.Url);
        Console.WriteLine(web.Url);
    }
}

The problem reveals itself when the URL’s are printed. Output:

http://myserver/sites/SiteCollection
http://myserver/sites/SiteCollection

The URL for the SPWeb that was just opened is the same as the SPSite’s URL: http://myserver/sites/SiteCollection. There is no exception thrown.

The behavior I expected, would be some sort of exception when opening a web that does not exist. Even worse is the fact that no error is thrown; it simply defaults to the top level site collection that exists. This means, you get the wrong SPWeb object. This error can happen when you use the no argument OpenWeb method call.

A better way to get an SPWeb object passes an argument to OpenWeb (updated 7/13/09 per Rikard’s comment):

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
// better code to open a web
string server = "http://myserver";
string siteUrl = "/sites/SiteCollection";
string subSite = "This Subsite Does Not Exist";
using (SPSite site = new SPSite(server + siteUrl))
{
    using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb(subSite))
    {
        if (web.Exists)
        {
            // do work with the web...
            Console.WriteLine(site.Url);
            Console.WriteLine(web.Url);
        }
    }
}

This code should be able to safely open a web at any location.  Keep in mind, trying to access any of the properties of a web that does not exist will result in:

System.IO.FileNotFoundException: There is no Web named “/sites/SiteCollection”.

Again, the exception is not thrown in the constructor, but when attempting to access the SPWeb’s properties… such as web.Url.

]]> http://kitmenke.com/blog/2009/06/08/the-danger-in-using-spsiteopenweb/feed/ 2 Failed to extract the cab file in the solution. http://kitmenke.com/blog/2009/05/27/failed-to-extract-the-cab-file-in-the-solution/ http://kitmenke.com/blog/2009/05/27/failed-to-extract-the-cab-file-in-the-solution/#comments Wed, 27 May 2009 18:49:31 +0000 Kit http://kitmenke.com/blog/?p=33 Got the following message when trying to deploy a solution file to the server:

Failed to extract the cab file in the solution.

Luckily Robert Bogue had already found the answer: we had duplicated an entry for a web part in our solution’s .ddf file. Apparently, makecab allows you to have the same file in the same location multiple times. I’m not really sure why it doesn’t just overwrite it, but in any case, the solution doesn’t know what to do with it either.

]]> http://kitmenke.com/blog/2009/05/27/failed-to-extract-the-cab-file-in-the-solution/feed/ 0 Enterprise Search and SharePoint http://kitmenke.com/blog/2009/05/21/enterprise-search-sql-and-sharepoint/ http://kitmenke.com/blog/2009/05/21/enterprise-search-sql-and-sharepoint/#comments Thu, 21 May 2009 15:48:28 +0000 Kit http://kitmenke.com/blog/?p=18 I’ve learned a couple of different things from messing with Enterprise Search and SharePoint. A lot of this has to do with the initial setup and how different crawls affect the index.

What this assumes:

  • You know how to get to Central Admin and the Search Admin screens
  • Any URLs below you will have to replace “centraladmin” with your own server ip
  • The place where you can run incremental or full crawls is:

    http://centraladmin/ssp/admin/_layouts/listcontentsources.aspx

Metadata properties:

  • In order to have more columns to search, you must add them to the “Metadata” in the ssp

    http://centraladmin/ssp/admin/_layouts/schema.aspx

  • Any metadata property has a 64 character limit when querying using Enterprise Search SQL (ESSQL)
  • In order for a column to show up in the Add Mapping dialog an INCREMENTAL crawl is required (column existed and just didn’t have data in… added some data to the list making sure to populate the new fields and then ran an incremental)
  • Adding a Managed Property requires a FULL crawl in order to populate the data in that field

Search visibility:

  • If a site has Search Visibility disabled, it will show up as a warning in the crawl log. LISTS DO NOT
  • Changing a list’s Search Visibility (in advanced settings) will require a INCREMENTAL (full is not required) crawl in order to start showing up in search results

Search scopes:

  • Changing an existing search scope requires you to update the scope again
    Go back to Central Admin -> ssp -> Search Settings -> Start Updating
    After clicking Update… it almost always goes from 0% to 100% after a while… no in between
  • Changing scopes does not require an incremental or full crawl (you simply need to update the scope again) see above
  • For a search scope, to have it include list items your scope should have a “folder” with a value like (encoded url with trailing slash):

    http://moss/sitecollection/subsite/Lists/My%20List%20Name/

Also, here is some very unhelpful microsoft documentation:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms493660.aspx

Leave a comment if you have questions!

]]> http://kitmenke.com/blog/2009/05/21/enterprise-search-sql-and-sharepoint/feed/ 1