January 29, 2010 - 15:09, by Steven Van de Craen
Categories: .NET, Content Types, Debugging, MOSS 2007, Office 2003, Office 2007, Search Server 2008, SharePoint 2007, WSS 3.0A while ago I stumbled upon a serious design limitation regarding Content Types and centralized document templates. What then followed was a series of testing, phone calls with Microsoft, finding alternative solutions and deep dive into Office Open XML.
Request from the customer
“We want to use MOSS 2007 to create a collaboration site per project for our 400+ projects. These collaboration sites all use the same Content Types and document templates. We want to centrally manage those document templates so that we don’t need to make the same change 400+ times.”
Approach
Due to sizing we architected a solution with a dozen of Site Collections that would each hold a collection of project sites. We ‘Feature’-ized our Content Types and Site Columns so that they could quickly be activated on all Site Collections and used by the child sites. Document templates would be stored in a central document library and we would link to them in the Content Types on the project sites.
First issue
Linking to document templates really doesn’t play well with the Document Information Panel (DIP). I have blogged about this here:
Centralizing Document Templates in a library- Document Information Panel shows incorrect properties
We proposed a solution where the document templates in the central library would be pushed to the Content Type resource folder on site level. The code to perform the push would have to connect to the Site Collections, copy the template to the resource folder (http://sitecollectionurl/_cts/contenttypename) and link template and Content Type together.
When a Site Content Type is associated with a List it will be a List Content Type inheriting from the Site Content Type and the document template will be copied to the List Content Type resource folder (http://sitecollectionurl/listurl/Forms/contenttypename).
Second issue
Did I tell you that the column values (metadata) have different values based on the project site ? So when a project site is created we automatically update the List Content Type Column default value with the values for that specific project site. Unfortunately this is not supported when working with Office 2007 file formats because they only react on changes to the Site Column.
Consider the following scenario:
1) Set up a document library with a Content Type that has a text column with a default value
2) Upload a new .doc or .docx as Content Type template
TEST 1) Create a new document:
.DOC: the DIP will contain the text column with the default value
.DOCX: the DIP will contain the text column with the default value
3) In SharePoint, modify the default value of the text column
TEST 2) Create a new document:
.DOC: the DIP will contain the text column with the updated default value
.DOCX: the DIP will contain the text column with the original default value
Microsoft confirmed that this is by design.
Third issue
When designing our document templates with Content Controls mapped to our SharePoint fields we didn’t know that internally in the DOCX file it uses a GUID for mapping the Content Control with the SharePoint Metadata XML. For fields (Site Columns) created in the UI or through API this is the SPWeb.ID of where they were created. For fields created declaratively through Features this is the SPList.ID of where their Content Type is associated to.
So some things to notice
- Creating a single document template with Content Controls mapped to your declaratively added Fields cannot be used in two different Document Libraries because the Content Controls lose the connection with Field (because the ID of the List is different and not updated in the Content Control)
- The solution here is to create your fields in the UI or through the API (this could be in a Feature Activating event)
- Copying a document template across Site Collections means different Web ID’s so it also affects fields created in the UI or the API
Finally
In the end we wrote some wrapper classes for Office 2007 file formats using System.IO.Packaging that would manipulate our document templates once they were copied over to a different Site Collection. We also rewrote our Features to create our Fields through the API (SPWeb.Fields.AddFieldAsXml()).
- Remove the SharePoint Metadata XML so that association of the Content Type to a List it would be regenerated automagically
- Loop through every Content Control and find to which Field they were mapped using information in it’s XPath. Then we would update the GUID’s in the Content Control to match the SPWeb.ID
Next time I’ll definitely take these design limitations into account. Lessons learned I’d say !
January 28, 2010 - 13:31, by Steven Van de Craen
Categories: .NET, MOSS 2007, Search Server 2008, SharePoint 2007
A refresher
The ListViewWebPart is used for displaying contents of a List or Document Library on both the default View pages (such as AllItems.aspx, etc) and also on other pages in the same web.
When a List View Web Part is added to a page (say the home page of that web) a hidden view (SPView) is created dedicated to that Web Part. When switching to another view in the Web Part Properties it really copies all the settings of the selected view into the dedicated hidden view. Changes made afterwards to the ‘selected view’ will not be pushed to the ‘dedicated view’.
Today’s question
How to programmatically modify the Toolbar settings for a ListViewWebPart ?
Answer
It all boils down to getting a reference to the hidden dedicated SPView and making modifications to it. There are three options that you can set the Toolbar to:
Full Toolbar
This option translates to “Standard” for the SPView.ToolbarType property.
Summary Toolbar
This option translates to “Freeform” for the SPView.ToolbarType property. Additionally you must specify a CAML string that is used for the rendering of the toolbar.
The default CAML string for a Links List looks like this:
<IfHasRights><RightsChoices><RightsGroup PermAddListItems=\"required\" /></RightsChoices><Then><HTML><![CDATA[ <table width=100% cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 > <tr> <td colspan=\"2\" class=\"ms-partline\"><IMG SRC=\"/_layouts/images/blank.gif\" width=1 height=1 alt=\"\"></td> </tr> <tr> <td class=\"ms-addnew\" style=\"padding-bottom: 3px\"> <img src=\"/_layouts/images/rect.gif\" alt=\"\"> <a class=\"ms-addnew\" ID=\"idHomePageNewLink\" href=\"]]></HTML><URL Cmd=\"New\" /><HTML><![CDATA[\" ONCLICK=\"javascript:NewItem(']]></HTML><URL Cmd=\"New\" /><HTML><![CDATA[', true);javascript:return false;\" target=\"_self\">]]></HTML><HTML>Add new link</HTML><HTML><![CDATA[</a> </td> </tr> <tr><td><IMG SRC=\"/_layouts/images/blank.gif\" width=1 height=5 alt=\"\"></td></tr> </table>]]></HTML></Then></IfHasRights>
No Toolbar
This option translates to “None” for the SPView.ToolbarType property.
The code
I assume you are familiar with getting an instance to the ListViewWebPart and then retrieving the SPView instance using either reflection on the private SPView member or through the public Web and View GUID properties.
Next you can change the Toolbar schema XML through reflection as follows:
SPView view = ...;
Type viewType = view.GetType();
XmlNode toolbarNode = viewType.InvokeMember("GetNodeFromXmlDom", BindingFlags.InvokeMethod | BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance, null, view, new object[] { "Toolbar" }) as XmlNode;
toolbarNode.Attributes["Type"].Value = "Standard";
view.Update();
January 21, 2010 - 17:16, by Steven Van de Craen
Categories: .NET, Forms Server, InfoPath
Using xsd.exe you can generate a Class from your form schema (xsd) and then deserialize a form to an instance of that class. This makes it a lot easier to interact with its data.
The code for serialization and deserialization might look like this:
public static T Deserialize<T>(Stream s)
{
T result = default(T);
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
using (XmlTextReader reader = new XmlTextReader(s))
{
result = (T)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
}
s.Close();
return result;
}
public static T Deserialize<T>(string s)
{
return Deserialize<T>(new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(s)));
}
public static string Serialize<T>(T o)
{
string result = null;
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
settings.Indent = true;
settings.Encoding = Encoding.UTF8;
using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
{
using (XmlWriter writer = XmlTextWriter.Create(stream, settings))
{
serializer.Serialize(writer, o);
}
stream.Flush();
result = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(stream.ToArray());
}
return result;
}
However you lose the original processing instructions at the top of the XML file. If you want to keep those either do custom serialization using an XmlWriter or do some kind of merge code with the original XML and the XML coming from serialization.
Quite obvious if you think about it but I keep forgetting it :)
January 20, 2010 - 16:00, by Steven Van de Craen
Categories: MOSS 2007, Search, Search Server 2008, SharePoint 2007, SharePoint Updates
Today I visited a customer to solve an issue that I had run into a while ago in my post regarding ZIP file indexing with IFilters. The customer was indexing Office 2003 documents on a file share (.doc, .xls, .rtf, …) and had the issue of the Filename property having the strange value of fld and some numbers. This only occurred on their x64 live environment and not on a x86 test environment.
I looked at the IFilter overview using Citeknet IFilter Explorer (great tool !) and also the offfilt.dll (IFilter for the aforementioned file types) to check on version differences between the two systems but there were none.
Both environments were running SP2 and June 2009 Cumulative Update but since there aren’t that many obvious options I went for installing the November 09 Cumulative Update and that did the trick. Guess that the issues that was fixed for quite some time on x86 is only recently handled for x64 environments. Either way, everyone happy.
Hope it helps.
December 3, 2009 - 17:03, by Steven Van de Craen
Categories: Office 2007Word 2007 uses Content Controls to display document fields inside the document (eg. the header). These document fields can be standard fields but also your SharePoint Fields.
By default when the value of a Content Control is empty it will display the Placeholder Text between square brackets as follows in a sample document header:
It is possible to change this Placeholder Text by going into Design Mode and replacing the text in the Content Control.
Make sure that you see the Developer tab in the Word Ribbon. If you don’t see it you can turn it on in the Word Options;
Open the Developer tab and enable Design Mode;
Now the text displayed in the Content Control is actually that one for the Placeholder Text and can be modified as desired. Once you leave design mode the Content Placeholder will return to displaying the original value and have saved the new Placeholder Text.
Removing all text from the Content Control Placeholder Text will result in an error when leaving Design Mode;
The closest you can get to making it appear empty is by using a single space character. Once you exit Design Mode you’ll see the result for those fields that have no value set.
November 12, 2009 - 11:58, by Steven Van de Craen
Categories: .NET, SharePoint 2003, SharePoint 2007
November 9, 2009 - 14:43, by Steven Van de Craen
Categories: jQuery/JavaScriptWe’re doing quite some jQuery improvements to our SharePoint developments such as inserting navigation for document libraries, reordering elements, hiding menu actions, etc. and one of the big issues is that the jQuery action occurs “on document ready” and the end user might see the manipulation happening if the javascript execution is just a bit delayed.
One of the solutions we’re using is to set the body hidden using CSS on load and then in our jQuery show it again as follows:
<style type="text/css">
body
{
display:none;
}
</style>
<script type='text/javascript'>
$(
function()
{
/* Your script) */
/* Show rendered page */
$('body').css('display', 'block');
}
);
</script>
Works like a treat btw, but maybe any of you have a better way ?
November 7, 2009 - 11:31, by Steven Van de Craen
Categories: Advanced Computed Field, SharePoint 2007, Search Server 2008, WSS 3.0, MOSS 2007, Custom Field Types
I got a question on how to use the Advanced Computed Field for conditional formatting and when I finished writing up the response I figured I might as well share it with the community, being you all :)
Here’s the config I used:
<FieldRefs>
<FieldRef Name="TestField" />
</FieldRefs>
<DisplayPattern>
<Switch>
<Expr>
<Field Name="TestField" />
</Expr>
<Case Value="value1">
<HTML><![CDATA[<div style='color: green;'><b>GREEN</b></div>]]></HTML>
</Case>
<Case Value="value2">
<HTML><![CDATA[<div style='color: blue;'><b>BLUE</b></div>]]></HTML>
</Case>
<Case Value="value3">
<HTML><![CDATA[<div style='color: red;'><b>RED</b></div>]]></HTML>
</Case>
<Default>
<HTML><![CDATA[<div style='color: brown;'><b>BROWN</b></div>]]></HTML>
</Default>
</Switch>
</DisplayPattern>
October 26, 2009 - 22:14, by Steven Van de Craen
Categories: SharePoint 2007, Search Server 2008, MOSS 2007, WSS 3.0Funny thing last week when I wrote a “Page Information Web Part” (something that showed something like ‘This page was last modified by X on Y’) and it didn’t update at all when Web Parts were added, modified or deleted.
I can see why it wouldn’t but I still think this is a flaw because there’s no way to see if the page was modified (ie. Web Parts added, modified, removed), not even with Versioning on.
A quick fix for me was to check in my Web Part if the page was just in Edit Mode and then call an SPListItem.Update() on it.
October 26, 2009 - 21:54, by Steven Van de Craen
Categories: jQuery/JavaScript, MOSS 2007, Search Server 2008, SharePoint 2007, WSS 3.0Still one of my most popular posts ever is the extension I wrote on the Rooms and Equipment Reservations template for SharePoint 2007 which allows you to manage reservations for meeting resources.
The idea behind RER is simple, but the architecture Microsoft chose (and unfortunately me too) is flawed. For each resource there are two types of reservation items; “Available” and “Reserved”. When making a reservation the “Available” item is shrunk, split or replaced with a “Reserved item”. The list of reservation items for a certain resource should thus be continuous based on their respective start and end times.
Since quite a few people from the community and also some customers are using the RERv2, I get a lot of feedback on these flaws, which I tend to ‘consistency issues’. These issues can’t really be traced back to bugs in code but seem to happen at random. For every 100 reservations are made I typically see 3 consistency issues. They don’t all have a great impact; some are not even noticed, others are blocking future reservations for that resource.
Ideally the mechanism would have to be rewritten to just use “Reserved” items. This would make the fault ratio significantly smaller. However that project has been put in the fridge until further notice I’m afraid.
There is a sparkle of light at the end of the tunnel however ! I am releasing a Web Part that allows you to quickly correct consistency issues. And it’s even free ! ;)
Downloadables
Installation Instructions
1) WSP
The installation package (above) contains a SharePoint Solution (.wsp) to deploy using STSADM:
STSADM -o addsolution -filename RER.v2.ConsistencyCheckWebPart.wsp
STSADM -o deploysolution -name RER.v2.ConsistencyCheckWebPart.wsp -immediate -allowgacdeployment
2) Web Parts
Next in SharePoint create a Document Library (e.g. Pages) in the RER site where you upload the jQuery.js and RERAdmin.txt files from the install package. These make up the formatting and collapsing behaviour of the resources and reservations.
Also create a Web Part Page in this library called RERAdmin.aspx .
Add the ConsistencyCheckWebPart and RERAdmin_CSS_and_JS Web Parts on the RERAdmin page. You can import these Web Part directly if you go through Add Web Part > Advanced Web Part gallery and options > Import
It is best to break permissions and tighten security on the Web Part page so that users don’t inadvertently access the Consistency Check Web Part !
Usage Instructions
The Web Part must be placed in a site based on RERv2. It will automatically load the list of resources and corresponding reservations. If the CSS and JavaScript are in place the reservations are collapsed by default and the items will either have a green (good) or red (bad) icon. If it’s red that means there are consistency issues in the stream of reservation items for that resource.
The editor on the bottom of the Web Part will allow you to make changes directly to reservations.
NOTE: The number between square brackets is the item ID of either the resource or reservation item. You will need this to Modify or Delete a reservation !
Possible causes:
| ISSUE | EXPLANATION | FIX |
| There are no reservations | The workflow on the Resource hasn’t run (yet). | Add an “Available” reservation for the resource with no specified end time, or recreate the resource to trigger the workflow. |
| There are two adjacent “Available” reservations | They should be merged into a single “Available” item. | Delete one of the items and Modify the remaining item to become ‘continuous’. |
| There are overlapping reservations | A resource was booked twice. Normally this is prohibited but could occur in some rare conditions. | Remove on of the items or Modify the start and/or end times to resolve this. |
| Reservations are not continuous | All items should form a ‘continuous stream’ based on their start and end times. | Modify the timings so that they become ‘continuous’. |
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